Customer Reviews

The Cut of Men's Clothes: 1600-1900

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

 

 

I was a little surprised when I recieved this book that it is not quite as beefy as Norah Waugh's _Cut of Women's_ clothes. I was however very pleased with it's cotent. About half of the patterns seem to be taken from pre-1780s and the other half from 1840 on. This was a little disappointing as I was looking for some good Regency Jackets for my husband. There are how ever several frock coats that I can easily ajust the cut to to get the look I want. This is a great book as far as I can tell but I am still undecided as to whether it is worth the steep price tag.

I never thought I would ever sew. However, my brother and I got the grandiose idea that we would make ourselves leather buff coats to wear during re-enactments with our 17th century living history group. We needed a pattern and started with research at the local college library and found this book. Although neither one of us had ever sewn before, we were able to take the coat pattern from this book, adapt it to fit our bodies and sew a coat for ourselves out of buff leather. There is a whole chapter on 17th century clothing which has patterns for breeches, doublets, cassacks and sword hangars. It also has photos of actual museum pieces. If I could use the patterns in the book, than anyone with any skill will have no problems. This book is an good resource for those wishing to sew their own period clothing.

This book is the only one I've found that gives decent cutting diagrams for men's garments. I love it and have successfully made a few of the garments in it.

This book is not for beginners. Don't expect to be able to just scale up one of the patterns and get sewing. Waugh assumes you know how to sew, make and alter patterns. The only techniques mentioned are ones we don't use commonly in modern sewing and those are really only touched on out of curiosity's sake.

The only real downside is the lack of back views of many garments. Some of the coats have back views, but many of the breeches and other garments are forgotten--possibly because they're not normally fancy--but for someone who is trying to get the fit right on a pair of breeches it would be very helpful!

I recommend it to historical costumers who are interested in accurate recreation and also to theatre costumers as a visual reference for a stage interpretation. Not for someone who wants a quick costume for the weekend or for a novice sewer.

I was unbelievably disappointed with this book, especially given the price. The scaled down patterns are okay, but not especially usable if you really want to actually make the garments. I am the shop manager for a professional shop, and even our draper/pattern-maker, who was looking to expand her knowledge of pre-twentieth century menswear, found this book one step above useless. And it should DEFINITELY be noted that the book isn't really men's clothes from 1600-1900... it's more 1600 to 1780 and 1850 to 1900, and even those timeframes aren't what I would call comprehensive. It's printed on cheap paper and doesn't even have the feel of a nicely made and published book. Abysmal book and overpriced to boot.

For that price, not very complete. Some info I was looking for were not find in this book so I'm a little bit disappointed because the book is really pricey.

This book was recommended to me three years ago as a supplement to costume history books. It is an extremely useful book as it not only provides images of clothing pieces but also historical information regarding the construction of them including layouts of pattern pieces. This is a great book for anyone seriously interested in creating period accurate clothing.

Among theatrical costumers, Norah Waugh is a staple, a gotta-have-it. She has done volumes on both men's and women's attire, based on her extensive knowledge of garments and their construction.

This is more than just a picture book; there are illustrations of the patterns used in constructing the garments men wore over four centuries. If you're interested in drafting your own patterns, this becomes an invaluable resource. Novices beware,however. Don't expect McCall's or Butterick. There are only small-scale sketches of the major patterns pieces, with the barest hint of scale. There are no instructions for assembling the pieces; you are on your own (and, even though I've been making clothes for many, many years, I have found myself baffled at how certain pieces from Waugh's drawings are to be sewn together).

Another weakness is the lack of detail about certain items. I was recently commissioned to recreate shirts for Benjamin Franklin, circa 1780-90, so I naturally turned to Nora's book. No problem finding depictions of the shirt itself, but when it came to the neckwear, she didn't include anything that helped me.

It bears mentioning that since most of the garments that have survived to be examined in the 20th Century were made for the well-to-do, Ms. Waugh's book will not be a great place to look for peasant or working-class garb. In addition to surviving garments, she relies heavily on paintings, particularly portraits. Again, only the wealthy and/or noble were typically the subjects.

Nonetheless, if you are researching and/or attempting to construct period menswear, Norah Waugh's books are truly worth having.

This has been a standard work since first publication and it is excellent to see it republished in company with its sister work The Cut of Women's Clothes