Marriage À la Mode: Three Centuries of Wedding Dress

This book traces the development of wedding attire from the silver and white brocades of eighteenth-century formal, aristocratic weddings to the elegant crinoline revival of the late 1950s. Whenever possible, Shelley Tobin focuses on gowns and accessories where she can trace the provenance of the wearer, or the maker, to provide a social history of the past 300 years. The accoutrements of the brides reflected the luxury trades of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but it was not until the 1850s that the white wedding became an established tradition. Even then, it was not available to everyone. Although formal, the wedding gown followed fashion and was often recycled as a suitable dress for the first presentation at court as a married woman. Wedding veils, if not passed down through the family, might also be used in another form, particularly as christening robes during the early twentieth century. The trend for producing costume dramas for stage and screen (e.g., Sense and Sensibility directed by Ang Lee, 1995) has seen the recreation of a number of period styles, and these in turn have influenced today's deigners.