Royal Wedding: What to Wear?
The sartorial dilemmas of dressing for a royal wedding.
LONDON, March 4, 2011— -- In less than two months, 1,900 lucky guests will be raiding the shops to find the perfect royal-wedding outfit.
Wedding garb is a minefield. But ABC News' Bianna Golodryga and Nick Watt went to Selfridges, one of London top stores, to get some tips for what to wear.
Sophie Hendley, a stylist from Selfridges, told our pair of intrepid outfit hunters how tough it is to find the perfect wedding outfit.
One thing Golodryga found out was that because of the wedding's taking place at Westminster Abbey, sleeves are a must.
It's that delicate line between looking "proper" but not "stuffy".
Gloves, for women, are also essential, Hendley said. Dents gloves are the brand de jour, favored by the royal family, handstitched in Wiltshire for three centuries, and worn at many a royal wedding in bygone days.
As for Watt, he found the male sartorial dilemma stumped them all. The invitation says men are required to choose among three kinds of dress: a military uniform, a morning coat or a lounge suit.
A lounge suit is what the Brits call a coat and tie.
As for the morning coat, that's a coat with a front cut away, so that the back is longer, which Americans would recognize as a tailcoat, or "tails."
The outfit is topped off with a hat, which comes from the days when men rode horses and wore top hats.
And, last but not least, the final touch for a gentleman royal-wedding goer is an umbrella. This is London after all, and the chances are that April Showers will appear at some point April 29.
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