Dreaming of Dior: Every Dress Tells a Story

by Charlotte Smith, Grant Cowan (Illustrator)

Charlotte Smith had already had more than her fair share of fabulous dresses and adventures. She lived life to the fullest in London, Paris and New York before falling in love with Australia and making it her home.

Then she discovered that she had inherited a priceless vintage clothing collection from her American Quaker godmother, Doris Darnell.

When the boxes started arriving, they were filled with more than three thousand pieces dating from 1790 to 1995, from Dior and Chanel originals to a dainty pioneer dress.

But when she unearthed her godmother’s book of stories, the true value of what she had been given hit home. This wasn’t merely a collection of beautiful things; it was a collection of lives. Women’s lives. Tiny snapshots of our joys and disappointments, our entrances and exits, triumphant and tragic.

This is a book for any woman who knows a dress can hold a lifetime of memories.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction, Art, Chick Lit, Historical, History, Coffee Table Books

296 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2009

Reviews

[Relyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy all the little stories of the women and their dresses. It reminded me of a J. Peterman catalog, although those are better written. I would have liked this one a lot better if the author didn't name drop and toot her own horn so often.

[Jaimie · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Eleni · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
This book has been sitting on my shelf for years and I read it today because my physical tbr is out of control.

The more I read this book, the more invested and interested I became. Essentially this book is written by a vintage clothing collector and she appears to be from a very fortunate and wealthy family.
I was lowkey envious of the author the entire time reading this, but I think that’s part of the charm of the book.

It was really interesting reading about the meaning all the dresses have. And the stories and memories that they hold.

The illustrations of this book were my favourite thing ever. They were so gorgeous and stunning, and as a textiles student I could HIGHLY appreciate the skill and detail that went into every single piece.

This book delivered what it promised. While it wasn’t a profound read, it was highly enjoyable and aesthetically appealing, while also being super fast to read.

[Jamey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The illustrations in this book have blown me away. I couldn't imagine seeing these in person, let alone owning all of these beautiful gowns.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous book about gorgeous gowns and the women who wore them. The Australian edition's velvet cover can be seen here: http://www.harpercollins.com.au/books...

[Priscilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutly love this book!!!! Ever single dress featured in here is vintage and has story connected with each garment. Read only if you're a fashion geek.

[Lu Gualdieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm in love with this book. It is everything I hoped for, and more... If you like fashion and short stories, then you're in for your new favourite book ^^

[Siobhain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I requested this book from the library because one of my book clubs has decided to go to a Dior exhibit at a local art museum for our next meeting. Everyone is to choose her own book or take a break from reading if they like. I actually requested many books but found that my main interest was not in the life of Dior but in his dresses. This book is delightful because it is not limited to Dior dresses but is about many dresses from many time periods collected by a Quaker woman named Doris as well as additional dresses and the escapades of her goddaughter, the author and current curator of the collection, Charlotte Smith. Every two-page spread of Dreaming of Dior is a gorgeous illustration of each dress worn by a beautiful lady posing to fit the time period or story associated with the dress. The facing page gives a story about the dress or the previous owner. Though it awakened a wee bit of envy as so many of the true stories of the rich and wealthy are well beyond my own experiences, and it awakened a good bit of regret that I hadn't saved my own favorite non-designer dresses throughout the years, it was still a very enjoyable, light read. Do you pick up People magazine or others like that in the grocery store line to get a glimpse of who wore what? Is the highlight of a series like Bachelor or Bachelorette the gorgeous gowns that the girls wear? Are you most likely to click on stories of red carpet or royal events just to see what everyone wore? If so, you will be delighted by this book. I think I might start haunting thrift stores to see if I can find a few styles from my past to put together a much less glamorous, but fun, collection.

Additional note: I found a few videos of interviews with Charlotte Smith and her collection on Youtube so if you are interested in actual photographs of the author and the dresses, look there.

[Bluebelle-the-Inquisitive (Catherine) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quote: Little did I know that it would become part of a wardrobe even Barbie would envy.

Dreaming of Dior is the perfect pick up put down book for a fashion lover each double page spread is a story about an item in the collection and an illustration (by Grant Cowan) of that item in action. I just wish there was more detail in some of the outfits and that maybe more of the stories were of the original owners. I did enjoy reading the introduction as much as the stories, it was nice to have an explanation as to why this collection existed and how it grew so large.

The quote comes from the story attached to a pink lambswool sweater, it is very Barbie and the quote is so accurate to the whole collection. It is a wardrobe Babs would envy, as would so many women reading this.

