Customer Reviews

From Queen to Empress: Victorian dress 1837-1877: An exhibition at the Costume Institute, December 15, 1988-April 16, 1989

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This book is an exhibition catalogue from the metropolitan museum of art. It covers Victorian women's dress from the years 1837 to 1877 when Queen Victoria gradually changed from being simply Queen of England to Empress of a vast empire.

The book is richly illustrated with colour photos of Queen Victoria's clothes (or other period costume examples of the right date) starting with a dress worn by Victoria for her state entry into Paris in 1855. We are also shown examples of wonderful English silk paisley style shawls and formal court dress.

The text accompanying the pictures gives a vivid narrative of the changing styles in the 40 years of fashion this book covers. "From Queen to Empress" is a worth addition to any collection of books on costume or if you are wanting to know more about the fashions of the mid Victorian era.

This books description in the amazon catalogue listing lists its page count as 320 pages. It is in fact only 90 or so and has only a couple of dozen colour photos of original gowns. Short chapters, uninspiring as a reference book. Im still glad I have it as it does display a few gowns once belonging to Queen Victoria herself, However given the title of the book, I also assumed they all were (a good number of the gowns were American). No accessories, no multiple examples in the same category. If this was the catalogue of the exhibition, it would have been a short visit.

This book is a little-known gem for civil war reenactors striving to get their clothing "right" or Victoria officianadoes who wish to have a record of some of her clothing. The photos are clear and mostly in color. The clothing is in excellent condition and emits sighs from those wishing to grab into the pictures and wear those lovely items. The book has a nice variety of items and clear descriptions. A wonderful book for a gift to that budding clothing historian or costumer.