Ever since Prohibition turned cocktails into the life of the Jazz Age party, the cocktail frock has been a perennial sartorial staple. A permanent fixture in fashion magazine editorials, it is still being reinvented by fashion designers, and has long been featured on the silver screen - from Louise Brooks, to Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, and out on the town for a drink (or five) with the lovelies from Sex and the City.
In her new book, Style.com's Senior Features Editor, Laird Borrelli-Persson, delves into the way the cocktail dress has mirrored changes in society and women's roles, chronicling the history of the dress with looks from the runways and editorial spreads, magazine covers, luscious fashion illustrations, movie stills, quotes from literature, photos of icons like Jacqueline Kennedy, witty cocktail-themed quips, and photographs by designers like Cynthia Rowley and Isaac Mizrahi. Each page also includes eyecandy from the 30s (Elsa Schiaparelli; Madeleine Vionnet) to the present day (Marc Jacobs; Zac Posen), as well as Christian Dior - who is credited with coining the term.
THE COCKTAIL DRESS (Collins Design; 2009) is available at Amazon.com.
- Lesley Scott
