Wedding dress of Catherine Middleton Wedding dress of Catherine Middleton English designer Sarah Burton, creative director of the luxury fashion house Alexander McQueen, designed the bridal gown worn by Catherine Middleton at her wedding to Prince William on 29 April 2011. The dress and its maker were not formally announced until the bride stepped from her car to enter Westminster Abbey just prior to the service. Noted for its design, symbolism, and expected influence on Western bridal gown trends, the dress was widely anticipated and generated much comment in the media. Replicas of the dress were produced and sold, and the original dress was on
Wedding dress of Catherine Middleton that the technique used in Catherine's wedding dress "was influenced by" traditional Carrickmacross lace technique. However, the technique itself was a completely different and modern device: floral motifs were cut out of lengths of lace produced on large 19th-century machines and stitched to machine net. Three companies are known to have produced lace for the dress: Sophie Hallette and Solstiss in France, and the Cluny Lace Company in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. The majority of the dress is made using the Solstiss lace, specifically the skirt and train. The styles of machine lace go by the names "English Cluny" and "Chantilly", but