Coffee Table Book of: Wedding Attire (Paperback)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: Wedding Attire is a large format book of wedding attire, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: gowns of every line on the dress form and the hanger, veils and trains, lace and beading seen close, morning dress and evening suits, and the traditional wedding dress of many lands, from the lehenga and the sari to the shiromuku, the hanbok, kente and the kilt.

The gowns stand alone in bare, quiet rooms: a ball gown with its full skirt held out on stiff net, an A line in ivory satin, a mermaid flaring below the knee, a slim crepe sheath, a soft chiffon gown with an empire waist, a tea length gown with a tulle skirt and a high collared gown of the 1800s in an attic, with the steel hoops of a crinoline, a train bustled up for dancing and another fanned out across a stone floor.

Veils hang from pegs and lie on velvet, slate and lawn: a long veil of plain tulle, a lace mantilla, a short blusher on a silver comb and a birdcage of open net.

For the groom there is morning dress with its tailed coat, waistcoat, striped trousers, cravat and grey top hat, a dinner jacket with silk faced lapels, a navy three piece suit, cufflinks and a bow tie, patent evening shoes, a white rose buttonhole and an unfinished bespoke coat held by white basting stitches.

Between them lie the quiet places where weddings are held: a chapel door strewn with petals, a rose arch on a lawn at dawn, an arch of white cloth on an evening beach, a sunlit ballroom, stone steps in a summer garden and a meadow at golden evening, with a few brides and grooms seen small and from behind, the dress itself always the subject.

Short notes run through the book, on how gowns and suits are cut and made, what each traditional garment is called and how it is worn, and the old customs behind the veil, the train and the morning coat: cloth shears often have a bent handle, so the lower blade can lie flat on the table as it cuts, a lehenga is a long full skirt, worn with a fitted blouse called a choli and a long scarf, the dupatta, a mermaid gown fits closely down to the knee and then flares out, like the tail of a fish, and at a first fitting a bespoke coat is held together only by loose white basting stitches.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a paperback.