About The Bridal Image Parlor

About the Bridal Image Parlor

You may have had fantasies about wedding dresses since you were a child. Or, you may look back and remember the day you bought that dress you always wanted. I'd be willing to wager on this, since I doubt that you would have taken the time and trouble to navigate to these pages, otherwise. This site is a visual tribute to that mysterious power of the wedding gown: to totally transform the wearer into a princess for a day.

One phrase that I keep hearing, in my conversations with women about weddings, is: "There's no such thing as an ugly bride." A more formal version of this proverb often appears in print, mostly in bridal magazines: "Seldom will a woman look more beautiful than on her wedding day." There is a good deal of truth to this, if you consider the dress and the bride together. Most wedding gowns are cut to fit the body closely above the waist, some more than just hint at cleavage, and almost all are elaborate, with enough details to keep fashion-heads busy opining. The bride has most likely done her part as well, exercising, perhaps even losing considerable weight, and finally working at perfecting her hair and makeup right before the ceremony. It's partly an illusion, true, but what a beautiful one it is!

The modern wedding dress may be the most feminine article of clothing ever devised. In one sense, it's the essence of sexy lingerie taken to its logical extreme as outerwear, with all the tiny details, delicate lace, and body-conscious contouring amplified to the fullest. The natural sexual imagery of the flower is almost universally found in the detailing of these gowns, a symbolic echo of the stage of life in which a young bride finds herself. All of this detailing grabs the viewer's gaze, and directs it to wander over the bride, from head to carefully concealed toe. Brides are sexy - they're supposed to be, and there's no way around it. Even though the average bride will never wear this many layers of fabric again in her life, the sexual energy shines through it, directly into the viewer's imagination.

Apparently, there is a growing number of men who find this kind of veiled sexuality far more fascinating than full-frontal nudity. Perhaps this is nothing more than a mental appropriation of some 'repressed' erotic images from the 1950's and early 1960's by certain male baby-boomers, but I doubt if it's that simple. One friend recently declared that he'd trade a stack of vintage issues of any typical 'men's magazine' for one single copy of 'Modern Bride'. Fascinating - and I would, of course, tend to agree with him.

Browse through these pages and enjoy the bridal fantasy! One picture is worth a thousand words...

- Sylvia Marie

(To find out more about me, click on my name.)

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