Made For Each Other: Fashion and the Academy Awards

by Bronwyn Cosgrave

The red carpet on Oscar night is the film industry's own catwalk, a place where talent, beauty and style vie for attention. Here, fashion expert Bronwyn Cosgrave gives us the stories from behind the parade of dresses. From the splendour of Vivien Leigh to the war-era chic of Ingrid Bergman, from Grace Kelly's glacial glamour to Nicole Kidman's groundbreaking Christian Dior by John Galliano, Cosgrave's detail-laden insider chronicle traces the trends of the ceremony from its inception in 1929 to the present: a must-have for every film fan and fashion lover.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction, Media Tie In

444 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Moderately interesting, if you're already interested in fashion, but peppered with typos (it turns out there are a lot of different ways one can attempt to spell Gwyneth) and marred by too many words on Courtney Love. (No book should contain more than one.) There is an overuse of the word "sourced," as in, "Integrating a delicate vintage piece of Lesage embroidery sourced by Swank after she and Paster had trawled through Paris's flea markets..." Just say "found," would you?

The book, mostly an accretion of secondary source material, is mildly gossipy. Luise Rainer accepted the Best Actress award in 1937 in her nightgown. (People wore better nightwear back then.)



Laurence Olivier, eligible but spurned for his role in Wuthering Heights, was so jealous of girlfriend Vivien Leigh's Oscar for Gone with the Wind he wanted to hit her with it afterwards in the limo.



Nicole Kidman had to obtain Anne Bass's approval to wear the chartreuse dress from John Galliano's Dior couture collection, since Bass was one of four couture clients who had purchased the $30,000 dress and had rights to "sanction their successors."



Though the book was published in 2007, it ends with the 2001 Oscars fashions. Interestingly, that's Renée Zellweger flouncing by on the cover, and the author looks exactly like her. I'm not really sure why The Atlantic recommended this book.

Includes 12 color plates and many black and white photos.

[Clare · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book just didn't manage to hold my interest. The tone of the book kept changing from informative to chatty and slang kept popping up occasionally. Had there been more pictures I think I might have enjoyed it more. As it was I couldn't picture any of the outfits in my head from the author's descriptions. Ultimately I just got bored.

This could have been really interesting I am fascinated by both the Academy Awards and fashion. And yet it wasn't.

[Rusty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perfectly fine reading if a bit uninvolving. I read this in time for the 2023 Oscars. The book has many flaws. Vivid descriptions of outfits and not enough photos to match. Occasional lapses into tabloid snarkiness that has nothing to do with the fashion, for instance when we are told that "I Hate Streisand" groups started up because....Barbra didn't campaign hard enough for Funny Girl...really? Odd changes in tone, a focus solely on the actress who won the Oscars each year with occasional, inconsistent dips into "also-rans" and presenters. Entire years are skipped, I suppose because the Oscar dresses that year were deemed uninteresting by the author. Bizarre mistakes abound. The book has Julia Roberts winning Best Supporting Actress for Steel Magnolias (wrong) even BEFORE she starts rehearsing for the movie! Where was the editor? Typos galore! "Carol" Burnett alternates with "Carole" on the same page, and "bloodlines" (referring to Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli) become "bloodliness" in the next sentence, which gives the reader a totally different focus. Somewhere out there, there must be a perfect book all about fashion and the Academy Awards. This isn't it.

[Beth Harper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one I'd like to give 3.5 stars too. Some inaccuracies in the book regarding years and who won which awards. It's really the story of how individual, selected nominees (mostly those for best actress) came to wear what they did to the Academy Awards. Anecdotal. There are pictures of the dresses the discussed women wore, but most are in black and white. You do learn a little about individual designers as well.

[Sal]

now, let's be judgy wudgy just because America's sweetheart, Renee Zellweger, is on the cover. but to quote Andre Leon Talley, editor-at-large American Vogue, "a juicy read.