The Visual History of Costume

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B.T. Batsford, 1989 - Art - 240 pages
"The core of the book consists of over 200 contemporary illustrations of dress (in both colour and black-and-white), arranged in order of date for easy reference. They include paintings, drawings, photographs, advertisements, stone effigies, brass rubbings all choosen to show what was worn at a certain date and by whom, and far more vivid and authoritative than any modern reconstruction. The commentaries to the pictures are broken up in terms of 'Head', 'Body' and Accessories', for ease of use, and they not only describe the dress in great detail, but show, for example, why a certain item may give away a sitter's social orgins, or may be particularly fashionable or ultra-conservative, for its date. A detailed introduction sets out the background to the evolution of clothing over the centuries, the broad changes themselves, and some guidance on how to look to contemporary sources for information on costume history - a process not wilthout pitfalls."--BOOK JACKET.

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Contents

Acknowledgements
6
Introduction
19
The history of costume
45
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