Customer Reviews

Early Victorian Men

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If you need to run up the gentlemen's outfits for anything Dickens wrote, this is a good source. Warning: it's not for the novice! There are no pattern directions; you'll basically be doing your own drafting, starting with the measurements of your subject. Nor are there sewing instructions. It helps if you have some tailoring skills in addition to basic dressmaking knowledge. I found it particularly useful because when I was costuming "Christmas Carol," many of the gentlemen were, shall we say, portly. The limited selection of historical patterns from the mainstream companies do not deal with such physiques.
I'm no expert on period design, but the pieces look authentically mid-Victorian. It's more detailed for the period than the classic Norah Waugh book on men's attire.

This, to echo another reviewer, is not for the novice.

It is a concise interpretation of what men wore in the covered time period of the late 1830s through the 1840s.

It is essentially a reprint of tailor's notes from this time. Illustrations of historical fashion plates make this a marvelous resource. No "modern" interpretation is made. You will get a feel for the aesthetics of the time through the eyes of the people who wore the clothing and made them.

Modern male wearers of early Victorian dress (history re-enactors and actors) will be very uncomfortable in the extremely fitted suits. (The early Victorian man of fashion was never without his essential foundation garment, his "stays"--his corset.) For the historian of fashion, this is a good reference, and it is also recommended for the stage and film costumer.

This book belongs in the library of anyone interested in the cut, from a tailor's point of view, of men's clothing of the time.