100 Unforgettable Dresses

100 Unforgettable Dresses by Hal Rubenstein
Harper Design, 2011
203 pages
Non-fiction; Coffee Table Book
4/5 stars

Source: Library

The ladies in my family love looking at pretty dresses so it was a no-brainer for us to pick this up at the library.  We were familiar with most of the Hollywood dresses and got to be surprised by some of the more out-there designs.

Besides spotlighting individual dresses, some ladies get several pages with several iconic dresses such as Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly-very deserving in my opinion. Personally I didn't think as much of the inclusion of Sarah Jessica Parker but I may be holding some recent missteps against her.

I do have some quibbles with the presentation such as the fact that some pages were white text on black background. I have seen many pages recommending that bloggers do not use that design and it holds true for print as well-it was *so* hard to read. Luckily most of the pages are not like that but unfortunately some are.

I most also quibble with a few of the entries. While there are several dresses I don't think very highly of, I will admit that I can conjure them in my mind at the least. Others though were not that impressive to my mind. I guess that is the problem with a book like this: there will always be disagreements about what is included and what is not.

Lastly I wanted more pictures. Some were only in black and white when color would have been helpful. For example Grace Kelly has a picture from To Catch a Thief in black and white despite the fact that the movie was filmed in color and the dress is gold-I don't understand that. I also would have liked more pictures as there was not always enough detail to fully examine the dress and its construction.

Overall: A fun book to look over but not necessary to own if you can find it at your library.