Weddings are a total minefield. Can you get away with wearing all-over black? Are sheer dresses allowed? And what about hats? Are hats a thing? Do you absolutely need to wear a hat?
Normally, we would have said no, no and no, but don't swap it for anything else.
Princess Eugenie, however, just married Jack Brooksbank at St George's Chapel in Windsor and our whole world has been turned upside down. Not by their declaration of love, exactly, (it was a very lovely ceremony), but more by how many 'wedding outfit' rules were broken, ignored or simply thrown straight out the window.
Take Cara Delevingne, for example. The 26-year-old wowed spectators by attending the Royal Wedding in a skinny-fit slick black trousers and a tailcoat. Oh, and a top hat. She tied the outfit together with a chunky grey tie and black stilettos and looked all-over amazing.
The dress code for Princess Eugenie's wedding was very strict. Women were told to wear a day dress with hat and men had to wear a morning coat. Delevingne chose to wear, well, whatever the hell she liked, throwing protocol out the window. And thank heavens, because English weddings have always been too stuffy. When you look as dapper as Cara and manage to keep the top hat on amid high winds, who's really complaining?
Social media users took to Twitter to share their support for the model’s 'bold' move.
We're inclined to agree with Leah de la Crux:
Meanwhile, supermodel Naomi Campbell showed us that you don't need to stick to pastels for a daytime event and rocked a divine monochrome Ralph&Russo couture dress, accessorised with a Philip Treacy hat and leather gloves.
Likewise Liv Tyler, who wore a Stella McCartney navy skirt suit. Could she also be attending a funeral? Sure. Do we care? Absolutely not - she looks incredibly chic, and completed her look with a Stephen Jones head dress and jewellery from Van Cleef & Arpels.
British artist Tracy Emin followed suit with the all-black vibes and pop of purple on the shoes:
Meghan Markle kept on the 'it's windy, I refuse to wear a flimsy pink anything' trend with a navy blue Givenchy coat dress. She accessorised the look with Pippa Small diamond earrings, a ring and bracelet.
Clearly, black is most definitely back (and no longer a faux pas at weddings, hallelujah!), but there were other, less obvious, examples of rule-breaking today.
Like sheer dresses. Anything see-through is typically a no-go at weddings. Showing off your boxers underneath a sheer tulle skirt works well for Bella Hadid et al, but you generally don't want to upstage the bride with your visible knickers.
Poppy Delevingne, however, rocked up in a floral cut-out print dress from Oscar De La Renta and revealed just the right amount of skin. The trick here is it feels like you can see a lot, but you can't really see anything clearly at all. The matching blue overcoat also tones down/hides what could potentially be too much.
Cressida Bonas also chose to ignore the 'hat' rule, opting instead for an electric-blue headband. Though perhaps we should have seen this one coming. Writing recently in a column for The Spectator, Cressida opened up about the difficulty of picking an outfit for weddings.
'Friends are starting to get married, which means the dilemma of British wedding attire. Hats. Why do I find hats so tricky? Tricky to wear, tricky to look at, and extremely tricky for the poor soul sitting in the pew behind,' she wrote. 'Most of the time I avoid headgear. This can prompt disapproving looks from the older generations.'
Either way, this is great news - stiff upper lip be gone, we're about to have some more wedding wardrobe fun. Shouts to Cara for reminding us it's absolutely time we livened things up with a top hat.
