Seeing Through Clothes

This book is essential for people who is interested about visual arts. Anne Hollander knowledge about clothes and its interaction with Art is impressive. On the other hand, I'm spanish but I could understand everything: this book is easy to read and understand for not english people.

1. Seing through the clothes to the underlying anatomy and how this time specific anatomy was handled. Pregnancy an interesting challenge.2. Seeing through the clothes the statement clothes are making. Glory, nobility, godliness, but mostly invidious comparisons in my judgement.3. Through the clothes just seeing. Until this book I had no idea how limited my visual apparatus was. The impoverished Blessed Family clothed in well draped woolens going at fifty dollars a yard, never something out of Filene's.The book is a palatable reductionism of civilisation with the usual shortcomings, but the pschological impact is unique. No book has transformed me in a more fundamental way.

Hollander brings an art historian's eye to this survey of the history of Western European costume. Her interest lies less in historical detail than in the ways in which the governing esthetic of what makes a man handsome, or a woman beautiful, has changed over time and in how those changes have been reflected in costume and art. Occasionally, Hollander badgers the reader with a personal theory that is not adequately supported by the information she provides in the text, but most of the book is informative and thought-provoking. If you already have a general knowledge of historic costume, you will find much to interest you in Hollander's book.

This book is an enjoyable read on the history of clothing. I found this book in the midst of researching my thesis on the history of Italian Renaissance clothing. Hollander makes some intersesting observations of the effect Hollywood has on the general publics visual perceptions of various historical periods. Although she has a lot to say not everything is very well researched. If your intent is scholarly research, take everything with a grain of salt. If your intent is entertainment this is an excellent history of clothing. I very much enjoyed reading this book. If you are looking into the history of dress I also suggest a book by Elizabeth Birbari, Dress in Renaissance Italy. The Birbari is very hard to find, but well worth it once it is found.