Lydia Edwards

There is a great variety of garments in this book, including some gorgeous examples from early periods circa 1550-1700. It feels thoroughly researched (though I admit I would not recognize errors since I don’t have a background in fashion history, merely an interest). I really enjoyed the introductory sections before each chapter, which laid out some of the historical, social, and technological changes that drove fashion history. I loved the photos that were included.

My criticisms would be: the font size is really small and there are a lot of details that are hard to see. I would gladly have paid $15-20 more for a larger-format book with larger text and illustrations. The quality of the reproductions is very high, just small. The other thing I would like would be to see more frequent images of the rear view of the garments, as well as more examples of the underwear or foundation garments that would be worn with different styles (there are maybe 4-5 pictures of undergarments; the rest are just described). Finally there are a fair number of pretty glaring typos, suggesting that the budget mainly went to reproduction rights and color printing, not editing .

Despite these quibbles, I really enjoyed the book. I’m not a costumer, so I don’t have any practical reason to have this book and can’t speak to its usefulness, but I enjoyed looking through it and learned a lot.… (mehr)