Picture the scene. It's the day after your wedding day. Either you're as high as a kite, basking in the love of your friends and family as you relive every blissful moment with your new husband/wife over breakfast in bed. Or you're biblically hungover, trying to muster the energy to show up to the post-wedding barbecue you so generously paid for. Either way, what you probably aren't expecting - and did not include on your registry - is a post-mortem about your wedding dress conducted by a stranger on the internet.
This is exactly the kind of rude awakening experienced by Olivia Culpo, former Miss Universe, when she tied the knot last weekend in Rhode Island. Culpo, who married football player Christian McCaffrey, wore a round-necked,long-sleeved gown by Dolce & Gabbana, with a flaring skirt that spread out behind her. She then posted a slew of content on Instagram - and that, as they say, was that. The likes and comments clocked up in the hundreds of thousands, especially underneath the images that were collab-posted with her new husband.
Then it happened. Kennedy Bingham, a fashion stylist, content creator and bridal expert based in LA, posted a Reel, criticising not so much the dress, although she does say later on that it has 'no personality' and that 'any bridal designer worth their salt could have designed this dress in their sleep' (ouch), but critiquing the bride's reason for choosing that particular dress.
'If I were just to look at the dress, I would see a beautiful bride in a beautiful, simple, elegant dress,' Bingham says near the beginning of the Reel. 'It's all the stuff surrounding the dress that leaves kind of a bitter aftertaste.' She goes on to explain that Culpo, who gave an exclusive interview to Vogue, cited two reasons for why she picked that dress. 'First of all, she says, 'I didn't want to exude sex in any way.' The second thing she says is that she wanted the dress to be as serious as she takes the covenant of marriage.' (What Culpo said, word for word, was as follows: 'It’s a covenant. It’s the beginning of the rest of your life and it’s the union and bond of two people forever. I wanted something that felt as serious as that commitment.')
Bingham objected for multiple reasons. Culpo, she argued, was essentially 'marketing a conservative agenda' (Bingham lingered a lot on the quote from the article about McCaffrey, Culpo's now-husband, liking her best in clothes that are 'timeless, covered and elegant'). 'The way that she was talking about this went beyond just wanting something modest for herself,' Bingham explains in the Reel. Bingham, later on, also objects strongly to the choice of Dolce & Gabbana, citing a past 'super racist campaign' as being problematic: 'If you wanted timeless, elegant, classic, why wouldn't you work with someone like Chanel, Dior, even Louis Vuitton?'
Culpo clapped back. 'Wow what an absolutely evil person you are. I hope no one ever tears you apart this way because it's extremely hurtful.' McCaffrey also came to his new wife's defence in the comments, 'What an evil thing to post online. I hope you can find joy and peace in the world, the way my beautiful wife does.'
It isn't the first time in the last week a wedding dress has been the subject of a public slanging match. Eva Amurri, Susan Sarandon's daughter, was beleaguered in the comments section for her wedding dress, with the internet zeroing in on one detail in particular. As one comment put it: 'What an unflattering dress!! They're just loose rolling around in there. I've never seen a design cut like that before in my life.' Amurri, similarly, responded on Instagram, posting on Stories, 'Ps - if it makes you feel more comfy, I also had my tits out at my rehearsal dinner.' Nicely done.
Whatever you feel about someone's wedding dress - whether you think it's boring or booby or you personally wouldn't touch their designer with a barge pole because of their value system - why do people feel the need to air these comments publicly, picking at someone else's wedding photos like vultures on a carcass?
Bingham, as it happens, is also getting married in a month - and, perhaps anticipating the shitstorm of unsolicited feedback, justified or unjustified, that awaits her, has created a countdown timer specially for the, 'girlies who are wanting to come back after I post my wedding to "see how I like the criticism."'
Let's see if she takes it on the chin, shall we?