How to Find Your Dream Vintage Wedding Dress (2024)

A truly great wedding day look should have a sense of timelessness. This is an opinion I forged very young at my grandfather’s house, where, on the wall above his favorite chair, the portraits of his ten children on each of their wedding days loom large. The ceremonies ranged from the 1970s to the 1990s, but the era is of little consequence when it comes to which photographs make their respective subjects laugh when revisiting them. “Look at those shoulder pads!” an aunt might jokingly lament while looking herself over. “Remember those lapels?” an uncle might ask in amusem*nt. Their reactions have taught me that, sartorially speaking, your moment is not necessarily about the moment.

Is there any better way to look timeless than to wear something that has already done the work of maintaining its relevance well after its debut? Once my fiancée and I secured the venue for our June wedding, I had visions of Raf Simon’s first collection for Dior for my walk down the aisle (in my opinion, the perfect dichotomy between prim and punk, restraint and opulence). I snapped a photograph of a satin Madame Grès gown draped like a molten caryatid from a friend’s copy of Grès and recovered a photograph of Halston gathering Studio 54-ready ivory fabric around Angelica Huston’s torso that I had saved years ago. Then I began to scour the internet.

The demand for vintage bridal has grown steadily alongside the demand for vintage on the red carpet. “It has really blown up in the last two or three years,” confirms Lily Kaizer, who has been running the vintage bridal salon Happy Isles in Los Angeles since 2016. Once a resource for niche clients who Kaizer describes as “real fashion people and art world girls,” now, she says, her boutique’s in-demand appointments are filled by “every bride” looking for lightning to strike: right girl, right time, right dress. “Vintage is so much more visible.”

It's easy to see the appeal. Whether your taste is Edwardian or sleek American sportswear, antique and vintage dresses carry within them the beauty of sustainability at a fraction of a piece’s original retail value (of course, at the other end of the financial spectrum are museum-worthy pieces with trackable, unwavering appraisals), and the one-of-a-kind rarity of a garment you can truly call yours.

The possibility of looking uniquely myself in a contemporary design was shot down the moment the bridal manager of a designer boutique on Madison Avenue confessed that she has a bride getting married every hour of every day of this year. This was not an exaggeration; according to The Wedding Report, 2022 will play host to an estimated 2.6 million weddings—the highest number since 1984. Though we booked a year in advance, our venue could only offer us a Tuesday. When I returned home from the appointment, I Google Imaged the dress I had tried on and saw pages of brides wearing it, eliciting a feeling worthy of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Deja Vu.”

Unfortunately the boom in vintage bridal does not make it easier to track down your dream pieces, in my experience. So much of the joy in vintage shopping lies in the discovery of something unexpected. You never know what you will uncover where. And when you’re in search of something specific in a time crunch, it’s anxiety inducing. After more than a month of disappointment, I enlisted the help of my former Vogue colleague, vintage expert and stylist Alexandra Cronan. One half of the styling duo Studio&, Cronan has been dressing clients including Adwoa Aboah in vintage for red carpets since at least 2019 (see Aboah’s knockout Tom Ford for Gucci 2004 Fall RTW at the GQ Men of the Year Awards and 2001 Galliano at the British Fashion Awards) and for editorials as long as I’ve known her (see the stars of Mustang she outfitted in white antique lace and blue vintage silk slips

in 2016). And she recently helped Camille Charriere source a few archival Galliano pieces for her Paris wedding.

Cronan tells me she has actually seen the Halston I’m after in the archive of Marie Blanchet’s Mon Vintage. Three emails, a few weeks, and one last-minute flight later, Blanchet is delivering it to my hotel room in Paris for a fitting, along with a few other dresses she thinks might suit my suite of wedding events. For City Hall, there is a 1965 Molyneux short sleeve trapeze shift with peekaboo cutouts and quietly playful disco ball buttons, which I plan to pair with the barely-there satin ivory Vera Wang sandals I bought from The RealReal for $48. Then comes the whisper of an Alexander McQueen toile: A strapless silk bodice with a silhouette-enhancing seam; a skirt crafted from layers of diaphanous chiffon left with the raw hem cut by Lee’s hand.

The three dresses are plucked out of time, all the richer for carrying with them the stories of their makers and all of their past relationships—not unlike a great romantic partner. Though, if I’m being honest, I never would have found them without Cronan’s assistance. If you’re a bride in search of vintage, there are wedding stylists who can help—among them Over the Moon, founded by Vogue.com’s very own wedding editor—but also knowing where and how to look can open the world of vintage bridal to truly every bride. Here’s how to do it:

Begin Looking Once You’re Engaged

“Begin the hunt as soon as you can,” says Brynn Jones, owner of Los Angeles’s Aralda Vintage, who was recently called on to outfit the closet of Maddy Perez’s (Alexa Demie) dreams on this season of Euphoria. Jones suggests trying on dresses as soon as you’re engaged to ease the stress of a truncated timeline. She also recommends following a global trove of vintage accounts online from Los Angeles to Paris. “The beauty of the internet is, if you see something you’re interested in, you can make the trip to try things on.” You can also reach out to your favorite dealers to enlist their help. “Make a private consultation appointment so you can have a conversation about what you’re looking for and what your vision and timeline is,” says Brandon Veloria Giordano, co-owner of New York City’s beloved James Veloria. If it’s not already in their archive, the more time you give a dealer, the more likely they’ll be able to find your dream piece. Mon Vintage’s Blanchet recommends a three-month window to track down a specific item. “You need a few months minimum, especially for sourcing,” says Blanchet. Beyond finding the right piece, it will also need to be the right size and colorway.

