Hot off the heels of New York Bridal Fashion Week, Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week brought an international cohort of 450 designers, of new and old, to stage their spring-summer 2026 collections. Brigitte Stepputtis for Vivienne Westwood was this year’s guest designer, presenting a collection driven by one of Vivienne’s maxims: “Clothes allow you to project your personality, giving you the opportunity to express yourself.”
From the reimagining of traditional silhouettes to stylistic moves towards practicality and personalisation, this is the moment to embrace your unique offering as a bride – individuality is the sartorial key. Here, we have rounded up our very favourite 2026 bridal trends for you to go forth and take your pick.
Vintage Inspiration
Pinterest and Instagram runneth over with vintage wedding inspiration – think frilly 80s cakes, tables dressed with scalloped Victorian lace, and film photography – an antique aesthetic we now see reflected back on the bridal catwalk. You can play with this trend, opting to integrate a small drop of whimsy like Yolancris’ bohemian draping, or go full-on Wuthering Heights with integration of true vintage accessories, pearl accents and more-is-more lace capes, as seen in the striking styling of the SAGE CAPE at Savin London.
The original vintage-inspired designer is Eliza Jane Howell, who presented artfully hand-beaded kimonos that can either be layered, transforming a simple slip dress into a flamboyant evening outfit, alongside the “Flora’ dress, itself gilded and glittering, complete with a unique architecture thanks to kimono-style sleeves. The famed storytellers at Vivienne Westwood naturally wove this trend into the opening of the show, presenting an exquisite Madame du Pompadour-style dress, as well as an epic billowy cape, layerable with a distinct Tudor flavour.
Basque Waists
As vintage inspiration abounds, designers reimagined the dropped-waist trend of last year as the universally flattering basque waist. Popularised among the royalty in the Edwardian era and later part of Dior’s New Look, we have here a thoroughly feminine silhouette defined by a plunging V or U shape at the waistline. For a bride of any era, the basque shapes provides architectural security, as it is often accompanied by strict corseting. A boned basque waist was made expositional by timeless OGs Pronovias and reinterpreted with a wafer-thin tulle bodice at Vivienne Westwood. The basque waist sang at Caroline Castigliano and Savin London, masters of the sculptural elements, who employed more minimalistic designs to simply pronounce the basque silhouette to its most feminine end.
Go Big
This is the year for epic Principessa ball gowns. Across the catwalk there were dresses that proudly took up space: from classic elegance at Jesus Peiro, who showed a particularly lovely strapless dress with a crisp mikado ballgown skirt, sprinkled with embroidery; contemporary bohemiana at Savannah Miller, with the sweetheart lines of the floral jacquard DELILAH gown; and a voluminous asymmetry with a full, sweeping silhouette from Caroline Castigliano. To up the ante in a contemporary incarnation, look to Yolancris for bubble skirting – a trend that first populated ready-to-wear – with a dress offering a clean, straight neckline and unique pillowy gathered skirt.
Convertibility
Brides want flexibility in their outfits. The catwalks answered; we saw dresses that can be worn multiple ways through clever design tweaks or the addition of transformative accessories, like removable sleeves – think the SEATTLE dress from Mori Lee – or convertible trains at Yolancris and swappable skirts at Vivienne Westwood, to take you from day to night. There is ease of customisation here that is entirely personal to the style of the wearer, changing the mood and association of the garment seamlessly through a quick change (without demanding the assistance of bridesmaid worker bees).
Look to the inspired AMBAR design from Savannah Miller from the 2026 ‘Adorned In Reverie’ collection, a silk taffeta gown with a dropped basque waist (a nod to our earlier trend), that started life as a bespoke gown for Ambar Driscoll. It hides a handy tie fastening hidden inside a billowy skirt, allowing the wearer to hitch the hemline, creating an altogether new asymmetric look, all thanks to this quick fix.
Sustainability
With the legacy of Vivienne Westwood, a fervent climate activist with revolutionary attitudes to textile waste, green investments and eco materials (such as the employment of eco-lace) very much in the spotlight at this year’s Barcelona Bridal Week, it is no surprise that sustainability was a central pillar of this year’s collections. Sustainability and provenance are on the modern bride’s agenda, a perspective reflected back by designers such as Milla Nova prioritising ethical and traceable materials and production, Eliza Jane Howell emphasising the transparency of supply chains and the female-led team at Sophie & Voila, who make every piece to order. Brides are also increasing the lifetime of their dresses through inventive alteration; no doubt inspired by stylist Gemma Sort Chilvers‘ clever adaptation of her The Own Studio wedding dress from ivory to baby pink and shortened, to be worn again as a wedding guest.
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