What Are The Best Wedding Dress Fabrics? All You Need to Know
From crepe to tulle, satin to silk – here's your go-to guide on everything wedding dress fabric and materials for the 2025 bride and beyond.
Got bridal fabric on your mind? You're not the only bride-to-be out there who's wondering about all existing wedding gown fabric types on the market today. It can be overwhelming to know what type of materials and fabrics make up all the wedding dresses that you're gawking over while shopping for your perfect bridal gown!
That’s why this wedding dress fabric guide has everything you need to know when it comes to choosing your dream gown, including what to consider about each material that’s typically used to create all types of wedding dresses.
White silk fabric
Photo by Beyzaa Yurtkuran from Pexels
Your checklist for choosing the best wedding dress fabric
The cost vs your wedding dress budget
Your personal bridal style
Does the fabric make for a flattering gown silhouette
Wedding dress fabric and material quality
Waste factor of the material (if sustainability is a priority)
Don’t just think about how stunning a gown might look on the rack or on social media, but also consider your comfort and experience in the dress. You’ll be wearing this gown for most of the day, so it’s super important to leave some room for your comfort! Matching the right wedding dress fabric with your bridal style as well as considering your budget and the season of your wedding will make a huge difference.
Because at the end of the day, it's all about feeling your most comfortable and your most beautiful for your wedding celebration.
Wedding dress lace material: embroidered flowers on a gown
Photo by Los Muertos Crew from Pexels
11 types of wedding dress fabrics and materials
Satin or lace? A sheer or silky wedding dress? Knowing what you’re working when it comes to the all the different wedding gown fabric types can be overwhelming. To help you out here, this is a lil’ comprehensive list of wedding dress fabrics and materials on the market today.
In this list, we’ve also highlighted the super important things to consider when mulling over a type of gown fabric, like the time of year of your wedding, the best types of wedding dress material and fabrics for warm and cold weather, and the truth behind silk-satin and silk-polyester dress fabrics (and what all these blends really mean!).
Without further ado, here are the 11 most popular wedding dress fabrics and materials for brides.
Crepe
Crepe is the type of wedding dress fabric known for its versatility and its usability in a bunch of different wedding dress styles, from minimalist gowns to anything A-line, mermaid silhouettes and more. Depending on the heaviness of the woven fabric, a crepe wedding dress can be worn anytime of the year. Crepe is typically made from natural fibers like wool, cotton, or silk, as well as synthetic fibers like polyester or rayon.
Satin
Satin is an oh-so glam and classic wedding dress fabric that’s perfect for those brides who are going for a more pronounced look for their Big Day, say in the form of a fit and flare or a ball gown silhouette. The more upscale version of this fabric is made of silk, while there's also satin with a synthetic blend. A smooth but heavier fabric, a satin dress is best to wear if your wedding takes places during one of the colder months of the year.
Wedding dress tulle fabric
Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva from Pexels
Tulle
Light and airy, a wedding dress with tulle fabric is your fit if you're into boho-style bridal gowns with lots of fresh and fun layers. Because tulle dress fabric is so breathable and lightweight, look into a gown made with this unique material if you have a summer wedding planned. If you're going for some layers for your bridal look, then tulle wedding dresses are also a great match for fall and spring. Made of a nylon or a silk blend, tulle makes for stunning and dreamy overlays and veils.
Mikado
A silk material blend that leans on the heavier side, Mikado has become one of the most sought-after wedding dress fabrics in recent years. It's a perfect match for a ball gown wedding dress to a mermaid-style silhouette, and works great whether you're going with a strapless or a long-sleeve gown. With a sleek and silky finish, Mikado is one of the types of wedding dress fabrics that will make you truly make you feel like a princess on your Big Day.
What is a sheath wedding dress? This post goes over all the best wedding dress styles for your body type!
Silk
Seriously, can you really find a silk dress that you won't love? The ultimate look of elegance, a silk wedding dress can do it all. Silk is really a fiber and is typically blended in so many types of dress weaves from Mikado to Chiffon to satin. These blends mean that silk wedding dresses are versatile and wearable any time of the year, depending on the blend of fibers used to craft the dress.
