LAPEL FOR GOOMSMEN AND GROOM
Unlike most traditions of antiquity in Rome or Egypt, the history of the lapel for groomsmen and grooms is somewhat more recent: the earliest records of its use are in 16th century French paintings. At that time, the small arrangement of flower that adorned the male costume represented the political alliances of a man. It was only two centuries later, in England, that the lapel gained popularity. From there, flowers from the gardens were carefully embedded in the buttonhole houses of gentlemen’s coats and soon the tradition was incorporated into wedding celebrations. According to Nicole Kidder, North American specialist in wedding traditions, the groom used a flower bud of the bride’s bouquet always on the left side, close to her heart.
Still according to Kidder, although men had adopted this tradition in marriage long ago, she is often mistakenly credited to Prince Albert when he married Queen Victoria. Although evidence points out that he did not wear a lapel, as JJ Lee’s book “The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, Son, and a Suit”, that the queen would have given him a small branch of her bouquet. Not knowing where to put it, Albert would have made a small cut in his suit and fit the flowers.
LAPEL FOR GROOMSMEN AND GROOM | After becoming a classic symbol of male elegance and being used daily until around the 1950s, today the lapel is only used on special occasions that require the use of tuxedos or in weddings – in them, not only groom, but also groomsmen and parents are adorned with the flower. In the book “The Boutonniere: Style in One’s Lapel”, the author Umberto Angeloni de Brioni says that in some countries, the more elaborate the arrangement of the lapel, the more important is the groom. Today, in addition to also serving to differentiate the groomsmen from the other guests, the lapel has gained new arrangements to match the style of the wedding, and may even be replaced by some meaningful element for the bride and groom, ranging from bottons to reliquaries and little hearts of felt – an example is the combination below where a small symbol of Peace and Love was incorporated into the lapel, the same symbol that the bride wore on a bracelet.
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