Arabic Wedding Dresses

Arabic wedding dresses in the Gulf and Levant tradition: heavily beaded bodices, capes and trailing sheer sleeves, long trains, and full coverage from a high collar to the floor. Every gown here is made to your measurements, and most ship with a matching bridal hijab. Made in 8–10 weeks. Free standard shipping in the US. We also ship to Canada, Australia, the UK and 15 other countries in Europe; outside the US, any import duties or VAT are paid to the courier on delivery.

What makes a wedding dress Arabic?

An Arabic wedding dress is defined by scale. Where a Western gown is often cut to show the shoulders and back, the gowns worn at weddings in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt cover the whole body and then build drama on top of it: crystal and sequin embroidery over the bodice and sleeves, a cape or a pair of floor-length sheer sleeve panels that trail behind the bride, and a train long enough to fill a ballroom aisle. The look comes from the Gulf couture houses and from the segregated women's halls where the bride is the centre of the room and can wear as much sparkle as she likes.

The traditional Arabic wedding dress is white or ivory for the main celebration, with gold, navy and emerald common for the henna night and the second event. Middle Eastern brides also tend to wear the hijab as part of the gown rather than over it: a matched scarf in the gown's fabric, tucked into a high, beaded collar, often under a veil or a cape.

How our Arabic wedding dresses are built

Each gown in this collection was chosen for the collection because it has the three things a bride in the Arab tradition expects.

• Embellishment with weight. Crystal lattice embroidery (Neha, Aniya), all-over sequin work (Asma, Noor, Sarah), beaded lace panels (Zehra, Shamaal) or beaded bodices (Almas, Aysha, Maryam). Nothing here is plain.
• Something that trails. A cape (Husna, Amal), sheer sleeve panels from the shoulder to the floor (Neha, Aysha, Maryam) or angel sleeves (Aleena). In photographs and on the walk into the hall, this is what reads as Arab bridal.
• Full coverage as the starting point. High closed collars, long sleeves, lined bodices and skirts, closed backs. The hijab tucks into the collar with nothing to pin. See the high neck and long sleeve collection for the construction details.

Arabic bridal gowns by colour

White and ivory. The Aleena, with angel sleeves and shimmer from shoulder to floor, is the gown that most resembles a Gulf couture piece. The Zehra pairs a beaded centre panel with a soft cape; the Aysha and the Maryam are satin with trailing sheer sleeves; the Noor and the Sarah are sparkle from neck to hem; the Shamaal puts the embellishment at the collar. All of these ship with a matching veil and hijab.

Gold. The Neha and the Aniya. Gold is the colour of the walima and of the henna night across the Gulf, and both gowns are built to catch hall lighting.

Navy and emerald. The Asma is a navy ball gown covered in sequin embroidery with a short capelet; the Amal is navy with an embroidered cape and long train; the Sana is deep emerald with jeweled detail. These are the second-event gowns, worn after white for the ceremony.

Red gowns for the henna night are in the red wedding dresses collection, and the lighter, simpler gowns in nikkah dresses.

What do you wear to an Arabic wedding?

As the bride: the gown above, with the hijab matched to it, a veil or cape for the entrance, and usually a second gown in colour for the henna night or a later event. As a guest at a women's hall: a long, formal, fully covered dress in any colour except the bride's white; embellishment is expected rather than avoided. The simpler gowns in our Muslim wedding dresses collection, in the $499 to $1,000 range, are cut for exactly this.

What is an Arabic wedding dress called?

In Arabic the wedding dress is simply fustan al-zifaf (the wedding gown) or fustan al-'aroos (the bride's dress). Traditional regional dress worn at the henna night has its own names: the thobe in the Gulf, the embroidered thob of Palestine and Jordan, the Moroccan takchita and caftan. The gowns in this collection are the modern white and coloured bridal gowns worn for the main celebration, not the regional henna dress; you can ask for a matching henna-night gown through our custom wedding dress service.

Made to your measurements, shipped to your door

If you live far from a family tailor, the process is built for that: choose the gown, follow the measuring guide (ten measurements with a soft tape, plus height and heel height), and we sew the gown to your numbers. Standard production is 8–10 weeks; express is 4–6; rush orders from 3 weeks. Standard sizes XS–XXL are also available, and standard shipping in the US is free.

Prices run from $980 to $2,800 for the gowns in this collection, and the price includes the custom sizing, the hoop skirt where the silhouette needs one, and the matching hijab; the white gowns also include the veil. There are no alteration fees afterward, because the gown was cut to you to begin with.

Shop Arabic wedding dresses · Start your measurements

These are the gowns for the walima entrance. The walima dress guide explains why white walima dresses are back and what a gown needs to hold a stage.