Customer Reviews

Tudor Costume and Fashion (Dover Fashion and Costumes)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Depending on what you want to do. It won't show you how to sew anything. However, it does have great pictures in clear black and white showing what people wore in all different classes of society from about 1485 to 1601, carefully documenting changes in high fashion and also showing differences in different countries (England, Spain, France, Germany). I could recognize many of the portraits he used, as a historian of the time, but his drawings made what was actually being worn more clear than in portraits. You couldn't sew a costume just using his pictures, but if you had a pattern from somewhere else, his pictures would make it look more accurate. For details of sewing techniques, and photos of actual period clothes .I would go to Janet Arnold. I think that they supplement each other well. But neither is really a pattern book (except maybe if you are much more advanced than I am).

For dedicated scholars of costume, Norris's book is irritating for two reasons: he seldom lists the sources of his beautifully drawn illustrations, making it difficult to assess their accuracy, and he packs his text with rambling digressions into history and historical anecdotes of dubious authenticity. However, you will never find so much information about Tudor costume for people from all ranks and all walks of life in any other place (especially not for such a low price), and Norris's wonderful black-and-white drawings illuminate for the discerning reader how some of the magnificent ensembles depicted by Van Dyke and Hilliard must have been made. By all means buy this book if you have any interest in Tudor costume, but check Norris against dated sources first if your objective is museum-quality recreation.

This book is a must have for anyone who is interested in fashion of the 1500s. It is the best tool I have found so far for Tudor fashions in most of Europe. It gives a great deal of information that is valuable to anyone who is recreating dress of the era. However, it does have some flaws. Norris tends to draw conclusions without giving reasons. Some of these appear to be incorrect. Also, there is a a profoundly English slant to information. Overall however, it is the best resource for Tudor fashion. For Elizabethian, "Elizabethan Costuming" by Janet Winter & "Patterns of Fashion : The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women C1560-1620" by Janet Arnold are better for the money.

This text and it's medieval counterpart have good images and are quite well drawn from the originals they are taken from. The problem is they are redrawn images, not the originals and so you do have to be careful if using this as a primary source book. The text is, in my opinion, dodgy and it's probably better for more reliable books to be used and use this for the pictures.

I found this book to be a superb resource for designing and constructing Tudor period clothing. I agree with other reviewers that his ramblings can be distracting at times, but the entertainment and interest value overcome the drawbacks. The accessories shown in drawings are superb resources for hair styles and equipages used by Faire Cast persons. Once you have the vision of what you want, there are other sources available to tell you the "how to", this book is primarily a vision book...and a grand one, indeed. If you are interested in Renaissance Faires as a Cast member or a member of the Needleworker's Guild then this book is well worth purchasing.

As an Elizabethan Recreationist, this book is invaluable for costume research. Our guilde has call 'Elizabethan Costuming for the Years 1550-1580' by Janet Winter & Carolyn Savoy the bible for Renaissance Fair participants. Well this is now the 'New Testament'

This book is a good resource for the serious historic costumer, and fun to peruse through for anyone who enjoys this sort of thing. The reason I do not say this is a good resource for any historic costumer is that not all of the information in here is completely accurate, and if you are trying to recreate an historically accurate costume (or write a paper on historic costume, etc...) you will need to know what things in here you can believe, and what you should be wary about. Many of the terms used to refer to articles of clothing are not terms in standard use in the costuming world today, and some of the information that Norris presents as fact has since been proven wrong. The only reason I still gave this book four stars despite all that I have previously mentioned is that the pictures are wonderful. I have never seen a book that has such a plethora of sketches of so many different things relating to costume. Girdles, headpeices, hair styles, articles of jewelery, embroidery motifs, and trim are all shown in more detail than one can usually see, even in full-page color photographs. Not many of the pictures are in color, but the colors used in the original portraits are described in the accompanying commentary. This book is a good supplementary peice of information, but be careful not to take everything in it as absolute truth.

Herbert Norris, in this book explores so much more then just clothing. It is by this virtue that I recommend it to you. He researches hair, jewlery, furniture, fabric, embroidery, and many other details besides the clothing of the Tudor dynasty. The one draw back for this book is found in his redrawings of portraiture...Norris tends to focus more on the aesthetic and less on authentic reproduction of the art. It's a minor flaw vastly out-weighed by its many virtues.

As the owner of a costume business that specializes in historical costuming, I really appreciate the detail in both text and illustration. I particularly like the attention paid to accessories and details, and the fact that information is given for the various social classes. It's lavish illustrations have been an inspiration to me, and to my customers.

I have read in the following reviews of this book, that it is inaccurate and offers little in garment construction information. Let me say that I have found this book highly useful and refer to it frequently along with my Uffizi Museum book, National Gallery book, and Janet Arnold's: Patterns of Fashion. I bought this book originally from the Huntington Library giftshop. This book offers a brief overview of Tudor Fashion from all the most important countries and regions in Western Europe, English fashion of the time receiving the most attention. There is a brief section in the back on dyes and colors (mainly for England). The line drawings are all in black and white. There are historical quotes of descriptions of outfits worn at noteable occasions (Queen Margot of France, my favorite). The sections on Spain and Italy I found interesting. I particularly enjoyed the drawn cataloguing of jewelry, gloves, hats, shoes and swords for each country. There are even a few drawings of corsets and farthingales. I have found this book to be a good resource to add to my collection of research materials. If you have an eye for detail and the desire to experiment and or research further how things were made, you will enjoy this book. This is not a "how to", but a good idea book. I don't regret it.