From the moment Ramiro and I began talking about getting engaged weeks after meeting, one thing was certain: I wouldn’t be a traditional bride. I only tried on engagement rings that incorporated colored stones, falling in love with a toi et moi ring with a fuchsia sapphire (this was after he originally proposed with a family ring, yes, two proposals—a story for another day). And when it came to the wedding dress, white was the only color I wouldn’t be considering.
As a vintage devotee, I started an Instagram “saved” folder with images from my favorite accounts with ideas—pastel Oscar de la Renta dresses from Shrimpton Couture, 1950s velvet Balenciaga dresses safely archived in the Met, and Elie Saab’s entire collection from the 2000s. Then, in April, Los Angeles’s Tab Vintage posted a dress that stopped me in my tracks. Britney Spears first wore the fall 2002 one-shoulder nude mesh-and-sequin Versace gown at Milan Fashion Week, and it was my was my bridal dreams, materialized. Corseted, a swirl of rainbow prints, and sparkly. Not to mention, the hot pink shade is a perfect match to my engagement ring. Like I said, not traditional!
I began imagining all of the different wedding venues it would look perfect in—cliffside at sunset, just the two of us; on a beach, under a floral arch of baby's breath; at the Graceland Chapel in Las Vegas with Elvis as our officiant. In my dream world, the dress was as good as mine.
“The hunger games that are about to ensue once you list,” one person commented on the Instagram post. Yes—this was my Hunger Games, my Super Bowl, my Olympics, all in one. I had been training for this day through eBay bidding wars and at the local thrift store, it was time to channel my inner Simone Biles. I immediately reached out to Tab to enquire with my measurements in hand, but here’s the thing about hot vintage—it was already gone. Immediately. Britney Spears’s Versace dress would always be the one that got away, though I hoped she went to a good home.
Four months later, I’m on Zoom with our September cover star Blake Lively discussing her new hair-care brand Blake Brown. She shares that she’s mid-fitting, trying on clothing for her upcoming press tour for It Ends With Us, giving me a sneak peek of all the floral ensembles she’ll be wearing with the tease “blooms everywhere.” I know that Lively is a vintage girl like me. She’s recently worn dresses from Happy Isles, a 1997 Galliano-designed Dior suit, and we chat about my favorite stores in New York before signing off the call.
But imagine my surprise when I opened Instagram last night to see Lively at the premiere of her film wearing my wedding dress. Sorry, I mean the Britney Spears vintage Versace dress. She sourced it from the Tab Vintage Instagram after seeing the exact post I saw (celebrities are just like us, sometimes) and had been holding onto it since. Obviously, in an Olympics competition of me versus Lively, we all know who is getting gold.
But, now that she’s worn the dress, I have a proposal: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was the film that propelled Lively to fame (we even discussed it in our interview), but how about we turn it into sisterhood of the Versace dress? “It should be in the Smithsonian or the Met. But it’s on me,” Lively said to People last night. Maybe it could make a pit stop for my wedding on the way?
