Customer Reviews

Costume Through the Ages: Over 1400 Illustrations (Dover Fashion and Costumes)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is quite simply a fabulous book, and a very useful one too! I am an author who writes historical novels, and when I need to know what the characters I'm writing about would have been wearing in any given year from antiquity through to modern times (1930s), I turn to this book. Fortunately, it's not cluttered with text, but merely contains drawings, pure and simple and straighforward. It's the quickest, most accurate reference book I own, aside from my dictionary, of course.

My only qualm is that it doesn't contain anything about undergarments, such as bustles, knickers, petticoats, crinolines or girdles. But then, the pictures in this book are sourced from historical paintings, sculptures, mosaics, illuminated manuscripts and so forth, which probably never showed such things, as they might have been considered indecent or irrelevant. (I suppose not too many people throughout history wanted to be painted in their underwear!)

If you're a writer, an arts student, a costume designer or just someone who has an interest in the history of fashion, I would highly recommend this book to you.

This book consisted of black and white 2D scetches that lacked any real depth or detail. They are basic and generalised in presenting each period and contain nothing new that you would not have already seen or known about that decade.
I do not recommend it to anyone who has a intrest in costume or design, but think it would be better suited as a childrens colouring in book.
Don't waste your money.

They say up front that they (the authors) purposely did not put in any writing to as not to sway our view of the clothing. Alas, that means if one does not know period clothing from LOTS of different periods, one will not be able to identify items. Still, lovely drawings. It will make a fine adult coloring book! (Yes, I'm serious) :-)

I love to use this book as a quick visual reference while working on shows. When helping a customer, or explaining something to an assistant at our shop, this book is the easiest way to do so. It is so great to have a book where I can flip to a certain date, and have pages full of pictures grouped together to show someone what exactly I am thinking of. We have to work at a fast pace, and this book saves me lots of valuable time.

Lovely detailed diagrams, lots of illustrations packed into a slender volume, a great aid for costumes for period plays, historical stories and just for creating new designs using a little bit of 'something old'.

I own a vintage clothing and costume rental shop. We have created tabs on some of the different era's shown in this book and now it's a perfect reference book for when a customer comes in and needs to dress for a 1903 car show, or a Titanic themed myster dinner party, etc. The drawings were nicely detailed and are even inspiring me to make my own pieces. We didn't need descriptions, just pictures and dates, and that's what you have here. The one draw back was throughout the entire book only fashion from the higher class is depicted. No peasants, middle class or lower status depictions at all. As a costume shop, those would have been helpful to have as well. I still thought this book was well worth the price!

While the pictures are 2D sketches of actual paintings, sculptures, fashion plates, etc. and are not the best quality, I love this book for a quick reference. If I'm costume designing from a certain time period, I love using this book to glance through for ideas saying, I like those sleeves, or I'll use that cuff. If you're looking for a in depth look at fashion and details and lots of commentary, it's not the book for you. But if you're looking for a great priced reference of fashion through the ages, then it's perfect. I've had many professors for my costume design classes, historical fashion classes, etc who have required this as a text book.

This was purchased as a gift for my 11-year-old granddaughter who is very interested in historic costumes. She immediately, on Christmas day, sharpened the special hard-lead colored pencils I bought to go with it and proceeded to submerge herself in the detailed illustrations. Seemed like a successful gift to me.