Bride Chic

  Picture this: WWII is over. The couture houses of Paris that had been closed during the Occupation have reopened.  After years of austerity, designers now lavished large quantities of costly, stunning fabrics on their clients. Luxe satins and peau de soie replaced the serviceable, utilitarian fabrics women had grown tired of during the war years. The post war era marked the return of haute couture.  One of my favorite periods of fashion is this 4-year period right after WWII. "The New Look" hadn't quite shown up, and women were still wearing hats with bows and sprays of floral arrangements perched upon the head--sometimes at an angle, eyes covered in a wisp or veil of netting.  Always mining for a new idea, I still make a point of watching movies from this period (1946 through 1950), no matter what they're about (murders, heists, comedies, backstage musicals). It doesn't matter what they're about; I know if Hollywood made it, a studio designer whipped up so...