Celebrity brides like Meghan Markle often don't bring anything 'new' to bridal style, according to a designer

• Designer Justin Alexander Warshaw discussed celebrity wedding gowns with Insider.
• He said stars often wear dresses that are fairly standard for the bridal industry.
• But brides may become more interested in those styles after seeing stars wear them.

Celebrity style has always had an impact on what the general population wears.

Wedding fashion is no exception, with the looks celebrities donning for red carpets bleeding into what brides wear to walk down the aisle.

For instance, the daring red-carpet looks stars have been partial to in recent years have led to an influx of wedding gowns with plunging necklines and sheer fabric, as Justin Alexander Warshaw, the CEO and creative director of the Justin Alexander Group, told Insider.

Plenty of celebrities have also worn memorable wedding gowns themselves, from Kim Kardashian to Victoria Beckham.

But Warshaw told Insider that the wedding dresses celebrities wear don't have as much of an impact on bridal fashion as you might expect.

Celebrity wedding gowns are often standard for the bridal world, according to Warshaw

Warshaw told Insider he doesn't often see celebrities breaking fashion boundaries with their wedding dresses.

"A lot of times we see a dress, and we're like, 'We have one just like it in our collections,'" he said.

"A lot of them are not actually creating something that we haven't seen, to be honest, but it does shift sentiment or creates awareness of that style," Warshaw went on to say, with brides sometimes being drawn to a certain kind of dress after seeing their favorite celebrity wear it.

He pointed to the Givenchy dress Meghan Markle wore to her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry as an example.

"The biggest celebrity wedding dress of recent history is Meghan Markle's dress," Warshaw said. "I mean, come on. Beautiful, classic, timeless, but not necessarily bringing newness."

Markle's dress had a bateau neckline, a form-fitting silhouette with no embroidery, and a 16-foot train, which she paired with a statement veil.

The gown was beautiful, but it wasn't much different than dresses brides may find when shopping for their own wedding day looks, as Warshaw said.

Indeed, designer Emilia Wickstead previously told the Daily Mail that Markle's dress looked similar to a gown from one of her collections, even though the duchess' dress was custom-made.

Details do make some celebrity wedding gowns stand out

Warshaw said that the details on celebrity wedding gowns often make them look more elevated than a dress an average bride may buy, even if they are similar in style.

For instance, Warshaw loved Virgil Abloh's wedding dress designs. Abloh was the mastermind behind Hailey Bieber's lace, off-the-shoulder wedding dress, and he designed the dramatic wedding gown Kylie Jenner wore to the 2022 Met Gala.

"Virgil had done several very cool wedding looks that were not necessarily out of this world new, but I love the attention to detail that he put into the dresses he was doing, which I thought was really, really amazing," Warshaw said.

The gown Jenner wore in 2022 had contrasting ruching on the bodice and skirt, elevating the ball gown. She also wore a sheer T-shirt and a baseball cap veil with the look, making it even more high-fashion.

Warshaw takes the same approach with his gowns, pairing timeless silhouettes with modern details that make them feel one-of-a-kind.

Two of the most popular gowns from his latest collection for Justin Alexander Signature, Nalani and Pax, both mix traditional and eye-catching details.

The strapless neckline and ball-gown silhouette of the Nalani gown harkens back to traditional bridal looks, while the daring slit that reveals a miniskirt beneath it and the textured pattern covering the dress give it a modern edge.

Meanwhile, the floral detailing on the off-the-shoulder neckline makes the Pax stand out, as does the architectural ruching on the bodice.

For Warshaw, the goal of his work is to create unique designs that will stand the test of time for brides.

"We are trying to make dresses for brides that they can absolutely fall in love with and want to wear and be happy when they look back at their photos in 20 or 30 years and be proud to show their children and everyone else," he told Insider.