98 of 103 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I expected better from Hunnisett, October 7, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Period Costume for Stage & Screen: Patterns for Women's Dress, Medieval-1500 (Hardcover)
I already own and love "Period Costume for Stage & Screen, 1500-1800 Vol 1," so I rushed right out and bought this book as soon as it came out. I was very disappointed.
It is a decent book, especially for theater use, but it lacks the excellent understanding of period cut displayed the 1500-1800 book. I expected mush more from Hunnisett.
There are many poorly-drawn illustrations which manage to get the point across, but they do not always show what is really in the paintings they purport to be redrawn from. No explanations are given for some of her more unusual cutting decsions, such as the use of big obvious darts on 15th cent. bodices. In other cases, period garments are pictured next to pattern layouts that could never produce anything resembling them-- almost as bad as Hill & Bucknell. None of the example costumes shown in the book are actually intended as authentic-looking medieval dresses-- all are more or less fantasy-inspired.
If you are looking for a general book on how to make pseudo-medieval fantasy costumes (that look like tie-dyed nightgowns), perhaps for children's theater, this is an okay book, but not great-- nothing inspiring here. If you are looking for a book showing an expert cutter's conjectures on period cut to use as a starting point for developing an authentic-looking costume, either for theatrical or historical reenactment use, don't bother with this one except to check the one page bibliography in the back, and the single useful one page spread of 15th cent Italian sleeves. The rest is nothing special at all. Like so many of these books, you must take everything she shows you with a big grain of salt.
On the other hand, I cannot recommend "Period Costume for Stage & Screen, 1500-1800 Vol 1" highly enough.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
costumer's reference, September 17, 2008
This review is from: Period Costume for Stage & Screen: Patterns for Women's Dress, Medieval-1500 (Hardcover)
Any book by Jean Hunnisett (or Janet Arnold) is worth whatever you have to pay to get it if you make costumes. There is nothing more to say.
There are diagrams, line drawings and measurements. There are photos of costumes described in the book as they appear on stage. The goal is to represent the era of the play while not being a slave to historic accuracy and not subjecting a modern actor to a costume which impedes her movement unnecessarily.
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