Elegant white formal dresses for a courthouse wedding or a ball

The way we sew an elegant white formal dress, it’s white velvet with clean lines and no lace. Some go to the floor and some stop at midi, and which one you need depends on where you’re wearing it.

Courthouse weddings and engagements in a white velvet midi

Winter brides have a problem. They want white, and they want to be warm. Our answer is a sheath in white velvet with long sleeves, cut close from the shoulders down to a hem just below the knee. The neck is round and open, so there’s a place for pearls.

If a sheath feels too narrow, there’s a V-neck midi in the same velvet that shows your collarbones and keeps the arms covered. For dancing we’d pick the pleated one. Its skirt moves with each step, and the three-quarter sleeves leave room for a bracelet. Champagne or skin-tone shoes look right with all three.

A ball or a wedding photo shoot in white to the floor

Long white velvet is the big-evening option. Can you wear white to a formal reception? In velvet, yes, as long as it isn’t someone else’s wedding. Our off-shoulder gown is slit at the leg, its sleeves end partway down the forearm, and on velvet the white looks warm instead of icy. Pin your hair up for this one, or the bare shoulders get lost.

We also make two one-sleeve gowns, a maxi and a floor-length style with a slit. Covering one arm and baring the opposite shoulder is all the decoration they need. Skip the necklace and wear long earrings.

Check the length in the shoes you’ll have on that day. Then walk across the room. You’ll see how the slit opens and whether the hem clears the floor.

What else is white here, and what goes underneath

Not everything on this page is gala-level. There are milk-white knits in an angora blend, a satin wrap mini and a few summer prints on a white ground, and we’d call those dressy more than formal. They’re good for a family dinner or a cocktail hour.

Under any elegant white formal dress, wear seamless underwear in a skin tone. White velvet shows contrast right away. More choices are on the white formal page, in long white dresses, among long elegant styles in other colors and in everything we sew in white.