Hollywood film brides in their grand wedding gowns have long offered young girls the fodder of dreams. Sometimes the movies shaped the fairy princess vision they carried into their own wedding days.

Sandy Schreier, a Detroit film fashion historian, has touched into the romantic appeal of brides in a new paperback book, "Hollywood Gets Married" (Clarkson Potter, $29.95). She has included portraits of Clara Bow in "Her Wedding Night," 1930, as well as a real-life bride, Julia Roberts when she married Lyle Lovett in 1993. (He selected the Comme Des Garcons dress but forgot her shoes so she went barefoot.)

Schreier says as a child she dreamed of two things: Becoming a film star and being a glamorous bride. In this pictorial history of real and film weddings, she addresses both roles. The photos are accompanied by informative tidbits.

In the early `40s Barbara Stanwyck married Henry Fonda in "The Lady Eve," wearing an Edith Head dress that manufacturers copied many times over for real brides.

Inspiration for young women coming of age in the 1950s was Elizabeth Taylor on the arm of Spencer Tracy in "Father of the Bride." The more poignant pictures include the wedding of Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner at their first marriage in 1957. They divorced and remarried, and Wood drowned in 1981.

The real wedding images are as diverse as Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier in 1956 and Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in 1945.

It's a compelling presentation for anyone who has ever been awed at the sight of a bride.

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In Style magazine's special bridal issue, Weddings In Style, recently published tips for finding the right wedding gown.

Suggestions:

- Armchair shop with magazines and Web sites before you hit the stores. Then collect photos of your favorites.

- Choose only one shopping buddy, a mother or close friend.

- Decide on a price range and be sure the prices on alterations are clear.

- Designer Michelle Roth warns brides not to show too much cleavage.

The issue also features actress Shannon Elizabeth as a cover model. She is marrying a longtime friend, actor Joe Reitman, on a Mexican beach this summer. But there is a bit of an ominous cloud.

The New York Times Style section reported recently that early marriage failures among In Style featured brides have been embarrassing. By the time the magazine hit the newsstands, divorce was in the works for such celebrity brides as Drew Barrymore, Kelly Rutherford and Courtney Thorne-Smith. The Times called it the "curse of the In Style Wedding."

Good luck to Shannon Elizabeth.

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The bride planning a wedding has to be dizzy from the array of styles in gowns these days. She has choices such as corsets, simple strapless dresses, ball gowns with candy-like poufs, and miles of crystals, embroidery and cake-like tiers. Pleated chiffons and antique laces even provide a nostalgic nod to the bohemian flower child.

So when the editors of Elegant Bride, an upscale quarterly magazine, saw the collections in the recent fall bridal market, they decided a special fashion issue was warranted.

But the publication now on newsstands goes further to address the cosmetic artifice that gets so much attention today.

"There is heightened attention toward our physical appearance - from our weight to the condition of our skin to, even, our breast size," writes editor in chief Deborah S. Moses. The book looks at everything from jewelry to skin care to teeth whiteners.

Is the pressure too heavy? It seems the poor bride has enough to worry about without having to schedule Botox injections, breast implants and whatever it takes to achieve what Moses calls the "look of perfection."

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Wedding films come and go in fashion. But no matter. Movie brides have always been remarkably influential on the public's style.

From Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor in celluloid to Wallace Warfield Simpson in a newsreel, brides were historically depicted as fairy princesses who surely were going to live happily ever after, writes Sandy Schreier in an article, "Always a Bridesmaid," in the current Elegant Bride.

Schreier, a Detroit-based fashion and film historian, is the author of a forthcoming book, ``Hollywood Gets Married'' (Clarkson Potter).

Schreier says brides were considered such appealing marketing images that wedding scenes were written into silent films and the first talkies whether or not the story line called for them. The photographs then were used to promote the movies.

It's understandable. The industry founders such as Louis B. Mayer and Samuel Goldwyn came out of the rag trade. They may not have known much about making movies, Shreier says, but they understood how to create beautiful clothes.

Although the white wedding tradition started in Queen Victoria's day, the early film brides and their bridesmaids generally wore matching pale pink or blue because white created a glare on the screen.

The early wedding gowns were spectacular, and the bigger the star the more lavish the gown. Gloria Swanson wore a $100,000 dress in "Her Love Story" (1923), and Norma Shearer's wedding dress in "Marie Antoinette" (1938) weighed as much as she did, 110 pounds.

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Sales of solitaire diamonds such as those set in engagement rings are up. Brides magazine is currently the most successful in its class, with ad revenues up over such publications as Time and In Style.

In short, people are getting married. So fashion designer Vera Wang has to be relishing the good luck of the timing of her striking coffee table book, ``Vera Wang on Weddings'' (Harper Resource, $60).

Wang is an obvious candidate for such a project. She was on the Vogue fashion staff for almost 20 years. She became design director at Ralph Lauren, and while there she became engaged. Her experience planning her own wedding convinced her of a need for sophisticated modern bridal gowns, and she opened her own shop. In less than 10 years she has become an important name in the American fashion arena, known for glamorous evening gowns on the Oscar carpet as well as bridal dresses.

The book, enhanced by striking photographs, is a thoughtful A-to-Z primer on planning, beginning with how to tell family and friends following the engagement.

On gowns, she says they should be chosen according to the personality of the bride. For instance, the "Traditionalist" is devoted to style over fashion and may look to such icons as Grace Kelly and Jacqueline Kennedy. The "Modernist" "defies convention," she writes. The "Romanticist" is driven by passion and loves femininity and flirtation. And so it goes. The book covers ornamentation, foundation garments, makeup and Wang's celebrity brides. For anyone with a wedding in her future, the book is a gift.

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On the same subject, another somewhat less grand book also offers considerable how-to guidance on choosing a dress. ``A Book of Wedding Gowns'' (Chronicle Books; $29.95), by Carley Rony, comes from the wedding Web site http://www.theKnot.com/

What's interesting here is the historical perspective. Ancient Egyptian brides wore layers of white linen. When the 20th century rolled in, brides were in the Victorian mode of high collar bands and long sleeves. Manufacturers first offered ready-made gowns for the middle class. In the 1930s, brides reflected the somber mood of the Depression. The `70s brought miniskirts and sexuality. And the 1990s are represented by the stark simplicity of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's widely copied slip dress.

Otherwise, the book gives you more specific basic advice on things such as choosing fabric and bodice shape.

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Kevyn Aucoin came out of Louisiana in the late `80s and shook the beauty world to its eyelash roots. The makeup artist quickly captured attention by designing faces in the shows of such designers as Geoffrey Beene, Isaac Mizrahi and Todd Oldham. He got miles of publicity off the glossy plastic eyebrows he attached to supermodels' faces for Oldham.

Today he has a large celebrity clientele, including Britney Spears and Gwyneth Paltrow, and three successful how-to books to his credit. So in preparation for his own beauty line, he is about to go online. Any moment now, http://www.kevynaucoin.com/ will be in business.

He will offer instruction, information and, for now, three products: a brush collection, mascara and an eyelash curler.

© 2001 & 2002, The Kansas City Star.
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