When Princess Anne married Mark Phillips in November 1973 at Westminster Abbey, she wore a Tudor-inspired dress with a real 1970s flavour. Who would have guessed those two styles would be a good combination..? With it’s high neckline and long draped medieval sleeves, it was elegant and simple in comparison to other highly-embellished royal wedding(…)
It’s amazing considering Liz Taylor got married 8 times that she managed to make a fashion statement every single time! This is one of my least favourite of her wedding outfits, partly because I still struggle to love 70s fashion (too many bad fashion choices as a child) but I had the most fun drawing(…)
50s blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield was married 3 times before her tragic death at the age of just 34. For her second wedding to bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay she wore this sensational skin-tight dress covered with lace and sequins. (He proposed with a whopping 10-carat diamond ring which cost $5.000 at the time – something like(…)
When Gene Tierney married costume designer Oleg Cassini in 1941 she was planning to wear this amazing lace dress, designed especially for her by her husband-to-be. Ultimately though they didn’t have time to get the dress made, as eloped to Las Vegas to get married to escape the disapproval of her family, who opposed her(…)
When 21-year-old Mia Farrow married Frank Sinatra (who was 50 at the time) in 1966 she wore an white skirt suit with a bow at the waist. The boxy cropped jacket had sleeves which finished at the elbow and crystal buttons. Teamed with her famous pixie cut hair she was a truly modern 60s bride.(…)
When Elizabeth Taylor married Richard Burton for the first time after a tumultuous affair on the set of Cleopatra she chose as her wedding gown a canary yellow chiffon dress. Designed by Cleopatra costume designer Irene Sharaff, Taylor paired the dress with hyacinths and lilies of the valley woven into her hair, which was plaited(…)
When Ava Gardner married Frank Sinatra after months of media speculation the world went wild. This was Gardner’s third marriage and she had long been branded a femme fatale by the press. Sinatra also came in for a lot of flack for leaving his wife Nancy for her, both by the Hollywood Establishment and the(…)
If you want to talk fairy tale weddings then Grace Kelly‘s wedding to Prince Rainier III of Monaco was the real deal. One of the world’s biggest movie stars marrying a prince in a bonefide Royal wedding? You can’t beat that! Of course once she married into the Royal Family and became a princess she(…)
The wedding of Wallis Simpson to Edward, Duke of Windsor in 1937 was one of the most scandalous marriages of the 20th Century. In order to marry ‘the woman I love’ who was an American 2-time divorcee and therefore seen as totally unsuitable to become Queen, King Edward VIII was forced to abdicate the throne.
Tomorrow Queen Elizabeth II overtakes Queen Victoria as the longest serving monarch in British History. I was born in the 1970s so she’s always seemed very much an older woman to me, so I thought it might be nice to see some photos of her as a young woman. I particularly love the photos of(…)
Have you heard the amazing story of this vintage 1950s wedding dress? It was anonymously donated to the charity St. Gemma’s Hospice (who are based in Yorkshire, UK) with the following note pinned to it: “I wish any lady who takes this dress to have a life with her loved one 56 years like I(…)
Marilyn Monroe was married three times, once as a sixteen-year-old brunette in the 1940s, and twice more at the height of her stardom. You don’t hear much about her wedding outfits, and I think that’s because she never chose to wear a classic wedding dress. Actually she did wear a traditional white wedding gown for(…)
I don’t profess to be any kind of historical costume expert, but I do have an interest in vintage fashions and I love a good wedding dress. Because of this I’ve spent hours both looking at old wedding photos and watching Downton Abbey, and it strikes me that they don’t seem to tally at all!(…)
I thought I’d indulge in a little wedding nostalgia from the 1920s today, partly because I was wondering when the next series of Downton Abbey is due to start. (I’m guessing in the Autumn once the weather has turned and the summer of sport is over!) I love the styles of the 1920, these wedding(…)
Is your Facebook feed full of people announcing engagements at the moment? Christmas and New Year certainly seem to be popular times to pop the question, and if you’re one of the lucky people who now have a wedding to look forward to you’re going to need a dress. Vintage wedding dresses have surged in(…)
After the end of World War 1, the 1920s were a time of optimism and exuberance. Fashions for women were more relaxed than ever before, suiting a slim athletic figure in contrast to the tight corseting of previous decades. 1920s wedding styles are having a resurgence at the moment, partly perhaps because of The Great(…)
This is a real gem of a book – I wish I’d had it when I was planning my wedding all those years ago! It tells you everything you need to know if you want to plan a vintage themed wedding, including the wedding fashions of each decade illustrated with vintage photos and real-life brides(…)
It’s wedding season, so it got me thinking about how lovely vintage bridal styles are. When I got married nearly 11 years ago, I wore a 30s-inspired wedding dress – which I still love, but I love fifties style bridal gowns too. This vintage 50s dress in particular is so pretty! Clockwise from left: Faux(…)