Bridesmaid Dresses You Can Wear Again And Again

Up-cycle, repurpose, reinvent — you can do all of the above to this line of bridesmaid dresses designed for you to wear after the wedding. This bridal line supports slow fashion, the anti-fast fashion movement where you buy investment pieces, even when it comes to your best friend’s wedding.
The bridal and bridesmaid company Ash + Light believes bridesmaids are “warrior princesses.” Borne out of sisterhood, Ash + Light was created to give bridesmaids dresses they can reinvent at-will. What does that mean? The label offers styling parties where they will show bridesmaids how to incorporate the dress into their closet, and since each dress is cut-to-order, bridesmaids can send the dress back to Ash + Light where a designer can hem or dye the dress black, because you can never have too many little black dresses.

“We discourage wastefulness and bridezilla antics – instead, we embrace sisterhood and the notion that a bridal party is a team,” say Ash + Light founders. “And when your team is all together on the dance floor at the end of the night, punch-dancing with one hand and cheers-ing with the other in a pool of glitter, we’ll know our job is done.”

The designers continue, “Too many of our lady friends had found themselves marooned on our couch, wine in hand, not knowing what to do with the apple green bobbinet monstrosity they’ve just been asked to wear. We said, ‘no more!’ So we set out armed with our experience and the desire to provide the cool girls of the world with the awesomely wearable (and re-wearable) alternative to traditional bridesmaids’ dresses that they’d been missing.”

Here’s what makes Ash + Light a breakthrough for bridesmaids:

1. Reinvent at will. Post Wedding services will make your dress feel like new. Ash + Light can shorten it, or dye it black (LBD, anyone?), or even do some other special stuff.

2. Receive dresses you love. In 12 short weeks you will have a customized, New York City made garment.

3. Place your order. Using a handy Tool Kit on the Ash + Light website, you can make your custom order online and chat with a designer if you have any questions.

4. Get a styling party. Stylists will bring over Ash + Light dresses and accessories and help you find before-and after-wedding looks that suit you.

About the author

Jill Di Donato

Fashion Editor

Jill is a New York native who holds a BA in Literature from Barnard College, and an MFA in writing from Columbia University. She is the author of the novel Beautiful Garbage (She Writes Press, 2013) about the downtown Manhattan art and fashion scene in the 1980s. A former staff writer for The Huffington Post and Bustle, Jill comes to Culture Trip after working with Refinery 29, Vice, Salon, Paste Style, Los Angeles Times, Nylon, Shopify, Autre, and producing content for emerging fashion labels. She teaches classes about fashion and culture at Barnard College and The Fashion Institute of Technology. Her prized possessions are her Gucci fanny pack, vintage rocker t-shirts, and her grandmother's collection of costume jewelry. She's always on the lookout for a gem-encrusted turban.