Do You Need To Wear An Underskirt With Your Wedding Dress?

1. Sheath & Column Dresses

The first type of wedding dress you wouldn’t need to wear an underskirt with is a straight-falling sheath or column gown. For the simple reason that the skirt is intended to fall in a straight drop from the hip and not flare out.

Adding an underskirt under this kind of dress would make it look strange and rather forced, as the skirt hasn’t been cut with enough fabric to accommodate a hoop pushing it out.

2. Extreme Low-back or Cut-Out Dresses

This one’s a little trickier. Ideally, a mermaid underskirt would work really well under a fitted gown — especially if it helps free up walking space. But dresses with cutaway lace panels or extreme low backs can make that difficult, as these design elements often dip below where the waistband of the underskirt would naturally sit.

A good seamstress might be able to help, though! In some cases, they can attach the underskirt directly to the dress’s internal layers as a workaround.

3. Thigh Split Dresses

Dresses with a thigh split and sheer-skirted styles don’t really lend themselves to underskirts. The whole idea is to let the leg show — not an underskirt!

If your dress has sheer or semi-sheer panels, underskirts can show through in a way that spoils the look. (And yes, I’m totally obsessed with these styles too — they’re all over our Pinterest board ‘Wedding Dresses We Love’!)

4. Crepe Wedding Dresses

Okay, so it’s not a hard and fast rule, but most crepe dresses don’t pair well with underskirts. Crepe is such a slinky, heavy-draping fabric that it tends to be used in sleek, figure-hugging styles — and often lacks inner netting to help disguise an underskirt.

That means hoop lines can sometimes show through at the hem, or the elastic waistband might be visible at the top. Still, if you have a crepe dress that does work with one, we’d love to hear about it!

1. A-line Dresses

A-line dresses flare from the natural waist into a gently sloping silhouette, like the shape of a capital A.

They don’t need a huge amount of volume, but they do benefit from an underskirt to help them hang properly. Depending on your dress’s circumference, we’d usually recommend hoop sizes around 190–220cm.

A-line underskirt suggestions:

• BP9-190
• BP2-220
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2. Ballgown Dresses

Ballgown styles are the fullest and most dramatic, flaring straight out from the waist. These dresses need a larger underskirt to give them their iconic volume.

Without one, they won’t hold their shape — and you’ll struggle to walk comfortably. Depending on your preferred level of fullness, hoop circumferences from 270cm to 370cm are ideal.

Ballgown underskirt suggestions:

• BP6-320
• BP5-370
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3. Mermaid/Fishtail Dresses

Mermaid and fishtail dresses hug the body through the hips and thighs and flare out at the knees or lower. These styles often already have some stiff netting built in — but if they don’t, or if you’d like extra structure, a mermaid-style underskirt can help shape the flare and improve mobility.

The flare on these underskirts starts lower down than A-line styles, creating the signature tail shape.

Mermaid underskirt suggestions:

• BP8-190
• BP18-190 (our bestselling underskirt!)
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4. Tea or Knee Length

Tea length and shorter vintage-inspired gowns look extra adorable with a soft, full petticoat. Underskirts help give them that flouncy, retro silhouette and a little bounce when you walk. If your tea length dress already has lots of built in layers you many not need to wear an underskirt unless you wanted to add even more volume. Since we don’t need to worry about freeing up the space around your feet in this instance, it’s more about personal preference.

Short underskirt suggestion:

• BP16
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