Customer Reviews

Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince: A Study of the Years 1340-1365

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

 

 

This book is filled with useful information for those interested in the costume of the period, although it can be hard to untangle some of the author's sentences. Newton covers the period in short segments (a few years at a time), examining the changes to costume throughout Europe as documented in a variety of sources - contemporary descriptions in chronicles and literature, illuminations, condemnation of fashion by clerics, sumptuary laws, and household accounts. The glimpses into social history, economics, politics and class structure are also useful. My only regret is that she strictly limits herself to the period in question and that there aren't more illustrations. But this book is an excellent resource.

This excellent book will take you through the early years of the fourteenth century and not only illustrate the costume of England and France through historic art and illumination, but also explain the social and cultural influences of the era. Current sumptuary laws and literary references to the clothing of the time flesh out a very clear and entertaining look at the costume of the age.

This book is definately for the experienced costumer - and for somebody who is deeply interested in researching fashion in this era.

It is a book that is full of detailed descrption, although the lack of colour illustrations is definately a minus. I had hoped that with the re-issue the photographs would have been re-taken in colour.

I found it to be very useful, but definately not something to sit down and read - it is definately a "study" type of read.

This is a book that is full of interesting content, but is very difficult to follow due to there being few illustrations of any kind, frequent usage of Latin and Medieval French without benefit of translation into English (whole passages!), and convoluted sentence structure.

If I didn't have a bit of knowledge about the subject and an understanding of French I would be completely lost, even so it's rough going. I suggest this book for those who want to go to the next (final?) step in their research, but definitely not for someone who doesn't already have a lot of information under their belt. If the author had made any attempt to be accessible to her readers, it without doubt would have received 5 stars.

The next edition of this book needs to be completely re-written (and translated!), and full of the artwork I know is available to represent the pieces she discusses. When no artwork exists, a sketch by the author or photograph of a recreated piece to illustrate her points would be invaluable, as well as a glossary.

The subject matter of this book suggests that illustrations would and should form an important part of its content. Indeed, the book includes more than 40 separate figures. However, the illustrations in the paperback copy of the book that I have just received are truly awful - they look like bad black and white photocopies of the original photographs. Most of them are too dark to discern any detail. One figure (fig. 10) is particularly entertaining - the legend reads: A shoe cut into a decorative open pattern. A spoil from the Battle of Visby, 1360. This illustration consists of a featureless black blob in the middle of a grey background. Any possibility of seeing a "decorative open pattern" is laughable. This book looks like an ultra-cheap re-print of a book that was previously published in a quality format.
Having now obtained a copy of the original 1980 hardback Boydell Press edition, I can confirm that the figures do indeed look like scans of the original photographs from this book (which are, by the way, useful and informative).

i would just like to say that i was extremely dissapointed with this book due to the lack of illustrations especially colour illustrations of which thier were virtually none. id have to say that i was decieved by the books lovely cover page.

This book does contain wonderful written accounts of clothing--clothing that I happen to know does NOT appear in pictures (the written descriptions, therefor, are the only evidence of their existence). It's furthered my knowledge of cotehardie decoration/embellishment in particular.

But, my God!, this woman is BORING! I still don't know how someone could manage to take a topic I'm dead-interested in (I make 14th century clothing for myself and my husband) and bore me to tears with it. I haven't read more than about a fourth of the book.

Some history scholars should hire ghost writers. Just because you can research with the best of them doesn't mean you can write a book that anyone else can read.

Oh, and she's one of those uppity history scholars who doesn't bother to translate anything out of middle French or Latin. I'm so sorry I don't speak three languages like you do!

Good material, dreadful presentation.