Fun fact: One of our favorite thing about silk is that it's the most sustainable fabric out there. Naturally quick-drying and hypoallergenic (there's a reasons those silk pillow cases are trending!), fabrics made of pure silk usually takes less than 5 years to decompose. For comparison, polyester fabric can take up to 200 years.
Chiffon embroidered dress
Photo by Anna Tarazevich from Pexels
Chiffon
Much like tulle, Chiffon's an airy wedding dress fabric type that makes for amazing gown accents like veils and overlays. There's Chiffon-silk fabric, Chiffon-rayon, or Chiffon-polyester blends which will vary in price and look. Chiffon is super flattering, as this is the type of weave that just falls on you with grace and style.
Be warned, brides! Chiffon is one of the more delicate wedding dress fabrics on this list, which means it can easily get torn or caught if not handled carefully.
Dupioni
A crisp and textured fabric, dupioni is light to medium in weight and typically made of silk or a polyester blend. A proper silk dupioni gown is ideal for a warm-weather wedding as its more light and breathable, and a polyester blend can go a little thicker. Either way, you can wear a dupioni gown any time of the year, even for a summer outdoor wedding. Top styles for this bridal gown fabric are A-line gowns and gorgeous ball gowns.
When should I get my wedding dress altered? We answer your pressing questions in this blog post.
Lace
Similar to silk gowns, there are so many different kinds of lace fabric used for wedding dresses. Lace clothing is now commonly spun from cotton or more synthetic fibers. Traditionally, your average lace dress would be woven from silk, linen, and even silver threads for a durable and stunning result. Lace continues to be a go-to fabric for wedding dresses, and especially used for delicate and detailed embroiders on the gown like the trendy and eye-catching 3D florals.
Want to learn more about the versatility of lace wedding dresses? Essence of Australia has a great blog post that breaks down how to choose the right lace fabric for a wedding dress.
Organza
Organza is a perfect fabric for wedding dresses because it's stylishly subtle, sheer, and just so versatile. It's really a fabric made to help you move around, making it one of the best warm-weather gown fabrics on this list. Restrictive it is not, so layer and let that playful bridal style of yours shine!
That being said, Organza is definitely a match with the summer garden party wedding vibe. So, are you throwing an outdoor wedding in 2025? Try a wedding dress made with Organza.
Polyester
You'll find that most polyester wedding dresses are actually made of blending fabrics like silk, lace, and pretty much any type of bridal gown material on the market today. Polyester dress fabric is basically a synthetic fiber, and the game-changer here is the price point as weaving this fabric with traditional dress materials make it more accessible to brides on a budget. We'd suggest not purchasing a wedding dress that is 100% polyester however, because full polyester dress fabric isn't breathable at all.
Taffeta
This dress fabric comes from the Persian word "taftah", which roughly translates as "twisted weave." Typically crafted using synthetic (polyester), silk, or nylon fibers, taffeta is known for its distinctive sheen finish. Taffeta also allows for more structure in a wedding dress, due to the stiff yet smooth nature of the fabric. It's rated as medium to lightweight, so you can wear a taffeta dress to your summer outdoor wedding as well as a fall or spring celebration.
White soft plain satin wedding dress fabric
Photo by Marina Leonova from Pexels
Hand-Me-Gowns Bridal
Feel a little better prepared for your wedding dress shopping, now that you’re armed with all that knowledge? Whether it’s questions about your perfect dress fabric or who to invite to your bridal appointment, got you every step of the way.
Hand-Me-Gowns bridal shop currently has hundreds of gowns in a wide variety of styles, fabrics, materials, and sizes for all of you wonderful sustainably-minded brides-to-be out there. Our selection of preowned designer gowns is there to help you match with your own dress dress for your wedding, all at an affordable price.
We’re know taking bookings for early 2025, so book an appointment today and prepare to be amazed :)
Sustainably Yours,
Hand-Me-Gowns Bridal
xoxo
