MY MOTHER'S WEDDING DRESS

My latest read is "My Mother's Wedding Dress: The Life and Afterlife of Clothes" by Justine Picardie. I've not made huge inroads having only started it on the train to work yesterday. This morning Justine writes about how everyone remembers their first dress. Hers was a fairy dress hand-made by her mother when she was 3. This had me in a flummox for all of about 30 minutes as I could not for the life of me remember much of life at this age, much less what I used to wear! Then, in a flash light of remembrance, it came back to me. I DID have a favourite first dress, although much later than aged 3: more like aged 6. It was a brown patchwork sundress with ties around the shoulders and smocking across the front. I loved that dress. I remember wanting to wear it all the time. From recollection it was a hand-me-down dress but then again most of my clothes at that age were, either from my cousin or sister.


Here's a review I pulled from t'net:

"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."

A brilliant, fasinating read so far.