Customer Reviews

Folk Costumes of the World

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This book is very helpful for getting basic details of folk and dance costumes from throughout the world. There are colored sketches of most costumes, but a few more would be helpful. They describe many things that are not illustrated, yet sometimes illustrate items for which there are scant descriptions. Unfortunamtely, however, there are no costumes from most of Africa. This is a serious omission for a book claiming to cover world costume.

I'm very interested in folk costumes and found this book informative with beautiful illustrations, BUT...it's not, as it claims, a book of folk costumes of the world.
Europe (where I live) is shown thoroughly, with examples of costumes even from islands like Sicily, Madeira and Tenerife, while there are not very many costumes from Asia. Africa is represented only by some costumes from North Africa and Ethiopia, Oceania only by Maori costumes. Just four-five of the many gorgeous Amerindian costumes are shown and although Cuba is described in the text, no costumes are shown in the book. I would say the book is eurocentric. If you want to learn more about costumes from Europe, do buy this book, but NOT if you want to look at costumes from all over the world.

This book is very helpful for getting basic details of folk and dance costumes from throughout the world. There are colored sketches of most costumes, but a few more would be helpful. They describe many things that are not illustrated, yet sometimes illustrate items for which there are scant descriptions. Unfortunately, however, there are no costumes from most of Africa. This is a serious omission for a book claiming to cover world costume.