OLD HOLLYWOOD INSPIRATION

Another gem I unearthed from my inspiration file.  This image harks back to the 1930s by one of Hollywood's great designers.  I just don't know which.  Ordinarily I make detailed notations on the movie, the actress and designer.  The gorgeousness of this creation is the body-hugging evening gown silhouette and hand made Callas gracing Annabella's shoulders (at least I know the actress).  My version of this gown would be in an understated matte crepe with 2-3 Callas at the shoulder of an asymmetrical neckline . . . what do you think?

VINTAGE MAGAZINES PART 1

I love my copy of Bride's Magazine dating back to Fall/Winter 1939. Vintageholic that I am, you can imagine how much inspiration I've picked up studying each page with all the concentration of a scholar. Fashion-wise, 1939 was an interesting year. Gone With the Wind, just released, had incredible influence on evening and bridal with stores rolling out antebellum silhouettes in yards of taffeta and satin. By today's standards, the description on the ad below for The Blum Store in Philadelphia would scare more brides off than sell them . . . .

---The Victorian Bride has a wedding ring waist. Look like the young Victoria to be the most daring bride of the season, actually! Show off your corseted waist in a wee, wasp bodice and hooped circumference of corded moire. Conceal your arms to the wrist in moire with rose point inserts. Pose for your wedding pictures demure in cap and snood! Ask for Margot in Debutante and Wedding Embassy--Second Floor---

--Here's another: All eyes are trained on m'lady's miniature waist, her alluring round hipline, her proudly held head and shoulders. Bodices are molded skin tight. Skirts are most often extremely bouffant . . . .--

Scanning these ads, I realize how times have changed. Back then the independent bridal salon as we know it now didn't exist. It was the era of the toney department store, the primary place you went to get anything, including gowned. With the birth of the bridal registry at Marshall Fields in 1924, other department stores followed suit. By the 1930s, stores vied to keep customers--especially the bride and her entourage under one roof. They boasted of specialized consultants as well as registry helpers, all in house. Here's a sampling from The H. & S. Pogue Company in Cincinati: Pogue's Bridal Service is yours to use. To help choose your trousseau, your wedding gown , your bridesmaid dresses. To relieve you of the thousands of details that must be looked after with the greatest care to assure you the beautiful serenity that's your right as a bride . . .to make your wedding the perfect thing it should be.

Most top drawer gowns at depression's end ran about two hundred dollars. The one above is stunning in simple details, designed by Joseph Whitehead for Altman. Few designers took credit wholly for their own work as most of any stature were connected to a reputable department store. Those who worked independently were known as having dressmaking establishments and mostly did custom work. The satin gown in the top photo simply credits Sak's Fifth Avenue for the design; this tells us in-house designers were hired to create samples of these gowns that eventually were made to order for each bride. Back then a store's rep carried more weight than the designer names they carried. In the end, places like Bergdorf's took kudos for creating a certain 'bridal look'.

THE LONG VEIL MYSTIQUE

Depends on where you live, but I find this time of year when weddings move indoors, brides tend to go traditional donning the full regalia of a classic bride. Topping of a look often includes a long, flowing, veil. So what you ask is considered a long veil? Let's start at the ‘finger tip’ length and work all the way down to the twenty-five foot cathedral. Long veils convey a romantic mood via all that added gossamer sheer.  . . . . .

Long Veil Lengths

Fingertip-Most popular length; can be worn by nearly every figure type with most silhouettes.

           Waltz-Falls anywhere between knee and ankle.
          Chapel-Considered formal. Extends about a two feet beyond the hemline.
          Cathedral-Most formal. Extends three feet or more beyond the hem.
          Double Tier-Two layers, typically the shorter one a blusher but not always.  

 

Long Veil Styles

Pouf-Pictured directly below, width of veil is gathered at the crown and can be attached to a headpiece. Generally made out of tulle or English netting.
Dropped-Second picture below. This veil is actually dropped onto the head in a single layer of tulle or lace; often bordered with lace or ribbon. The Mantilla is a type of dropped veil.

All veils and gowns by Amy-Jo Tatum Bride

Top 2 photos by S1 Studio.  White Chantilly lace mantilla

                                3rd photos by Stellar Q Danielo: Ivory tulle cathedral length veil

                        Last three photos by Piximage: White two layered waltz veil outlined in ribbon/ ivory          Chantilly lace mantilla/Single layer cathedral legnth veil dappled in Chantilly lace appliques

REMEMBERING THE GREAT PRAIRIE REVIVAL OF THE 1980S

Laura Ashley 1983

Lately I've been thinking a lot about cottons and how hard it is to find quality stuff.  So you'll find me traipsing down memory lane here.  While Jessica McClintock revived the Prairie Gown with her Gunne Sax line in the seventies, the more haute couture versions of Prairie came to us through the stunning creations of  British designer, Laura Ashley.  She used finer imported cottons and voiles and in the images above and below we can see perfect examples of this look at it's best.  Vintage elements were really brought out in the accessories like the straw hat and crochet gloves below. 

Laura Ashley 1986

Today there is very little in the Prairie look that has survived except for the fact the dresses remain to-the-floor and in cotton.  Contemporary brides find the high collars restricting and with all the added ruffles and laces, the overall look rather babyish.  In the photos above and below, certain elements of Prairie Revival are updated for today's bride who has embraced it as a vintage look . . .I for one love the intricate strips of lace running vertically and horizontally all over the blouse and skirts.  Dresses like these are the perfect opportunity to wear the best imported cottons you can find.

The Prairie look updated circa 2010

Photos by Berit New York

SeaJae - Cirque Studios

GOING FOR UNFORGETABLE DETAILS

 Enzoani

Haute couture holds a myriad of imaginative details that make a gown or wedding ensemble special. The most important gown of your life will most likely hold one out-of-the-ordinary detail that gives it a certain panache.  Often, details are found in techniques done by hand that machines, no matter how advanced can not duplicate.  Below is a collection of my favs . . .

Enzoani.

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