This delightful little book takes readers on a tour of fabulous dresses through the ages, as collected by the socialite Doris Darnell. Her collections contains dresses spanning a 200-year range, and contains examples of every major style influence from ready to wear to couture over the modern and pre-modern time periods. Each dress is accompanied by a short story that tells of a memory about the dress by the previous owner, which gives the book a nostalgic and fairytale quality.

Instead of having an accompanying photo of each dress (as would be the norm in most coffee table fashion tomes), each story is paired with an illustration of the dress in question by the talented Grant Cowan, which gives the book a sense of uniqueness and originality. If any less talented artist had undertaken this task I am not sure that success would have been guaranteed, but Cowan's sense of line, colour, and detail suited the whimsical but realistic tone of the stories and the dresses. ( )

Well, this was definitely not what I expected. It wasn't bad, just different. From blurbs I had seen before reading, I thought this would be a narrative about the dresses in the collection and the woman/women who wore them, and would involve photographs, personal tidbits, etc. Instead every page features a very rough/loosely-drawn rendering and a super short bit of random information. Sometimes the info/text IS a short story or personal snippet about the dress and/or its former mistress, but mos...more Well, this was definitely not what I expected. It wasn't bad, just different. From blurbs I had seen before reading, I thought this would be a narrative about the dresses in the collection and the woman/women who wore them, and would involve photographs, personal tidbits, etc. Instead every page features a very rough/loosely-drawn rendering and a super short bit of random information. Sometimes the info/text IS a short story or personal snippet about the dress and/or its former mistress, but most of the time it either gives just enough information to make it infuriating that is stops there, or (more often), is something that is utterly random and does not seem to fit well with the dress. If I had known what it was like going in, I would have liked it better I think, but as it stands, I am a bit disappointed ... ( )

Charlotte Smith inherited a collection of beautiful vintage clothing from her godmother, Doris Darnell. Her godmother collected not only the clothing but the stories of the people who wore them. At first, Charlotte was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do with all of the clothing (over 3,000 pieces), but once she read the stories, she knew she had to share the collection somehow. She couldn’t bear the thought of it being broken up, so she didn’t want to donate it to museums. Luckily for us, she has created a beautiful book.

Dreaming of Dior by Charlotte Smith is an absolutely gorgeous book – from the flocked dust jacket to the beautiful endpapers to the heavy weight paper to the stunning illustrations. Because of the high quality paper used, this book has some heft to it. After a short introduction, approximately 140 items of the collection are shown off in the pages of the book. The left hand page tells a story about someone who wore the dress and the right hand page features a frame-worthy illustration by Grant Cowan. These garments date from the 1800s to the modern day. The stories tell about the person who wore them and when I read them, I felt like I was living vicariously through them. I particularly enjoyed the stories that featured the author or her family.

I’ve never been much of a “girly-girl,” but I adored this fabulous book! First of all, the illustrations are just amazing – bright and vibrant on vivid backgrounds – and they were so much fun to study. It’s hard for me to describe just how beautiful they are. The stories are wonderful too – they made me dream of times past. I’m sure I’ll continue to flip through this book for years! This is a must have for every fashion lover out there. ( )

Beautifully illustrated, with sweet stories of the origins of the dresses. My only complaint is that now I'd *really* like to see the collection.