Tappé's Wedding Belles

Has there ever been a more charming picture than this one by Baron de Meyer of Natica Nast, Condé Nast's daughter? Originally published in the January 1920 Vogue, the dainty floral crown, filmy veil and light-as-a-feather gown are evocative of more innocent time, but it is interesting to learn just how cultivated this ingenuousness was...

"During this period of productive work for Vogue, Clarisse also used her fifteen-year-old daughter to model wedding veils, arguing that no professional model looked innocent enough to create the right virginal effect. (The couturier Tappé complained about having to make the gown small enough to fit Natica, saying he would not be able to sell it afterward; but a few months later it adorned the dainty figure of Mary Pickford in a radiantly lit Vogue portrait by de Meyer; Miss Pickford wore the dress for her marriage to Douglas Fairbanks.)"



Text and photos from: Seebohm, Caroline. The Man Who Was Vogue. New York: The Viking Press, 1982.