Wedding Gowns & Bridal Fashion

ONE joy James Packer must surely derive from his ludicrously huge fortune is the freedom to say, “Never mind what it costs, darling.”

And his current darling certainly didn’t mind. Rumours hardened early that the new Mrs Packer’s strapless ivory silk wedding gown, with its tightly corsetted bodice and descending hooped and waved skirts, cost $100,000 and was fitted in the rarefied atelier of no less than John Galliano of Dior.

When Erica Baxter took her vows in that fragrant arbour of flowers yesterday, she wore the frock of many young women’s dreams, by a designer from bridal fashion’s heavenly “Holy Trinity”: John Galliano for Dior, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel and Valentino.

It will be remembered best for what it wasn’t — not satiny sleek like a million modern bridal gowns and not so puffed that it verged on the dreaded “meringue” aesthetic.

Baxter’s feline prettiness and angular elegance perfectly complemented the not-too-simple, not-too-fancy frock of a lifetime, and incidentally, the beefy bulk of her husband, also.

Source: The Age