This book follows the structure of my previous publications How to Read a Dress (2017/2021) and How to Read a Suit (2020). Both were born out of a wish to create an academic, yet accessible guide to ‘reading’ historical fashion, teaching the reader to recognise and date changing silhouettes, and to understand them in a social, cultural and political context. The How to Read series could be applied to so many facets of fashion history, but I was especially keen to tackle wedding dresses for its third instalment. For someone who enjoys the narratives that invariably accompany many pieces of clothing, bridalwear offered extra fascination to me through the fantasy and promises that envelop it. This interest only grew after a period working in a small bridal store in Scotland while I was a postgraduate student. I was intrigued by the ceremony and expectations surrounding appointments, the influence of family members, the concept of a ‘dream dress’ and the enormous stock put into ‘getting it right’. Hearing brides describe what they wanted, and helping them as they tried dress after dress, taught me a lot about the contemporary bridal industry and mechanics of the most popular styles. It also alerted me to designers’ interpretations of history, and consequently what brides were taught to recognise as ‘Victorian’ or ‘Renaissance’— but which often bore very little similarity to those terms.  In these ways my curiosity was piqued about the experiences of women over the centuries, and whether the same investment and associations had always existed. 

Therefore this book will, I hope, appeal to real-life brides seeking inspiration for their own outfits, especially those who want to integrate an element of historical or vintage flair. On a scholarly level it pertains – alongside fashion history – to material culture, aesthetic theory, consumer culture and history, ethnography, gender studies and even theories relating to intergenerational trauma and nostalgia.