For over 75 years the Academy Awards have celebrated the magic of film. Each year, the top actors & actresses in Hollywood have donned their finest duds to prepare for their appearance on the red carpet. From glamorous getups to outrageous mistakes to sartorial risks that paid off, these pages present the pageantry of Oscar fashion in photographs culled from 75 years of Academy Awards ceremonies. From Joan Crawford to Joan Allen, Katharine Hepburn to Cate Blanchett, the history of fashion at the Oscars is all here, in a no-holds-barred exhibit of how Hollywood has presented its best face to the world.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The day after the Academy Awards ceremony, movie fans are as abuzz about what the stars wore as about who won. Who can forget Cher looking like a seductive alien rooster in a skimpy Bob Mackie outfit with feathered headdress, or Bjork showing up with a swan wrapped around her neck? Photos of those appearances and hundreds more fill this fun book showcasing an array of Oscar fashion from the 1920s to this year's 75th anniversary party, focusing on women but also mentioning the tuxedo choices of a few men. Chace, a fashion and beauty reporter, organizes the looks by decade, throwing in subject-oriented features on, for example, women who attended the ceremony while visibly pregnant, or the repetition of certain looks then and now. There's an accessible, magazine-like sense to the book, as Chace displays no less than two photos （and as many as five） on each page, along with snappy captions （a shot of Melanie Griffith, star of Working Girl, in 1989, is titled "Work It, Girl"; an image of Audrey Hepburn in a belted Givenchy dress in 1954 bears the caption "It's a Cinch"）. Throughout, Chace offers miniportraits of top designers from Elsa Schiaparelli to Narciso Rodriguez and sums up each era in an opening page （e.g., the 1960s were all about "looking forward," as Psycho star Janet Leigh sported a close-fitting dress made of a sparkly fabric and Jane Fonda shunned tradition and opted for a dressed-down look）. Although occasionally the sheer profusion of sidebars, tinted pages and overlapping photos is disorienting, the volume presents a comprehensive and most enjoyable look at Hollywood fashion dos and don'ts. 500 photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Hardly complete, and not much fun,
By
This review is from: The Complete Book of Oscar Fashion: Variety's 75 Years of Glamour on the Red Carpet (Hardcover)
This poorly-written, poorly-edited, poorly-designed book doesn't serve its subject matter very well. The photos did not reproduce well (not even the recent photos!) and some of the design choices (like the circles that highlight details on the various gowns) have no value from an editorial or visual standpoint. There are many years that are represented by only three or four gowns -- even recent years! Surely there have been more standouts than that? I expected this book to be a feast for the eyes, an endless parade of gowns ranging from elegant to outrageous, but the pickings are indeed slim. I thought there were some grievous omissions, but I couldn't put my finger on what, or whom. Geena Davis now comes to mind -- love her or hate her, there's no denying the fact that the statuesque form of this six-footer is hard to ignore. Why isn't she represented anywhere? Why not more about men's fashion? Why not more profiles of designers, a closer look at Oscar-night jewelry and how it's loaned out, even a spread or two of how one actress's Oscar fashions progressed throughout the years? The scope of this book isn't terribly imaginative or (as the title proclaims) complete. The writing is awful. This isn't really the sort of book you pick up for the writing anyway but, seeing as how the pictures weren't even that good, I ended up reading the little blurbs of writing and found them full of clunky, poor word choices and bad jokes. Speaking of bad jokes, yes, we all know Cher can be wacky. We've all seen her black zigzag outfit with the crazy rooster headdress a million times already. Is there any reason for no fewer than THREE photos of this godforsaken getup to appear in this book? Especially since the author repeatedly expresses a dislike of it? Making fun of Cher's sequinned rooster outfit is nothing new; it's been done to death, and by funnier, more articulate people than this author. We didn't need more of it in this book. Just show us more pictures of beautiful gowns!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
JUST LOOK WHAT SHE HAS ON!,
This review is from: The Complete Book of Oscar Fashion: Variety's 75 Years of Glamour on the Red Carpet (Hardcover)
Few can resist the glitz, glitter and suspense of Oscar night. Who would want to as where else is such a concentration of beauty and fashion to be found? While, of course, the actual award presentations are the crux of the evening that stroll down the famous Red Carpet has become a must-see for many.Now, for the first time in this eye-popping volume is a collection of the silver screen's beauties over the past 75 years. All are captured in brilliant full-color photographs (500 of them). Many of the gowns chosen brought oohs and aahs - a few brought "What in the world is she wearing?" Not only do readers find a parade of Oscar dresses but they're also given insider information re fashion and style analysis. What fun it is to see Katharine Hepburn in the casual duds she wore for her 1974 appearance and surely no one can forget Bjork's "swan dress" just two years ago. Cher, of course, is one of a kind in her Bob Mackie dresses. While styles may change we find that elegance doesn't as witnessed by Mary Pickford in her exquisite 1930 gown. Lithe and lovely as ever there's Audrey Hepburn in a lovely Givenchy that emphasizes her tiny waist, and, of course, La Taylor stuns in a red Halston strapless. Halle Berry took top honors in the fashion category last year, and Grace Kelly looks royal and elegant in a silk gown designed by Edith Head. - Gail Cooke
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The not so fashinable side of this book,
By EH "eleonorah" (Italy) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Complete Book of Oscar Fashion: Variety's 75 Years of Glamour on the Red Carpet (Hardcover)
This book has some lovely, classy and well organised pictures, plus a fair comment. However, half the book comments the worst side of Oscar fashion and the dresses that were admired so much at their time are often left aside. Personally I would have liked to see more glamour rather than more trash.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
