Made for Each Other [Paperback]

Bronwyn Cosgrave (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 21, 2008

The red carpet on Oscar night is the film industry's own catwalk, a place where talent, beauty and style vie for attention. Here, fashion expert Bronwyn Cosgrave gives us the stories from behind the parade of dresses. From the splendour of Vivien Leigh to the war-era chic of Ingrid Bergman, from Grace Kelly's glacial glamour to Nicole Kidman's groundbreaking Christian Dior by John Galliano, Cosgrave's detail-laden insider chronicle traces the trends of the ceremony from its inception in 1929 to the present: a must-have for every film fan and fashion lover.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the first Academy Awards event in 1928, Janet Gaynor had received advance word of her "best actress" award for three silent films the year before. For the ceremony she wore a store-bought Peter Pan–collared dress, but for future events she sought the advice of designer Gilbert Adrian, whom she married. In this entertaining look at the history of Academy Award fashion, Cosgrove, who covered the Oscars for British Vogue and the BBC, demonstrates that the Gaynor-Adrian pairing was the start of many between star designers and actresses—Givenchy and Audrey Hepburn, Edith Head and Grace Kelly, Thea van Runkle and Faye Dunaway, Scaasi and Streisand, Halston and Liza, Bob Mackie and Cher. Earlier screen queens (and their producers and minders) had quickly learned that a drop-dead appearance at the awards ceremony led to invaluable glam photos and inches in print: Carole Lombard, Vivien Leigh, Garbo and especially perfectionist Marlene Dietrich who, after experimenting, turned to Dior. Cosgrave could have simply served up a deep dish of anecdotes, gossip and tales of rivalry, but she has gone several steps further to deliver a carefully researched and footnoted book that belongs in every Hollywood historian's library and is sure to be consulted for a long time to come. 90 b&w photos and illus., 12-page color insert (not seen by PW). (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

'The definitive history of Oscar fashion ... this book is as much a fascinating account of Hollywood as it is of its fashions' Vogue 'An entertaining blow-by-blow account of who wore what on the night' Independent 'The mountain of minutiae she has assembled should amuse fans of both filmland and fashion' Evening Standard 'A wonderfully entertaining account of the drama surrounding the ceremony' Sunday Express

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Clearway Logistics Phase 2-3 (January 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747592829
• ISBN-13: 978-0747592822
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,532,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bronwyn Cosgrave is an author specializing in fashion history and a style commentator contributing to leading publications including the international editions of Vogue and Vanity Fair. She has written and presented for BBC Radio 4 and BBC One. Bronwyn Cosgrave lectures frequently and also consults for luxury brands.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read but full of typos, February 27, 2007

By 

New York Foodie - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Made for Each Other: Fashion and the Academy Awards (Hardcover)

I agree with a previous review that this book would have benefited from a thorough editing. Michael Kors for Celine designed Rene Russo's costumes in The Thomas Crowne Affair, not Randolph Duke. Gwyneth Paltrow won in 1999, not 1991. Hogs and Heifers, where Julia Roberts danced on the bar and left her bra nailed to the ceiling is in the Meatpacking District, not Tribeca. Nothing too serious, but irritating nonetheless. There are some great stories told here and the later part of the book that deals with the jockeying for position of designers to dress particular actresses is fascinating. But where are some of the more famous Oscar flops and hits? Kim Bassinger's self-designed dress. Demi Moore's hot pants? Halley Berry's Reem Acra? Kate Winset's huge necklace after Titanic? Uma's milkmaid dress? Another 30 pages would have been appreciated!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading, February 18, 2007

By 

RosaG (Wading River, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Made for Each Other: Fashion and the Academy Awards (Hardcover)

I enjoyed the stories behind the story. This book is well researched, but not very well written. The style is choppy and lacks flow. Sometimes it gets confusing and one needs to re-read a sentence to understand whom it is referring to. This book would have certainly benefited from a thorough editing. It gets worst towards the end, when it becomes more about the gossip than about the fashion itself.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written and edited., March 1, 2007

By 

S. R. Staseson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Made for Each Other: Fashion and the Academy Awards (Hardcover)

This book is very weak; it is poorly written and badly (if at all) copy edited.
I would not recommend this for anyone who is used to reading well written, grammatically
clean, well researched work. It is an infuriating and exhausting read because of
all the typos and all the sentences that just do not make any sense.
It makes me wonder about the quality of the research and anecdotal comments.
It is shocking that it was published and internationally distributed.