When attending a wedding, unless otherwise noted, there is often an unspoken dress code. For most Western weddings, the expectation for guests is formalwear, suits for men, long dresses for women, and more than anything else, you should never look better than the bride. Although gay marriage only became legal in the United States in 2015, gay people have attended weddings as long as the tradition has existed (in terms of our existence, we predate the Western wedding by centuries, but that’s a conversation for another day, perhaps another op-ed).
Despite our common presence at weddings, these unspoken expectations for dress don’t necessarily align with how many queer people identify or wish to present themselves. If you do a quick search on TikTok for “queer wedding attire”, you will soon find a plethora of videos with outfit suggestions for people who don’t fit these traditional binary norms. Some of these videos have upwards of 800,000 views with tens of thousands of likes and saves. Clearly, there is a large market of people interested in queer wedding attire, but also a severe lack of knowledge of what this would even look like.
Formal events can often bring anxiety for those of us who don’t quite present in alignment with our gender assigned at birth, and weddings are no exception. Beyond the pressures extended onto us mere attendees, there may be even more confusion around what to wear when actually getting married. We’ve seen lesbian weddings with white suits and gay men in bowties and pastels, but everyday queer dress is far more exciting and expressive than what these options currently provide.
Having received numerous requests for commissioned wedding attire and being a couple themselves, Tanner Richie and Fletcher Kasell, the imaginative designers behind emerging brand Tanner Fletcher, witnessed this struggle and decided to do something about it. The brand launched its first bridal collection for the Spring 2025 Bridal season in the first week of April of this year.
The collection features a variety of vintage-inspired wedding looks (the brand was founded with vintage textiles and design being at the forefront of its identity) that, at long last, actually match the level of expression and individuality so integral to queer dress. The designers took standard wedding pieces and queered them up with small twists, like white tuxedo blazers with blue organza pussybows and velvet suits with crochet flowers embellished across the sleeves and chest. There were ruffled pants and blazers, garters, suits with bow details, and, of course, several variations of a white wedding gown (my personal favorite being a gown in a print made up of collaged love letters).
Tanner Fletcher’s expansion into bridal wear not only provides attire for a community notably lacking “bridal” options but also showcases how much more bridal attire can be. While the collection is marked by its clear sense of fluidity when concerned (or rather, not) with gender, it could just as easily be worn by a cisgender bride simply looking for a more unique gown to wear to her heterosexual wedding. Ultimately, the brand’s new venture marks a turning point for the bridal industry, hopefully with other designers soon following suit (pun intended).
Words by Flora Medina
Graphics by Aubrey Lauer