Customer Reviews

English Costume from the Early Middle Ages Through the Sixteenth Century

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3 star:		(2)
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This is probably a great book for the beginner, but if you are looking for either a serious study of medieval costume or a how-to, you will probably be disappointed.

This book goes into a lot of detail about medieval costume with little documentation to back it up. There are no tips on construction and no actual pictures. Instead, the author relies on romanticized line drawings of people in costume with the emphasis apparently on the people, rather than the costume.

Once again, however, if you are an absolute beginner with little to no knowledge of medieval costuming, this book is an economical way to catch-up. It has a very wide scope. I did not note anything blatantly wrong, and the drawings, unhelpful as they are from a construction viewpoint, do show the costumes in context and as they would actually appear on the (idealized) human form.

This book is pretty good to get a basic idea of shapes for each given period, but that's about it. Unfortunately there are no seams shown, and while it's a very small detail, there weren't cod pieces in most places where there should have been. Small, but very important, detail. None of the illustrations are original (photos or reasonably accurate drawings of sculptures, rubbings of engravings, etc.) and all have a sort of 1940s feeling to them which kind of detracts from the accuracy. The text part is pretty decent though, and if you use it for ideas in conjunction with a more construction-oriented book, you'll have a pretty good chance of making something accurate. Of course, if you're just looking for ideas on how to clothe a character in a book, it's great.

I have fond memories of checking out the original printing of these books from my local public library as a child. They placed these books in the children's section- for readers 8 and up. And I checked out those hardcover books over and over. Those books may have helped spark my lifelong interest in historical costume. Ms. Brooke's rendering of the costumes are very clear, and often they are presented in groups as if you were looking into a scene in a story or play. Excellent books for older children and young teens interested in costume history.