I Do: 100 Years of Wedding Fashion [Hardcover]

Caroline Cox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2002

Filled with entrancing text and lavish, full-color photographs, I Do: 100 Years of Wedding Fashion offers a captivating review of the glorious and glamorous in bridal gowns during the last century. Readers will see how the ostentatious wedding gowns of the Edwardian era transformed into the knee-length, Chanel-inspired flapper gowns of the 1920s. By the 1930s, Hollywood reigned. Film-star weddings, publicized both on the silver screen and in fan magazines, brought a touch of glamour to the Depression-era bride. The 1940s war bride had to cope with make-do concoctions of muslin and parachute silk, while the '50s brought back romance, influenced by Dior's New Look and the American "sweetheart" line. And despite the rejection of marital bliss by the hippie counterculture and new feminism of the '60s, marriage survives and the white wedding is here to stay. Today, 21st-century brides are looking for the sophistication of couture fashion and the sexiness of today's sleek designs and sublime fabrics. This mesmerizing guide features 350 full-color photos of such famous brides as Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Grace Kelly, and hundreds more. From the traditional to the avant garde, the wacky to the sublime, this is a magnificent source of fashion inspiration for brides-to-be, their mothers, and wedding professionals everywhere.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Caroline Cox is a leading fashion authority whose work investigates the interface between fashion, the body, culture, and art. Her books have been published internationally and include the best-selling Lingerie: The Lexicon of Style. She resides in London, England.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Amphoto Books; 1St Edition edition (February 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082302511X
• ISBN-13: 978-0823025114
• Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 11 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,707,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classy, November 24, 2005

By 

EH "eleonorah" (Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Do: 100 Years of Wedding Fashion (Hardcover)

This book is definitely modern, presenting sofisticated and classy designs. It focuses on how modern designers are inspired by the past. Unfortunately there's not a lot of documentation, 98% of the dresses are modern, but brides looking for ideas will find it very useful. If you're more interested in the past, I suggest you look up Maria McBride-Mellinger.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent to browse, December 27, 2005

By 

Kimberly "MoshiDog" (Redmond WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Do: 100 Years of Wedding Fashion (Hardcover)

I got this book literally two days ago for Christmas. I love it. I had it on my amazon wish list, and somebody bought it for me. I expected the book to be much smaller -I was happily suprised at the size and thickness! As a browser, it has spectacular large photos.

I am am in the wedding industry and I did recognize some of the more recent photographs from designers' advertising campaigns. I love some of the older photographs, and old sketches. I do think there was an excellent representation of gowns from each decade. Most of the photos seem to come from the fashion industry or pop culture archives. There are only a few more photos from real everyday brides' weddings.

I plan to read the text cover to cover this weekend. So far the captions and the layout I notice are straightforward, organized chronologically. It should be a short read like any coffee table book. The book covers the decades of the 20th century. Each decade shows representations from popular culture, from everyday weddings, from marketing campagins, as well as some designers' over-the-top "visions." I did not expect it to read like "history" book like some of the other feedback. What I expected to get out of it was an inspiring visual browse, and overview of wedding fashions of the 20th century, and I was very satisfied in that respect.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous, but heavy on the last 20 years, July 12, 2006

By 

Stacey P. (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Do: 100 Years of Wedding Fashion (Hardcover)

This beautiful, full color books features stunningly photographed dresses of all shapes, sizes and colors with a well written and extensive history of gowns and related traditions. The photo spreads are lavish, and not at the expense of the text of the book. But as some other reviewers have mentioned, each time period starts out with a few examples of the appropriate vintage gowns and then shifts into photos of modern gowns interpreting or inspired by that period, which is a little disappointing. Unless you're a designer or a collector this book isn't worth the nearly $90 sticker price, but if you can get it used or at the bargain price (as I did), it's a beautiful coffee table book with enough text to keep you reading for quite awhile!