Constructional, performance and social characteristics of contemporary Slovenian wedding dress

Abstract

The white wedding dress is still very popular among today's brides from many cultures and societies. It is still presented as a magical manifestation of all that is sacred. On the other hand, popular white wedding ideals are strongly advertised and constantly presented in numerous movies and reality shows, magazines and commercials. Contemporary bridal culture and fashions in Slovenia are created in wedding salons with their rental collections, which follow the globally popular trend of Western white weddings. The purpose of the research was to study the symbolic meanings of the white wedding dress in Slovenia, and to explore and identify its constructional, performance and social characteristics. The mixed methods approach was used. First, critical discursive analysis (CDA) was used to identify the symbolic meanings of the white wedding dress in the context of gender relations. Additionally, a quantitative approach was conducted with an aim to evaluate the presence and strength of previously identified elements. In the qualitative research, symbolic elements of the contemporary white wedding dress: entrapment, dependency, slendemess, inauthenticity and exaggerated attributes of brides bodies were identified. The results of the quantitative research proved that all identified symbolic elements are very strongly present in contemporary Slovenian bridal fashion.