In celebration of Ceil Chapman

My wedding dress arrived in the post last Monday just as I was walking out the door to work. Obviously I swept aside all concerns about lateness to try it on, but my still sleepy fingers had great difficulty in doing the dress up. Keeping in mind that the woman of the 1950's who originally owned the dress would have been wearing quite different underwear to mine, I decided to go lingerie shopping in my quest to create the perfect fit.

The solution was a corset that nips in the waist and pads out and lifts the boobs. Now the dress fits perfectly and I managed to get it on and all done up on my own. Last Friday was definitely a celebratory day.

I am completely and utterly in love with my dress and am hesitant to store her at a friends place, as is practical, because I like the idea of being able to play dress up whenever the betrothed is missing.

In celebration of my new love affair I've compiled some photos of other dresses by the highly collectible Ceil Chapman, including one worn by Marilyn Monroe on the cover of Life Magazine. I hope my dress is going to make me feel like Marilyn for a day - only without the crushing self-doubt and addiction to prescription painkillers please.

Ceil was particularly known for her distinctive and flattering draping which hid a myriad of flaws while also enhancing a woman's figure.

And thank goodness for shape shifting underwear. There is definitely something to be said for wearing period relevant under-garments with your vintage. Is a comeback of the bullet bra as per Mad Men imminent?