The Philadelphia Inquirer
Today Magazine
Sunday, Spring 2001

“in store” by Patricia McLaughlin

“Strapless, strapless, strapless!” Bob Mackie said in mock shock when somebody asked him about wedding gowns at a recent Moore College of Art and Design confab. The man who dressed Cher in sequins and precious little else recalled a time when a woman who showed up at the altar in a strapless dress would have been stoned. With actual rocks, he meant.

Which is not to say we’ve lost all sense of modesty and decorum. Dressmaker Janice Martin reports that some clients resort to custom dress because the strapless gowns they find in stores don’t come up high enough under their arms to suit them. A popular Jessica McClintock dress comes with its own shrug. And the Alfred Angelo dress that graced the cover of the blockbuster spring issue of Bride’s magazine comes with optional spaghetti straps and an organza shawl.

Meanwhile, the bustle, that 130-year-old Victorian survival, is also very big. And the real news is color, but usually not much of it: Imagine a pale mauve underlining, or clear glass beads applied with pale pink thread, or a touch of pastel embroidery. Next trend: Two-piece wedding dresses. (Will this mean bare-midriff brides?)

(Under the sketch)
Silk crepe dress lined in pink silk organza, overlaid with silver and mauve Chantilly lace and beaded in pale pink, $4,200 from Janice Martin Couture.