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Review
-"Times Education Supplement
"Serious and beautifully illustrated."
-"Observer
"A definitive work. . . Highly recommended."
-"Library Journal
"Rewarding to anyone interested in the history of women as people."
-"Christian Science Monitor
"The method is impeccable, the presentation flawless and the information fascinating. The scaled cutting diagrams are readily useable."
-"Educational Theatre Journal
--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Product Description
Norah Waugh's book has, for many years, been the definitive work of reference for teachers and students of fashion design, for dress designers, for costume makers - and anyone who is seriously interested in the history and construction of women's clothes.
Each period in the history of costume has produced its own characteristic line and silhouette, and the book includes numerous patterns taken from actual dresses, many of them rare museum specimens, illustrated by line sketches of the garments themselves. There are detailed notes on the production of women's dress with diagrams from and references to early technical books and journals.
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Women's fashions of the last years of Queen Elizabeth's reign continued to be worn for a time after James I came to the throne; yet during the first quarter of the seventeenth century there came a period of transition bringing with it a gradual elimination of the earlier extravagances. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
I didn't know what "bombazine" was until I read its Glossary; I had never heard of Lucile until I turned to Diagram 67; I had never seen the accounts of Poiret and Lucile claiming to have both abolished the corset until I read the Quotations from Contemporary sources. Reading Jane Austen's descriptions of what her modiste planned for her next gown is amusing, as well as the anecdotes involving long trains.
This book is about more than the cut of women's clothes; it is an exegesis of costume history as seen through the eyes of its wearers and makers. It exalts the humble professions of seamstresses and patternmakers, and inspires modern designers through a scholarly reverence for technique.
I have graded up several of the patterns to usable working specs, but I don't recommend this to the casual sewer; one must have a solid background in pattern drafting to attempt this. (Although the Vionnet "flapper" dress is a good project for the beginner.) If you're a hard-core pattern collector and enthusiast, you need this book. If you're looking for EZ instructions for a period costume, buy a Folkwear pattern.
However, the book has several shortcomings. Firstly it is printed on very cheap paper (this is a reprint version) and the black and white pictures/prints of paintings are very murky and badly reproduced on even thinner cheaper paper than the text.
The content of the book is fine for beginners but clearly the book has not been updated to reflect recent study on costume. The writing style is in the form of an endless stream of tit-bit information patched together making this book a boring read. Furthermore, the book is padded out with period quotations about costume, mainly in the form of inventory lists of costume. This adds little to the understanding of costume and the book should have been more tightly edited. Finally there are just not enough patterns in this book to make it a "must have" title - the patterns are not drawn on a grid so inaccuracies are inevitable. Anyone looking to find a variety of patterns for the period 1600 to about 1850 are going to be disappointed, but admittedly the period 1850 to 1930 is better covered by the book in terms of pattern variety. I will probably donate this book to my local library as it is not a keeper for me. Readers wanting up to date costume information are better served by acquiring texts from the various costume institutes in England.
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