Customer Reviews

Why Do They Dress that Way? (Rev ed) (People's Place Book, No 7)

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

 

 

This book is a well written, sensitive look at one aspect of plain people's practices. Quite often misunderstood, this book explains the "reasons" behind the dress practices as well as the distinctions. It is my understanding that the author is not just writing this from an impersonal, analytical vantage point, but rather plain dress is a personal and important value of his being a member of the Old Order River Brethren in Lancaster County, PA.

This is a good addition to the library of someone studying the Old Order or 'plain people' groups. I have yet to find a more thorough breakdown of the different types of clothing worn by the four main branches of Old Order Anabaptist sects.

On the down side, the writing was not particularly well done and there were a few typographic errors. The section on Catholics and Hasidic Jews, though appropriate, were very short.

Despite the problems mentioned above, this is still a very good reference.

This book is a fascinating look at the various Protestant (mainly Anabaptist) groups that wear plain clothes, focusing primarily on the Amish, Hutterites and Old Order Mennonites. The author grew up in a nominally Christian home, but over the years he found himself drawn more and more to the commitment of the plain clothes Christians that he saw. Eventually he himself embraced the plain clothes style mode, and this book is his labor of love.

This book tells you everything that you might want to know about these plain clothes groups, including why they dress the way that they do, how they dress, and the differences that exist in the items worn by plain clothes people. Along the way, the reader is treated to many wonderful black-and-white pictures of plain clothes people.

Overall, I found this to be a fascinating and informative book. If you are interested in the plain clothes people, then I would have to say that you must get this book. It is an excellent resource!

I enjoyed reading about some of the reasoning behind the "why" of the dress of the plain folk, and thought this was an informative overview. I would have appreciated a little more depth into the Scriptural justification, but this worked at a high level. The details do get a little bit exhaustive further into the book, with charts carefully detailing each of the distinctions amongst the plain folk of buttons, hats, beards, and so on, so that the book started to read more like an "amish spotting" guide, to bring with along the lines of spotting who's who by beard length. Still, with plentiful pictures and a comprehensive overview, it was an enjoyable insight.

If you are really interested in ways of clothing than you will be satisfied. The book is acurate written contains lots of graphics and photographs. In the beginning is a short introduce to the dress as a language. After this you will find the reasons of plain clothing and historical background. But the main part is a full description about the tiniest details of mens and womens clothing.

I would recomend it to all who would like to read an interesting and detailed book about plain clothing.

The question asked by the title is thoroughly addressed by Mr. Scott in a very admirable manner of respect. With a heritage of plain dressing himself, the author necessarily focuses mostly on the people he is most familiar with. The book is thorough to a degree that is quite surprising - plain dress is complicated! There's a lot of information on practice as well as purpose, and the photos and diagrams are extremely imformative.

It is a rather poorly presented book. I think the publisher is to blame for photo quality that could have been better with a finer halftone screen. The paper choice combined with a magazine-like screen hampered the photos in my copy, and the photos are vital. It may simply be inconsistent print quality control, but this is an annoyance when I lay out good money for a book.

Overall, I have a very high opinion of the author and the book's content. This is perhaps the best book for anyone interested in the history and practice of plain dress.