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Usually ships in 1 business days | | Only 1 left in stock, order soon! | | | | | | Be a caterpillar by day and a butterfly by night, counseled the legendary designer Coco Chanel. "Nothing could be more comfortable than a caterpillar, and nothing could be more made for love than a butterfly." This high priestess of style understood what the well-dressed woman has always known: There's something special that goes on after dark.
While daywear must be practical, versatile,
and appropriate, the evening is open for interpretation, offering designers the rare opportunity to indulge their imagination and sense of festiveness and frivolity. A tribute to fashion's highest art, Evening Dress chronicles glamorous attire from ancient times up to the latest season, featuring photographs and sketches of hundreds of exquisite gowns. A celebration of this most elegant form of the sartorial arts, this lavish edition will engage, amuse, and inspire.
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Alexandra Black | | Hardcover: | 336 pages | | Publisher: | Rizzoli | | Publication Date: | November 13, 2004 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0847826481 | | Product Length: | 9.6 inches | | Product Width: | 1.2 inches | | Product Height: | 11.3 inches | | Product Weight: | 4.75 pounds | | Package Length: | 11.42 inches | | Package Width: | 9.84 inches | | Package Height: | 1.18 inches | | Package Weight: | 4.41 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 6 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 6 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 found the following review helpful:
 Beautiful but disappointing Jul 04, 2007
By M. Williams
I would absolutely agree that this book is beautiful, lavishly illustrated and elegantly produced. The text is well-written and informative, too.
However, as a self-styled 'history of the evening dress', it is far from comprehensive and does much less than the title suggests. The author deals with pre-twentieth century fashions - everything from the Ancient Egyptian to the late-Victorian - in what is, in effect, merely an extended prologue. Early designers such as Rose Bertin and Charles Worth, who were hugely influential and significant in their day, are skimmed over or ignored entirely. Nor do the illustrations in this section particularly excite me - one only needs to think of the sheer volume of exquisite fashion plates and period portraits by the likes of Lawrence, Winterhalter, Sargent and Boldini which could have been employed so much more effectively than the images appearing here.
The main body of the book only deals in detail with post-WWI fashion - each decade, from the Twenties onwards, merits an individual chapter. Although, for the simple reason of space, this makes sense, I'm frankly incredulous that the extravagant Edwardian Era - the age of Poiret, Lucile and the Callot Soeurs - rates only the briefest of mentions.
High quality images of vintage gowns from top-notch museum collections are employed throughout the book but the choice is once again both disappointing and limited - I'm familiar with many of the collections in question and the dresses featured are neither beautiful or inspiring, particularly in relation to some of the gems that were by-passed. Ultimately, however, this could simply be a matter of personal taste. More irritatingly, in a book that professes to be a 'history', an inordinate amount of space is devoted to contemporary takes on the flapper frock and Seventies disco number. This is all very well in an issue of 'Vogue' but I'd have liked to have seen much more emphasis on what was ACTUALLY worn back then, rather than on modern interpretations.
'Evening Dress' will look lovely on a coffee table. But, as a serious history, it falls far short of the mark.
19 of 20 found the following review helpful:
 good reference to fashion students Feb 26, 2005
By Chyna Doll
I had been eyeing this book for about a month at the bookstores before i finally decided to purchase it for myself. There are lots of colorful pictures; GREAT for inspiration for fashion design students. It also has great fashion illustrations of the dresses which are also VERY helpful. There are even little tips in the description of the garments which are helpful sometimes. I am very satisfied with the purchase of this book and do reccomend it to fellow fashion students. If you like looking through Vogue for inspirations, this book has beautiful pictures.
7 of 9 found the following review helpful:
ooh, la la plus Jan 29, 2006
By Clinta B. Ingraham
the book was excitment plus. all the glamouous dresses and the models. It is a superb glamour book. Any one who love clothes, fashion and style should have this book. the Great day of the glamour dresses is almost extinct. This might bring it back. Why would a woman not want to look like the pages of this elegant book? clinta ingraham
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Pretty but flawed Apr 08, 2012
By Dressmaker
This book is very pretty, but as a previous reviewer writes, it's disappointing. It focuses on the 1920s through the 1990s, but it is basically a highlights reel, with little new material, and lots of quotes from Vogue magazine along the way. Among other flaws, it needed a fact checker:
--"Jean Louis...designed some of the sexiest gowns of the 1930s for Rita Hayworth in Gilda." But the movie Gilda was made and released in 1946. And if you've ever seen the movie, you couldn't possibly mistake the WWII-era fashions for Depression-era fashions.
--In the chapter on the 1950s: "Rita Hayworth had worn a Dior dress to the premiere of her film Gilda, helping to popularize the New Look in Hollywood." But Dior debuted in 1947, and the movie Gilda premiered in 1946.
--"When [Studio 54] celebrated its fiftieth birthday in 1978, Elizabeth Taylor was there celebrating her fiftieth birthday on the same night." Elizabeth Taylor was born in 1932. She was 46 in 1978.
Mistakes like these make me wonder how much of the rest of the book might contain errors.
The choice of photos is often odd and disappointing--a serious weakness in a "coffee-table" photo book. Instead of a photo of a real Halston design--how hard could that be to find?--we get a picture of a Hugo Boss dress that "captures the Halston spirit." The chapter on the 1960s is especially weak. The author could have used any of millions of photos of cool, mod, genuine 1960s fashions, but instead we get photo after photo of contemporary fashions that "capture the late 1960s mood." You can find better photos of 1960s fashions on the Internet.
Buy this only at a discount and don't expect a rigorous history of the topic.
The Perfect Gift for the Lady on the Social Circuit Sep 07, 2007
By Sharon Sweeney
The book is exquisite! I own one and have given it to friends as a birthday gift - and they all love it.
See all 6 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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