The Superstitious Reason Behind Pippa Middleton Wearing White At Kate's Wedding

When you're at a modern wedding, it's typically just the bride who wears a white dress. However, when Catherine Middleton, Princess of Wales, married William, Prince of Wales, in 2011, her sister Pippa Middleton also (in)famously wore a white gown. The fit of the dress proved to be one of Pippa's most scandalous outfits. Some thought that the look drew focus from Kate's wedding dress, even with all its details, since Pippa's was an ivory-colored gown. But there's been a long tradition, rooted in superstition, of having the bridesmaid and maid of honor dresses match the bride's dress. It crosses cultures, and it's been in place for centuries. It has to do with preventing the bride from being stolen from her wedding.

"A bride would have attendants to protect her from evil spirits," Dr. Angela Thompson, who teaches sociology at Texas Christian University, told The New York Times. "By having several women who are dressed alike, the spirits, or kidnappers, wouldn't know which person was the bride." She also noted that this was a superstition that you can find in places like Rome and China, dating back thousands of years. So since the bride's dress is white, the bridesmaid dresses should also be white.

As for why royal wedding gowns, and therefore royal bridesmaid dresses, have been white in recent years, it goes back in large part to Queen Victoria's wedding to Prince Albert in 1840. Her white wedding dress — one of the many royal wedding dresses that hid a secret message — also helped popularize the trend for all brides to choose white for their wedding. She donned a white satin, silk, and lace gown with a full skirt. Before that, wealthy women had worn white dresses for their weddings, but colors like red were also popular, and less well-to-do women often wore a brown or black dress that was less likely to show stains so it could be reworn frequently.

Pippa Middleton hasn't been the only royal bridesmaid to wear white. Most other bridesmaids have donned white for the major royal weddings since Queen Victoria. Queen Elizabeth's eight bridesmaids wore ivory gowns with tulle skirts. Princess Diana had five bridesmaids who wore white puff-sleeved gowns that echoed Diana's show-stopping gown. And along with Pippa, who was maid of honor, Kate Middleton had four young bridesmaids, all dressed in white.