A fascinating insight into fashion and a thought provoking read. Justine Picardie begins by exploring her family history through clothes and fashions that she, her sister and mother have worn over the years and their feelings about them but this then leads onto a much deeper analysis of our relationship with what we wear and how we feel about our clothes. She looks back at literary references to clothes from writers such as the Bronte sisters, Emily Dickinson and Rosamond Lehmann and then woven into this multi-stranded theme are fascinating encounters and interviews with Donatella Versace, Karl Lagerfeld, the supermodel Erin O’Connor to name a few. I loved Justine’s lists of tips of dos and don’ts in fashion.
In this unique treasure trove of fashion, family reminiscences and literature, Justine Picardie, the bestselling author of the acclaimed memoir If the Spirit Moves You, unravels the reasons why we care so much about clothes.
She examines the ways in which her own family fashioned itself through the clothes that they wore - from her mother’s black wedding dress to her first party frock, a translucent winged fairy outfit that provided Picardie with an early lesson in what we uncover, and what we cover up.
By drawing on her encounters with supermodels and the designers Karl Lagerfeld and Donatella Versace, she contemplates the material of our lives: the white satin and feathers and little black numbers with which we armour ourselves to survive - and to thrive.
Described as ‘a sparky and original book’ by the Daily Mail, and ‘highly stylish and unusual’ by the Daily Telegraph, My Mother’s Wedding Dress is a thought-provoking riffle through the family closet that shows that mothballed clothes can be as revealing as any carefully concealed skeleton.
Justine Picardie writes for Vogue and the Daily Telegraph. Her critically acclaimed non-fiction memoir, If the Spirit Moves You, was a Picador bestseller in 2002. Her first novel, Wish I May, was published by Picador in 2004. She lives in London with her husband and two sons.
