Bride Chic

source   If you're as curious as I once was, you wonder what bridal salons were like in the 1920s and 30s. Reading vintage bridal magazines for as long as I have, one realizes that there were no actual salons or specialty bridal stores back then. Long before the modern bridal boutique existed, wedding gowns were purchased much the same way women bought eveningwear and coats—through dressmakers, mail-order catalogs, and after World War I, department stores. In the years following 1918, bridal fashion became more accessible to middle-class women as urban shopping districts expanded and ready-to-wear clothing improved in quality and availability. For many brides of the 1920s, the search for a wedding dress began beneath the grand chandeliers of department stores like Macy's , Marshall Field's , and Saks Fifth Avenue rather than inside specialized bridal salons. During the 1920s, most department stores did not yet have formal “bridal departments” as we think of them today. Wed...