Bride Chic

Long before Pinterest boards, wedding blogs, and Instagram feeds, brides turned to magazines for inspiration. Bridal salons sold the dresses, but bridal magazines sold the dream. Through their pages, generations of brides discovered the latest fashions, learned the rules of wedding etiquette, and imagined what their own wedding day might look like. In the early twentieth century, bridal fashion was featured primarily in women's magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal , Good Housekeeping , and McCall's . These publications offered wedding advice, sewing patterns, etiquette guidance, and illustrations of current bridal styles. For many women, especially those making or commissioning their own gowns, magazines served as an invaluable source of ideas and information. Photography was just starting to be enabled in the fashion magazine industry in the teens and twenties. Fashion illustration was still center stage After World War II, the wedding industry expanded rapidly, creating...