A History of Costume

As it covers all eras, from ancient to present, mainly the western world, I believe that it does a great job. Patterns are great, and useful. The description of each era is great.

This was one of my favorite books as a child. I took it out of the library dozens of time to look at the beautiful illustrations and try to draw them or make doll clothes like them. So many great memories!

Es un libro muy interesante, con muchas ilustraciones que dan apoyo al texto. Trae varios patrones para la confección de éstos; sin embargo, no puedo comentar si son de ayuda pues no los he utilizado aún. Considero que es un buen libro para consultar por diferentes períodos de la historia, para obtener ayuda y sacar ideas.

The text of this book is dry, but very informative. There are many sketched and black and white illustrations, but not enough to fully support the text. (I recommend Boucher's 20,000 Years of Fashion as a companion). The patterns give a better idea of the construction of the clothes, but they are approximations and no tips are given for making your own. Make sure you refer to other sources before using his patterns. This book is most useful for its detailed descriptions of specific periods, including not just the cut and style of the period, but also material, shoes, hairstyles, accessories, and who wore what and how and on what occasions.

This book has helped me enormously when I was trying to costume many plays and events. Though the patterns in the book are not quite exact, they give so good of a beginning for costume work that they have helped so much in the detail work.