20,000 Years of Fashion: The History of Costume and Personal Adornment

If you can only own one book on the history of costume this is the book. I would put it on my top ten books to take to a desert island IF ONLY to remember what the world once looked like. It doubles as an art history book in the sense that it uses art up until the 20th century to show what people (albeit WEALTHY people who could afford to have their portraits done) wore. It is a beautiful resource.

This thick reference book will look great on your coffee table... I've referenced it more times than I can count- if you are interested in historical costuming, this is a must have for a jumping point to do more research. It shows an overview of history through fashion, though I must admit the reading didn't draw me in, despite several attempts to drudge through it. More than anything, this book is full of copies of primary and secondary sources- both photographs of museum artifacts and details of paintings and sculptures. It has some nice information on Egyptian and Roman fashion in the beginning, but other than that its primary focus is on Anglo-Saxon oriented fashion. It must be stressed that this book is not an end all and be all when it comes to the word on fashion- though it provides a useful and generalized overview, and it may happen to have what you are looking for, it does completely ignore some very important years/fashions (example: Tudor, late 1400-mid 1500s! ). Caveat emptor, more for art fans and theatre costumers than die hard history buffs, but overall a good buy.

This book is full of excellent 1st degree research. I have used it on multiple occassions to set me on the right track for doing intensive research on a variety of periods. It does lack a bit in non-Western costume, but the periods it does cover are done very well. Its a great reference book to have around.

20,000 Years of Fashion is one of the best general overviews of the history of clothing. It is full of many beautiful color prints that are lovely to look at, and they are all considered "primary resource". Primary resources are paintings, drawings, statuary, or any art from that specific period. It is considered to be the most reliable and accurate depictions of what was worn (and even these are subject to interpretation). This is in contrast to this same artwork redrawn today. A good example of this are the really beautiful books of medieval costuming done during the Victorian era, such as those by Rascinet. The illustrations are redrawn from medieval paintings. They are beautiful color illustrations - but totally inaccurate. You can see the Victorian influence and mindset in their drawings. 20,000 Years of Fashion brings a general overview of clothing history and how it was influenced by its environment. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in reading about clothing history or anyone just looking for a lovely book of pretty pictures.