Did Chelsea get it right?

Chelsea Clinton may have maintained a stern silence right through her wedding, but her wedding gown spoke volume.

Chelsea Clinton may have maintained a stern silence right through her wedding, but her wedding gown spoke volume. And, as the presidential daughter exchanged vows with Marc Mezvinsky on Saturday, international publications went on an overdrive, dissecting (metaphorically, of course) every inch of her dress, designed by 61-year-old Chinese-origin wedding gown designer Vera Wang.

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Wang designed a strapless silk organza gown with a draped tulle bodice and an embellished belt for Chelsea - a creation that was, as fashion experts put it, perfect.

In fact, New York Times credited the dress for Chelsea’s “metamorphosis from a gawky, studious teenager to an accomplished, self-assured young woman”.

Even in the run up to the wedding, the drama and mystery over the gown had been intense. Would she choose Wang, who has also designed wedding gowns for the likes of Victoria Beckham, Mariah Carey and Uma Thurman or Oscar de la Renta, who makes clothes for Chelsea’s mother Hillary?

At the end, mother and daughter went their separate ways, with Hillary favouring de la Renta, and Chelsea, Wang. Incidentally, Hillary’s dress came under criticism, with celeb gossip website Styleite saying it made her look like a ‘green bat’.

Wang, meanwhile, said it was a ‘privilege’ to dress Chelsea. Predictably enough, several publications tried to guess how much the gown cost. While The Washington Post got an entire forum discussing the price, CBS News put it at approx $24,900.

On US Magazine’s website, users commented on the gown by the dozen. “Chelsea looked very becoming for her age, and the time of the year. The dress itself has a very old world feel to it. Elegant and tasteful,” wrote B Hench. “The bottom is a little overdone… the top is too low… the waistband should have been narrower,” posted Macy.

Of course, several websites did their own spin-off on the dress. Shiny Style, a fashion website, did a fashion face-off between Chelsea and singer Alicia Keys, who also took the plunge, in a Vera Wang wedding dress, the same weekend. To cash in on the big, fat American wedding, the website PreOwnedWedding Dresses.com put up Vera Wang dresses ‘very similar’ to what Chelsea wore.

Know Vera Wang
Wang has made wedding gowns for Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Ivanka Trump, Jessica Simpson, Victoria Beckham, Khloe Kardashian, Jennifer Garner, Sharon Stone, Uma Thurman, Holly Hunter, Campbell Brown, Danielle Jonas and Kate Hudson, among various Hollywood celebrities.

Wang worked as a senior fashion editor for Vogue for sixteen years. In 1985, she left Vogue after being turned down for the editor-in-chief position and joined Ralph Lauren as a design director for two years. In 1990, she opened her own design salon in the Carlyle Hotel in New York that features her trademark bridal gowns.

Compiled by Rahul Sabharwal