Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey
- ISBN13: 9780486242057
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Noted photo-historian documents bonnets, capes, caps, shawls, bodices and crinolines as people actually wore them—from 1840 to 1914. 235 early photos show aristocrats and the middle class (as well as Oscar Wilde, Lily Langtry, G. B. Shaw, Queen Victoria, etc.). A commentary and annotations to the photos describe and identify the costumes.
Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey
Written by admin under Fashion Books.
Deanna R. Hogg
February 25, 2010 at 12:52 pm
I am an artist and found this as a very good resoucrce for my victorian library.
Rating: 5 / 5
fatal_degree
February 25, 2010 at 3:27 pm
This is one of the first books in a long list of fashion books that I own. It is one of my favorites. It is a bit academic as another reviewer mentioned, but I feel that’s an important part of what makes this book a keeper. It covers European, mostly English fashion of the aristocracy. There are some great historical anecdotes. My favorites involve Empress Eugenie lounging audaciously around in her red knickers, and some about the rare daring lady to show up to the Ascott races in “pants”. The writing isn’t as witty as other books, but the historical detail is fantastic. There are quite a few pictures as well. The arrangement of the pictures and text is chronological and very easy to follow. The only drawback is that the pages are matte and not glossy. And the spine falls apart after a few years of hard labor.
Rating: 4 / 5
Hedera Femme
February 25, 2010 at 5:04 pm
It is a rare opportunity to see how people dressed in reality so far in the past. By contrast, fashion plates always show the garment in its perfect form, portraits are idealized, and original illustrations change the proportions, whether purposefully or not, to fit the times of the artist, not that of the garment. Photos do not lie.
The pictures feature mostly upper-class people in attractive poses, and the reader can enjoy seeing these people in their clothes, in a variety of settings, in the middle of different activities (cycling, skating, boating, traveling through snowy mountains, playing tennis…). The people sitting for portraits are looking their very best, trying out different positions, picking their finest clothes. As for the garments themselves, the pictures are clear and attractive, and the details are so telling!
The text dissects the pictures and explains costume of the era in detail, discussing the general trends, exceptions, class distinctions, and how the people in these old photos relate to all this. A Very good book for a costume historian.
Rating: 5 / 5
Talia
February 25, 2010 at 5:08 pm
A good and informative book. Just looking through it I learned a few things that I hadn’t ever heard or noticed before, such as the way that tightlacing of corsets doesn’t seem to have been too common before the late 1860s.
The book is very reasonably priced. The only trouble, which probably, were it to be fixed, would make the book cost a lot more, is that I often wish the photographs were printed in better quality.
Rating: 4 / 5
Bast
February 25, 2010 at 5:51 pm
Wonderful photographs of various people during the Victorian/Edwardian times – cannot stress enough how wonderful this book is. It even includes photographs of men which seem to be somewhat rare in this kind of book.
Rating: 5 / 5