The Wedding Dress: 300 Years of Bridal Fashions

Author(s): Edwina Ehrman

Fashion

Accompanying an exhibition at Te Papa, The Wedding Dress: 300 Years of Bridal Fashions draws on the Victoria and Albert Museum's superb collection of fashionable wedding dresses, as well as photographs, letters, memoirs, newspaper accounts and genealogical research to explore the history of the wedding dress and the traditions that have developed around it, from 1700 to the present day. Focusing on the white wedding dress, which first became fashionable in the early nineteenth century, the book considers the way couturiers and designers have challenged and refreshed the traditional white wedding dress and the influence of the wedding industry and its origins in the commercialization of the wedding in Victorian Britain. The Wedding Dress is not only about costume, but also about the cultivation of the image of the bride. This book is a glorious tribute to an exquisite, stylish, glamorous gown, the romance of its evolution and the splendour of its design.


Product Information

Introduction


Silver and White 1700-90


The White Wedding Dress 1790-1840: A working-class wedding


Commercializing the White Wedding 1840-1914: Too old for white


Towards the Modern 1914-45: To wed in red


Ready-to-Wear 1945-90: A civil wedding


Choosing White 1990s to the present


Wedding Garments in the V&A


Glossary


Notes


Further Reading


Acknowledgements

General Fields

  • : 9781877385834
  • : Te Papa Press
  • : Te Papa Press
  • : August 2011
  • : 310mm X 240mm
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Edwina Ehrman
  • : Hardback
  • : 392.5409
  • : 208
  • : 185 colour illustrations