Have an Idea of What You Want—And Don’t Want

You don’t need to start the process by knowing precisely the piece, designer, and era you’re looking for, but a sense of your favorite silhouettes can help your vintage dealer guide you in the right direction. Take a look in your own closet for reference. “If I know you like long and bias, we will propose ‘30s pieces or Galliano dresses,” Blanchet says. “Or if I know you like trapeze, we’ll show you things from the ‘60s.” Jones suggests visiting a contemporary bridal salons to help inform your direction and understand the impact a certain cut will have in white. “The more you try on, the more you realize what makes you feel comfortable and confident,” she says. Even a moodboard or single inspiration image can assist your dealer in tracking down your ideal look. Years of working with vintage has helped them understand which eras and designers you’ll be drawn to, and who might have what you’re looking for. “If someone came in and was like, ‘I’m looking for a 2000’s Galliano bias cut silk dress,’ or another specific piece, I might reach out to a woman I know in Harlem, or certain places in Miami,” says Giordano.

Know Your Venue

Knowing where and when you’re going to get married is paramount for finding the right gown. Giordano’s dream of wearing an 18-foot train would have been right for a cathedral, but his beach elopement in Hawaii called for something decidedly more resort-worthy (Margiela lace-up shorts and a sheer Chloé top, both procured from Oakland’s Mercy Vintage, worn with snakeskin sandals). Blanchet asks her clients, “What is the world you’re going to create?,” to uncover not just the cut and fabric, but the emotion the dress should evoke.

Look Everywhere—And Take Expert Recommendations

Arguably the most thrilling aspect of shopping vintage is that your wedding look could be on any street in any town. The internet can help you find it, but so can simply popping into a store you pass on vacation or your favorite vintage shops. “If you go out into the world with the mentality that [the dress] could potentially be in the store that you’re walking past, it’s treasure hunting,” says Giordano, who admittedly cannot pass a vintage or thrift store without stopping in. “You never know what you will find.”

But to narrow your search, it helps to know who specializes in what. “There are few dealers in the world who can truly find beautiful and rare things,” says Cronan. When she is in search of something “unbelievably iconic” in its historical mark and provenance, she calls Los Angeles’s Lily et Cie, the vintage emporium frequented by A-list celebrities including Kim Kardashian West, Jennifer Lopez, and Kirsten Dunst for the Oscars. The city is also host to Aralda Vintage, which offers sleek and sultry glamour in the form of Roberto Cavalli, Tom Ford Gucci, and liquid sequins from Norman Norell; and Happy Isles, the best bridal-specific vintage shop which organizes its label-less and designer pieces by event and vibe (think: Italian yacht, ceremony, after-party glitz).

In New York, James Veloria offers leading avant-gardists including the Antwerp Six and the Japanese conceptualists (Yamamoto, Comme, Miyake) alongside Nanny Fine grandiosity with Mugler, Sprouse, Gaultier, Versace. Around the corner, the Tucson import Desert Vintage collects exquisite antique and vintage textiles including Victorian and Edwardian lace dresses, poetic turns from YSL, Lagerfeld, and Nina Ricci, and expertly pared-back American sportswear from Geoffrey Beene, Calvin Klein, and Perry Ellis.

Across the pond, Cronan swears by London’s One of a Kind vintage for “someone who wants to play with color and be experimental.” Citing their collection of Galliano for Dior and Tom Ford for Gucci, she adds that their team is “quite good for sourcing something specific.” She also admires Jane Bourvis for custom-made dresses from “magical Victorian and Edwardian lace.” And for curated, ultra-special pieces, it’s Paris’s Mon Vintage for her late ‘90s and early 2000s focus on Balenciaga, McQueen, Mugler and Gianfranco Ferrè. Their collection can be found in the 7th floor of the Printemps department store and by private appointment for more archival pieces. “Bridal is our baby,” says Blanchet, “but we don’t source bridal gowns, we just source amazing dresses with great quality.”

Keep an Open Mind

As with love, being open to surprise holds untold benefits. “It’s better to be open and see what comes,” says Kaizer, who considers the statement her life philosophy. “You’re not going to be weighing it against expectations that you had. If you can get on that page, it’s going to work out.” And should you simply stumble into a heart-stopping look, Kaizer advises that you snap it up immediately. “It might feel weird to buy a dress a year and a half before the wedding, but if it’s the right dress, you have to jump on it, because it will be gone.”

Wrong Size? Right Tailor

If your dream dress finds you in the wrong size, hope may not be lost. “It’s really important that you’re open to good tailoring,” says Kaizer. Taking a piece down a few sizes will be a cinch in the right hands and, depending on the cut of the dress and its historical value, Kaizer would cast an even wider net. “If you’re a two and it’s an eight, go for it.” She does add that altering anything “will drastically change the value, so if it’s an important design piece or you want something with resale value, I wouldn’t recommend that.” Sizing a piece up is also an option, especially with pieces from the 1950s and ‘60s. “You should be able to size up a full size because there’s usually a full inch of seam allowance,” says Kaizer, admiring the thoughtful construction of garments once made to stay with you through changes in your life. In New York, for the most special items, Bill Bull “does an immaculate job,” says Kaizer. Cronan entrusts her clients’ pieces to Christy Riling. “She has a team of people who are on the level of couturiers. I trust her so much.” And Desert Vintage co-owner Salima Boufelfel says opening her store next to the Bode Tailor Shop has “changed my life. They’re so good at what they do. They make that piece truly yours. It’s a game changer in vintage.”

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