Evening Dress (Hardcover)

by Alexandra Black (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Be a caterpillar by day and a butterfly by night, counseled the legendary designer Coco Chanel. "Nothing could be more comfortable than a caterpillar, and nothing could be more made for love than a butterfly." This high priestess of style understood what the well-dressed woman has always known: There's something special that goes on after dark.
While daywear must be practical, versatile,
and appropriate, the evening is open for interpretation, offering designers the rare opportunity to indulge their imagination and sense of festiveness and frivolity. A tribute to fashion's highest art, Evening Dress chronicles glamorous attire from ancient times up to the latest season, featuring photographs and sketches of hundreds of exquisite gowns. A celebration of this most elegant form of the sartorial arts, this lavish edition will engage, amuse, and inspire.


About the Author
Alexandra Black has edited many books on style and design.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (November 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847826481
• ISBN-13: 978-0847826483
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 9.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #298,633 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good reference to fashion students, February 26, 2005

By	Chyna Doll (Philly, PA) - See all my reviews

I had been eyeing this book for about a month at the bookstores before i finally decided to purchase it for myself. There are lots of colorful pictures; GREAT for inspiration for fashion design students. It also has great fashion illustrations of the dresses which are also VERY helpful. There are even little tips in the description of the garments which are helpful sometimes. I am very satisfied with the purchase of this book and do reccomend it to fellow fashion students. If you like looking through Vogue for inspirations, this book has beautiful pictures.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful but disappointing, July 3, 2007

By	Martin S. Williams "Honest Injun" (London, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I would absolutely agree that this book is beautiful, lavishly illustrated and elegantly produced. The text is well-written and informative, too.

However, as a self-styled 'history of the evening dress', it is far from comprehensive and does much less than the title suggests. The author deals with pre-twentieth century fashions - everything from the Ancient Egyptian to the late-Victorian - in what is, in effect, merely an extended prologue. Early designers like Charles Worth and Rose Bertin are skimmed over or ignored entirely. Nor do the illustrations in this section particularly excite me - one only needs to think of the sheer volume of exquisite fashion plates and period portraits by the likes of Lawrence, Winterhalter, Sargent and Boldini which could have been employed so much more effectively than the images appearing here.

The main body of the book only deals in detail with post-WWI fashion - each decade, from the Twenties onwards, merits an individual chapter. Although, for the simple reason of space, this makes sense, I'm frankly incredulous that the elegant and extravagant Edwardian Era - the age of Poiret, Lucile and the Callot Soeurs - rates only the briefest of mentions.

High quality images of vintage gowns from top-notch museum collections are employed throughout the book but the choice is once again both disappointing and limited - I'm familiar with many of the collections in question and the dresses featured are neither beautiful or inspiring, particularly in relation to some of the gems that were by-passed. Ultimately, however, this could simply be a matter of personal taste. More irritatingly, in a book that professes to be a 'history', an inordinate amount of space is devoted to contemporary takes on the flapper frock and Seventies disco number. This is all very well in an issue of 'Vogue' but I'd have liked to have seen much more emphasis on what was ACTUALLY worn back then, rather than on modern interpretations.

'Evening Dress' will look lovely on a coffee table. But, as a serious history, it falls far short of the mark.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Its so Pretty, December 5, 2006

By	K. Gadani (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm in love with this book. Every time I look at it I want to drop everything and join the fashion industry. It is also a great source of inspiration for anything.