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My Mother's Wedding Dress: The Life and Afterlife of Clothes
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Product Description
Beginning with the story of her mother's wedding dress, a perfect black French cocktail dress bought in 1960, writer and former Vogue editor Justine Picardie affirms what all of us may have suspected: that the real value of our wardrobes lies in the history and associations woven into our clothes. Combining tales of her own family and friends, intimate stories from the fashion business, and reflections on clothes in literature and pop culture, Picardie uncovers the truths that lie underneath what we wear. She reflects on the strange disappearance of garments we love; the allure of uniforms; the house that Chanel built; the bridal and ghostly qualities of women in white; the fate of a ring belonging to Charlotte Brontë; the power of scarlet clothing; how Donatella Versace, Karl Lagerfeld, and Claude Montana dress themselves; and how the clothes we inherit from loved ones link us to the departed. Rich with fascinating stories from the public and private worlds of fashion, My Mother's Wedding Dress is a gorgeously written book about what clothes cover up, and what they reveal.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1414309 in Books
- Published on: 2005-01
- Original language: English
- Binding: Hardcover
- 239 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A former British Vogue editor turned novelist (Wish I May) offers a stylish treatment of the significance of clothes to their owners and admirers. A black wedding dress belonging to Picardie's mother circa 1960 became the author's perfect little black dress 20 years later and serves as the elegant entrée to Picardie's narrative. Picardie devotes a chapter to each item: the wedding dress, cast off by her divorced mum, was added to the author's secondhand college wardrobe, a "rag-tag bundle of other people's identities"; a pair of plastic trousers, purchased in 1977, signified a transitory rebellion; a velvet jacket belonging to various relatives segues into a meditation on the frustrating elements of the unfinished story. Most poignant is the author's exploration of haunted clothing, seen in literary examples from Daphne du Maurier and Elizabeth Bowen, and exemplified in clothing favored by her terminally ill sister and abandoned in death. Picardie is amusingly digressive, moving from a discourse on the Gap's ability to bridge fashion and functionality to Zelda Fitzgerald's clothing memory as a grasp of her dwindling sanity. Picardie is also a terrific journalist, offering a shimmering chapter on the profane and sacred aspects of "scarlet women" and sharp interviews with Donnatella Versace and Karl Lagerfeld. (May 1)
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From Booklist
This is both a narrative devoted to fashion and its emotional underpinnings and the story of journalist-author (Wish I May, 2004) Picardie's investigations into the lives of family and friends, including some poignant reminiscences about her late sister, Ruth. Simple concepts--the Coco Chanel little black dress--conjure up personal tales, numbered lists of to-dos/nots (how to wear red lipstick is one), and interviews with the famous and near celebrities. In fact, she prepares readers well for those conversations; in a face-to-face interview with designer Claude Montana, she prefaces an awkward, stilted monologue with notes about his muse and late wife model Wallis Franken, and her suicide--then broaches the forbidden question. Outfits resurrect intriguing memories--pleather trousers in 1977, a coveted feather coat, long-lasting clothes from the Gap, and a school uniform of blue-check gingham. Underneath fascinating interviews and forays into Versacedoms lies a wondrous tribute to her sister--and to the feelings that clothes evoke. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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