This is one of my favourite type books too, dresses telling their stories. I started this year with one (The Dress) and it feels right to end with one. Another story with more flow along the same lines is The Secret Lives of Dresses.

Realistically a 4.5 star book.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked reading about the stories of the dresses, and the illustrations were pretty, but it was marred by a few things:

1. Every single illustration is of a skinny white woman, there was absolutely zero diversity in skin colour or body shape to be seen.

2. The author comes from a very wealthy and privileged family and her personal anecdotes make her very hard to relate to. It would have been better to keep the stories to the people who originally owned the dresses, not stories about how she personally met this prince or that famous person while wearing one of them.

3. The book has a somewhat colonial flavour to it, engaging very lightly and flippantly with less-than-savory aspects of British colonialism with sometimes rather inappropriate wording/framing.

It's not exactly a thoughtful or academic book and doesn't need to be, but it would be nice if it had been less tone-deaf and white.

[Ava Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations by Grant Cowan are easily the best aspect to the book. The author's stories about each item of fashion, most commonly a luxury dress, are entertaining and glamorous. Particularly stories from multiple different women with eccentricities of real life. While the author's more personal based stories focus on name dropping and outlandish events so it tend to get easily blurred into one repetitive brag. Though I can't say I wouldn't get a little ego if princes and high fashion designers were taking me on shopping sprees free of charge. If fact check didn't exist, this would be hard to believe! All in all, Smith sounds very appreciative and honorable to Doris's life and treasures what was gifted to her. Cute book.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed that most dresses were featured with details about the people who wore them as well as to what occasion.

Being that these dresses all come from one woman’s collection and they’re mostly haute couture it’s hard to overlook the amount of privilege and wealth inherent in most of the stories and attitudes towards the dresses and the situation in which they were worn.

[Cel Jel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A picture of a designer dress -painted beside the story of an event in the life of the woman who had owned it and had donated. Charlotte Smith's godmother left her the collection she had collected, and the story that went with each gown.
An interesting way to receive some social history.

[Julie Greenwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretentious, laughable name dropping, and self serving. While the collection is interesting it does not warrant an entire book dedicated to the author’s vapid anecdotes. If she would have stuck to the fashion, the book might have been salvageable. The illustrations are nice.

[Reb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how every dress really does tell a story

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

The clothes were magnificent. And the history behind them was amazing. What girl doesn't want to own a ballgown.

[Kathy (Bermudaonion) · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I cannot for the life of me figure out why this "priceless" collection was not photographed. Instead we're confronted by flat, imprecise illustrations of each piece of clothing that give you absolutely no sense of the fabric, how they might feel, their condition (a couple of the stories mention damage and that would have been interesting to see), in fact, their very history -- which, if I'm not mistaken, was what the author was trying to convey!

What's worse is the "models" are reminiscent of those generic fashion drawings from magazines and greeting cards of the '60s and early '70s. How ridiculous is it to see one of these cutesy, 1960s fantasy-girl faces on a woman who's supposed to be from the 1800s or the 1920s. Did NO ONE notice this???

This is akin to writing a book on a collection of museum-quality folk art or jewelry -- and only featuring DRAWINGS of the pieces. Why would anyone think this was a good idea?! Photography exists! Use it!

Also: the author claims her godmother Doris didn't buy "one bit" of the collection, yet in the first pages she shows two dresses Doris bought with her own money. So...which is it? Makes me a bit suspect of the stories that went along with the dresses.

And finally, I have to agree with a few of the other commenters who tired of the author's name-dropping and self-aggrandizement. This is a baffling little book that just doesn't make sense.

[Christy S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never have I savored a book as I am savoring this one.
It is, initially, the author’s story of an inheritance she received–by mail–of gown after exquisite gown that her Godmother had collected through the decades.

The book proceeds to lay out these gowns for the reader in gorgeous fashion illustration, complemented by a short paragraph or two with a story behind the dress. That’s right: the woman who collected these collected and kept their dear, dear histories and anecdotes. And here they are for the reader! Some are stories of first events, kisses and engagements and travels. Others are about the brand of the dress, or the way it was found, bought, or given. Some are simply nostalgic, some dramatic, others timely for the era they come from.

I have tried to read each story one at a time, hoping this book will last forever. If it doesn’t, it looks like Miss Smith has written a second edition, if only I can get it mailed from Australia (or published in the U.S.).

[Gillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depicting beautifully illustrated gowns ranging from the mid 1800's to the 1990's, Dreaming of Dior, proves the old saying that while somethings change, some things always stay the same. In this case, that thing that never changes is a love of all things material. If you love clothes, beauty and fashion, you will love this book. It would be especially appealing to those who have a keen interest in vintage fashion, or, those like me, who combine their interest in history with their of clothes. As a non-fiction work, there is no continuous story that unfolds, each page is separate and a story in itself. However, Dreaming of Dior does offer an interesting interpretation that differs to other books on vintage clothing I have read. Essentially, the focus is on the stories behind the dress, the people who owned them, and how these dresses have the power to bring history to life. Very interesting!

[RivkaBelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 ...

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charlotte's godmother Doris willed her an entire collection of vintage (mostly designer) dresses, which Charlotte shared with the world via this book. It wasn't at all what I expected, but instead each dress got a two page spread: brief vignette about its owner and where it was worn and a very 1960s fashion illustration of it in action. I loved that Doris was a Quaker who loved fashion and received all of these dresses as gifts, and loved to wear them out or even for a regular dinner at home. I admired all the lovely, gorgeous drawings, as well. But after the first third, the vignettes started to grate - everyone was so wealthy and foreign to me. Including the author, who waltzed off to the Riviera for a week long wedding celebration with the Prince of Monaco, went to visit a friend and discovered Princess Diana was hanging out there, too, etc. It just got all too much.

[Bea · Rating 2 out of 5]

How lucky is this author! She inherited an exquisite (and extensive) collection of vintage designer garments from her grandmother, Doris. Each illustration of a garment comes with a short blurb recounting a little story about it. I myself inherited a few vintage gems from my grandmother (though nothing with a designer label, alas), and I'm very sorry that I don't have stories to go with them. An object is always more interesting when you know a little about its history.

However, as much as I loved the outfits, it annoyed me that the image was a stylized illustration. I would have found this book more compelling if each blurb had a photograph of the dress on a dress form (as you see in a museum), or a photograph of someone wearing the garment (preferably the original owner). An excellent concept, but one that I felt needed to be explored less whimsically.

[Iniko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dreaming of Dior, by Charlotte Smith is a book comprised of stories that each have a dress that the main character in the short story wore. The dresses and their stories are from a variety of moments in history. I really loved this book because of the really pretty illustrations that go along with the interesting stories. Each story gives you a little insight into the time period as well as the life of the woman who wore the dress. Each dress is very different varying from ball gowns to bathing " dresses". The stories, like the dresses, vary as well, from stories of dining in Rome to sneaking out after dark. I really enjoyed reading this book because it really captures all these individual stories beautifully and because the stories themselves were very interesting.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the concept for this book...Truly unique. That being said, sometimes the author forgot to put the era of the design into the story. It would have been more intimate if Doris' photos of the actual individuals,in their particular gowns, were used instead of the illustrations. My favorite were the gowns of the 1930s. The authors dresses were all very comical, because they all looked alike...all very short micro-minis from the '80s and '90s. Her stories were funny too after awhile..how many couture outfits can one girl get from various suitors?!? How was she able to meet so many famous people?!?

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sweet read. It's written by a woman who inherited hundreds of dresses both couture and off the rack, with little tales about the lives of those who wore the dresses. Loved the illustrations and mini stories, loved the name dropping. I'm lending my library copy to a girlfriend before returning it given it's so beautiful. Lovely to dip in and out of. I hope I get to see an exhibition of the clothes one day.

[Lauren Somers · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Every woman knows a dress can hold a lifetime of memories." I want you to imagine inheriting thousands of dresses, each expressing their own beautiful story of love and lust. Charlotte Smith illustrates the beauty of the history of fashion in dedication to her friend Doris. The sketches convey the tiny, little detailing implemented in the garments. Every little crease and sequin intrigues me, inspiring me to conquer my mission to change the face of fashion.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always loved reading about clothes and especially the stories behind them. This book was amazing! My only complaint is that there were no photographs of the clothes, only drawings, but the illustrations were still gorgeous. I coveted most of the items in here.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I idea of this book is wonderful...wish it was either larger (ie - coffee table size) so that the illustrations could really be the featured, or included more detail in the stories. I'd LOVE to see these dresses in person!

[Bridget Healy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated book, with quick and witty stories for each dress, this book is a fun way to pass an hour or so. I would rather have seen actual photographs of the dresses though, and the people in the stories wearing them.