If the thought of billowing ball gowns just doesn’t match your sense of style, don’t panic! Nailing bridal elegance with a sexier edge is achievable with many dress designs, shapes and fabrics. There are even wedding dress options to create a sexy silhouette that feature sleeves, perfect for the bride who is both traditional and trendsetting.
Here, we bring you an edit of 27 of our favourite figure-enhancing gowns. With icons of sexy bridal silhouettes Berta Bridal and Galia Lahav necessarily featuring heavily, you’ll also see designs from Australian talent Wendy Makin and South Africa-based Elbeth Gillis, as well as more affordable options from the likes of Morilee, Maggie Sottero and Veromia.
If you spend any time browsing bridal on Pinterest, you simply must have stumbled upon a Berta gown or three. Renowned worldwide for figure-hugging, daring and modern designs, it’s little wonder that a Berta dress captures the hearts of so many fashion-forward brides. Lace applique, translucent fabrics and beaded details inject the perfect shot of glamour to these gowns.
Justin Alexander and Demetrios
Often overlooked, puddle trains create a sexy silhouette for many gowns, particularly when the fabric for the train begins to flair out from just beneath your bottom. The sweeping train attracts attention, drawing the eye down the length of the wedding dress to the final floor-level flourish, celebrating the bride’s shape in the process.
Ines Di Santo
Lace panels offer a subtler means of evoking a sexy silhouette. Whether it’s a small flash of skin down the inside of sleeves which then frame the figure they flank or entire bodices made in this way, look to this material for a more demure approach to a sexy silhouette.
Galia Lahav
Balance deep scooped backs (nine more dresses with sexy backs here) and sculpted corsets with lavish swathes of fabric extending outwards to form the train. Soft and light fabrics like tulle will evoke a fairytale, feminine edge and help to counter the more heavily embellished, sparkling details on wedding dresses.
Elbeth Gillis
While fit and flare designs do instantly create a sexy silhouette, you needn’t limit yourself to this style only. Unstructured, floating skirts in lightweight fabrics are equally beautiful. Paired with a statement bodice – especially illusion designs with lace – they will create a more subtly sexy silhouette.
Belle and Bunty and Caroline Castigliano
Paloma Blanca
Creating a sexy bridal silhouette needn’t always demand heavy embellishment or detailing.
Quite the contrary, as these designs by Paloma Blanca, Belle and Bunty and Caroline Castigliano
highlight. Simple, stylish satins offer a sophisticated and unfussy approach to the fit and
flare gown, making your silhouette the focal point.
Morilee
With that said, lace is a favourite for many brides. Boasting an enormous range of patterns, weights and embellishment options, it adds a timeless romance to any gown, including the more figure-hugging designs. Try halter necks, V-necks with capped sleeves and delicate spaghetti straps for an interesting alternative to the sweetheart neckline so often seen in lace, with each option enhancing a different aspect of your neckline, shoulders, arms and collar bones.
Maggie Sottero and Wendy Makin
Sometimes simplicity is the key to a wedding dress with a sexy silhouette. Never was this truer than for the designs pictured here by Katya Katya Shehurina, Maggie Sottero and Wendy Makin, showing that a less is more approach is favoured across a huge range of designers and labels alike.
The deep V-back fringed with pleated lace teases the eye down playfully to the dainty, feminine bow on the Katya Katya Shehurina design. Wendy Makin also embraces the V-shape but this time for the neckline, with the real wow-factor element coming from the flared sleeves. Choosing one lace for the entirety alongside a simple neckline grounds the fashion-forward design, letting the shapes do all the talking.
Veromia and Alexia Designs
Tried and tested, the mermaid dress never fails to create a sexy silhouette, especially if you have curves to celebrate. Add a hoop beneath the skirt to really sweep it out – not only will this make the skirt fuller for that sought-after hourglass shape, it also makes it easier to walk in too!
