The Oscar-winning Hollywood comedy "Death Becomes Her" has lent its name to a New York exhibition that reveals nothing was more becoming to a 19th century widow than black crepe. With dozens of dresses, jewelry, hats, accessories and magazine prints, the exhibition, which opened earlier this week, looks back
on a time when European and American women had to conform to rigid norms of outward grief.
But not all mourning garb was created equal: from matronly black silk taffeta worn by Queen Victoria to the French sequined