For years, Princess Diana’s wedding dress has been held up as the ultimate bridal fantasy. The ivory silk taffeta gown, finished with antique lace, a dramatic 25-foot train and a cloud-like tulle veil, became legendary the moment she walked down the aisle at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1981. Even today, people still call it one of the most unforgettable wedding dresses of all time.Since then, plenty of famous brides have made their own mark. Kate Middleton’s elegant Alexander McQueen gown, Kim Kardashian’s headline-grabbing Balenciaga look, and Priyanka Chopra’s grand Ralph Lauren wedding outfit are all often labelled iconic. But according to fashion and history creator Mae Sharifi, none of these dresses can compete with the most over-the-top bridal look ever worn. That title, Mae says, belongs to Edwidge Elisabeth Charlotte Holstein-Gottorp, later known as Queen Charlotta of Sweden. In a post shared on December 13, Mae revealed that Charlotta’s 1774 wedding gown puts modern-day bridal drama to shame. Charlotta married her cousin, Charles, Duke of Södermanland, and her dress was designed to impress on every possible level.Inspired by Marie Antoinette’s extravagant bridal style, the gown was made from silver fabric and covered in diamond embroidery. It featured heavy layers, oversized panniers, sparkling silver details, and a tightly structured bodice. Subtlety was clearly not the goal here, this was royal excess at its peak.
The dress is also remembered for a more unsettling reason. Fashion history accounts, including posts by Defunct Fashion, point out the gown’s impossibly tiny waist, which reflects a harsh truth of the time: Charlotta was only 14 years old when she got married. A 2009 report by The Guardian later mentioned that the dress was displayed at a Versailles exhibition, showing how royal fashion wasn’t just about beauty, but also about power, rank, and status within Europe’s ruling families.While today’s brides chase viral moments and couture labels, Charlotta’s silver wedding gown proves that dramatic, jaw-dropping bridal fashion existed centuries before social media. Sometimes, history really does outshine the present when it comes to going all out.
