As it turns out, sometimes, the best thing a bride can do is say no to the dress—and slip into a pair of wedding day-ready pants. You could argue it all started with Bianca Jagger, who famously eschewed tradition and wore a YSL smoking blazer to her wedding in 1971 to Mick Jagger. Though she wore a skirt with the blazer, it established one thing for certain: The cool girls? They wore bridal suits.
See Amal Clooney in her Stella McCartney jumpsuit, worn to her civil ceremony to George Clooney in Venice in 2014. Or Solange Knowles in her Stéphane Rolland look worn for her wedding to Alan Ferguson that same year.
Vogue wedding brides have also been gravitating toward pants for their wedding day or weekend looks. For some brides, like Natalie Skinner, the fashion choice was paramount. Skinner was married in 2023 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and wore a custom corset and pant set by Wiederhoeft. “I had envisioned a corset and a shirt underneath it and then I wanted to wear pants. That was my big thing: I wanted to wear pants,” she told Vogue.
For Alexandra Lalonde Bouygues’s civil wedding in Paris, the day called for a white double-breasted Ralph Lauren suit. Her wedding day muse? Bianca Jagger, but of course.
See the best bridal pantsuits and pant-look in the Vogue archive ahead.
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Photo: Moesia Davis1/11For her wedding in Santa Barbara, Alessandra Knight wore a pant and feathered cape set from Sarah Abbasi, designer of the bridal brand Sahroo. See the full wedding here.
Photo: Moesia Davis2/11Knight chose something she knew she’d be able to wear again, as a memory of her big day.
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Photo: Mo Davis3/11For her wedding in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Natalie Skinner wore a custom corset and pant set by Wiederhoeft. See the full wedding here.
Photo: Mo Davis4/11“I had envisioned a corset and a shirt underneath it and then I wanted to wear pants. That was my big thing: I wanted to wear pants,” says Skinner.
Photo: Virgile Guinard5/11For her civil wedding in Paris, Alexandra Lalonde Bouygues wore a white double-breasted Ralph Lauren suit gifted to her by her mother-in-law. See the full wedding here.
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Photo: Virgile Guinard6/11The bride was inspired by Bianca Jagger’s tailored wedding suit look. “My ‘something blue’—an embroidered C above my heart inside my Ralph Lauren jacket,” says Lalonde Bouygues.
Photo: Stefano Ortega7/11For her wedding celebration at Manhattan’s The Grill, Barbara Guggenheim wore a custom Attersee suit—the label’s founder happens to be her niece. See the full wedding here.
Photo: Carey MacArthur8/11“It’s a good look for older people, but it’s just a plain old good look for any age!” Guggenheim notes.
Photo: Courtesy of Harper Cowan/Harper Pictures9/11For her rehearsal dinner at her Hudson Valley wedding, Angela Koh wore a suit by The Row. “The Row has such high-quality garments,” says Koh. “A suit from them will last a lifetime and more. The cut of the suit was almost perfect, I barely had to get it tailored. And it’s something I can re-wear to the office.” See the full wedding here.
Photo: Adam Newport-Berra / Courtesy of Sonia Stagg10/11For her wedding in Tucson, Sonia Stagg wore a beaded, sheer top and pant set from the menswear label Palomo Spain. See the full wedding here.
Photo: Adam Newport-Berra / Courtesy of Sonia Stagg11/11"All of the current wedding dresses are so minimal and beautiful, but not really what I wanted,” says Stagg.
