Nicole Miller wedding dress in Princess silhouette

Nicole Miller wedding dress in Princess silhouette from her Bridal Collection

Time must be passing fast for all summer brides-to-be with the onset of spring. One of my American favourite designers for dresses in general is Nicole Miller, who has a fairly comprehensive collection that encompasses a gamut of occasions, including Nicole Miller Signature (red carpet looks), Nicole Miller Collection RTW, Nicole Miller Studio (everyday sportswear), a Bridal Collection and popular bridesmaids line. Nicole Miller also does bags, shoes and accessories to match that perfect dress.

In my view, her signature style is long (even in her t-length dresses), lean and with clean lines that are not meager on details. It is in fact her exquisite detailing that attracts my attention, as can be seen in the picture above on the simple beach wedding dress with a natural waistline and embroidered detailing for accent. The dress is all at once innocent in antique white yet seductive with its plunging neckline and close body cutting. It also brings a hint of haute couture to the usually more causal beach wedding.

And haute couture it is as Nicole Miller’s series of pictures for this bridal collection is reminiscent of Danish Skagen paintings or Kröyer’s Skagenmålarna in a time when white was worn mostly by the upper-class since it was only they who could afford the colour on an everyday basis as reflected in some Skagen paintings from the late 1800s.

Peder Severin Kröyer (1851-1909) Sommarafton vid Skagen / Summer afternoon by Skagen, 1892, oil painting. Skagens Museum. Photo: Esben Thorning.

It isn’t only the Skagen-esque setting to these pictures that run parallel to Skagenmålarna but also the uncanny parallel of the billows of the sleeves in Kröyer’s painting and the full skirted gown in Miller’s design (pictured below, center), albeit Miller’s bare shouldered design is considerably more risqué for the 1800s.

Nicole Miller metal taffeta wedding gown in a Skagenesque setting

By the end of the late 1800s, the heavy industrialization in most northern European cities made people want to go back to discovering nature, which is perhaps why the romance with Skagen sea front paintings. And it looks from the dark coiffed hair of Miller’s pictures also paralleling the subject in Kröyer’s painting, that perhaps 100 years later, people today too are wanting to rediscover the romance of nature in this eco-driven and environment aware times? And what better way to rediscover nature than at a perfect beach wedding.

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