Why Angelina Jolie's Wedding Dress Designer Stands To Make Millions

After seven years together, and six kids,Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are finally tying the knot. Angelina Jolie came in at number eleven on Forbes’ annualCelebrity 100 list and number 29 on its annual World’s Most Powerful Women list in 2011. Her every move is chronicled by the paparazzi. She is certainly an A-lister in Hollywood, and some would even go so far as to suggest that she is America’s version of royalty.

In the age of social media and the constant news cycle, the coverage of celebrity weddings has reached a fever pitch, but celebrity watchers predict that excitement surrounding this particular star pairing could outdo them all.

Stephen Galloway, executive editor of features at The Hollywood Reporter told the Associated Press: “Every single designer on the planet will be pursuing Angelina for the dress. It’s literally worth millions of dollars in business.”

After Pitt’s manager confirmed last Friday that the couple was in fact engaged, Jolie’s diamond engagement ring, created by jeweler Robert Procop, began trending on Twitter—a preview of the type of publicity the wedding dress should expect. Jolie in the past has favored designers like L’Wren Scott, Versace, Giorgio Armani, Elie Saab and Jenny Packham, so let the speculation begin as to what designer she will be wearing for her big day.

Jolie’s past wedding day choices likely don’t offer any clues as to what she will wear this time around, as her public image has vastly changed since she initially hit the scene. For her first wedding, to Jonny Lee Miller in 1996, she sported a pair of rubber pants and a t-shirt with Jonny’s name reportedly written across the back in her blood. To her second wedding to Billy Bob Thornton in 2000, Jolie donned a simple tank top and jeans.

Whomever Jolie chooses to work with for her wedding day, the exposure that designer stands to gain is something that simply can’t be bought. Here, a look at the impact on various designers that were behind an iconic star’s wedding day look.

Kate Middleton

Kate Middleton’s Sarah Burton For Alexander McQueen Wedding Gown

Sarah Burton, Alexander McQueen’s Creative Director, initially denied that she was making the royal wedding dress. In fact, it was not actually confirmed that she was the chosen designer until Middleton got out of her chauffeured Rolls-Royce and walked into Westminster Abbey. The moment, which happened in the spring of 2011 was watched on television by 22.8 million people in the US alone (an estimated three billion people watched world wide).

Burton joined Alexander McQueen in 1997, directly after graduating from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Following McQueen’s death in 2010, she took over as Creative Director of the house. Burton, who has called making Middleton’s dress an “experience of a lifetime,” has been reaping the rewards of the historical moment ever since. In November, 2011 she won Designer of the Year at the 2011 British Fashion Awards. The McQueen label (owned by luxury conglomerate PPR) experienced a jump in revenue in the third-quarter of 2011, thanks in no small part to exposure from the famous dress. And when the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened its exhibit, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, directly following the royal wedding in May, 2011, the exhibit became the museum’s eighth most visited show in its history with 661,509 visitors in total. All in all, it was the kind of exposure that money just can’t buy and it cemented Sarah Burton and Alexander McQueen’s place in fashion history.