1,000 Brides In Pants

APW's newest mission

A zillion years ago (maybe, 2009) I was talking about my “feminist wedding website” with friends at a bar. If people don’t take my work seriously now (they don’t), back in 2009, most people thought that APW was some sort of vivid hallucinatory fever dream I was having. So. I said the words feminist + wedding together in the same sentence, and one of David’s friends looked me dead in the eye and said, “How feminist can weddings possibly be, when women won’t even wear pants?” Point. I mean, obviously some ladies rock suits at their weddings. But for most of us, pants at our wedding isn’t an option we ever seriously consider. Most of us are going to stick with a dress, even if we’ve never worn a dress a day in our lives. In fact, one of the most common questions on our open thread about wedding dress shopping was, “How do you get comfortable in something that doesn’t feel at all like your style?” (Hint: you usually don’t.) So, anyway, back to the whisky bar. Never slow on my feet, I shot back, “Fine. I’m going to launch 1,000 Brides in Pants, and then we’ll talk.” The fact that most of us don’t consider pants a serious wedding option points to just about everything wrong with the wedding industry today. And I’m not arguing all of us (or hell, most of us) should wear pants to our weddings. As one of the femme-iest feminists out there, I wore as many layers of tulle as I could cram on my body at my wedding, and if I could go back in time, the only thing I’d change is to add more lipstick. But my point is pants should feel like a viable option. Women wearing pants has just a little bit of a history. It was only, you know, one of the earliest feminist fights. And as hard fought as that right was, most of us don’t think anything of it when we pull on our jeans in the morning. Let’s take a quick look: So, after years of wanting to launch 1,000 Brides in Pants, the relaunch of the site (coming atcha on Tuesday) seemed the perfect time to inaugurate the project. The aim is to collect inspiration to prove that you can wear a (hot as hell) pants ensemble, and still feel as bridal as you want to. Plus, we really, truly, want to collect 1,000 photos of women wearing pants to their wedding, and maybe, just maybe, change the conversation. (And yeah, we’re going to find pants outfits for those of us who like ruffles, too.) So here’s what what this means to APW. It starts by collecting brides in pants. If you wore pants to your wedding, or have a friend who wore pants, or just have a hot photo of a pants outfit someone REALLY SHOULD wear, send us a photo one of three ways:

Tell us why you’re wearing pants to your wedding, and once per month we’ll publish a “Bride in Pants” of the month here on the site (along with some feminist history and pants shopping roundups). The rest of the time we’ll be putting your submissions up on our Tumblr page. If you’re thinking of wearing pants to your wedding, that’s also where we’ll be publishing our pants inspiration photos (basically all the hot white pants we can’t fit here). So help us kick off the mission by sending in your photos! (We’ll be digging through the archives in the meantime to see what we’ve already got.) In the meantime, some inspiration for your journey: APW’s Brides in Pants Tumblr. East Side Bride’s (obviously awesome) #PantsWeek. Recent article on wearing pants at your wedding in the New York Times. Also recent, from Vogue Australia, about a couture designer creating bridal pants.

**Note: We’re updating the Brides in Pants Tumblr as we go, with your suggestions. Hop over, it’s awesome.**

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