How to Read a Dress: A Guide to Changing Fashion from the 16th to the 20th… (utgåvan 2017)

Great pictures from collection of dress from the US, Europe, and Australia, but the chapters were a bit technical for a novice like me. Still, both beautiful to look at and education, making it a great book for fashion lovers ( )

La moda cambia constantemente, y mientras algunos estilos nacen rompiendo con el pasado, muchos otros van modificándose casi imperceptiblemente de año en año, haciéndose muy difícil su identificación. La visión de conjunto que aporta esta guía mostrándonos mediante detalladas fotografías las características de cada periodo, hace que sea una guía visual seria para el estudio de la moda femenina a lo largo de cinco siglos. ( )

Fashion's not my thing at all but I was intrigued by the premise of the book and had it come through my library holds just as I have recently finished watching the first season of Netflix's show, 'The Crown' and discovering a website dedicated to focusing on examining the jewelry used in period pieces. So it seemed like a compliment to what I was watching and reading!

The book is a straightforward text in the sense that once you get the layout, it's the same. Edwards divides these dresses into periods of time, examining their fabrics, designs, the purpose of some such color or what not, what might compliment the dress, what the dress was worn for (weddings, day wear, etc.) and more. At the beginning of each period is a short introduction talking about the societal, political, cultural context, etc.

It pretty much hit what I was expecting out of the book but it's not without problems. Like other critical reviews, I agree that having more views of each dress (front, back, etc.) would have been helpful. Sometimes the introductions are really tedious to read and feels more like an academic thesis in terms of tone. I also would have loved more dresses that reflected all classes, instead of mostly the rich. i'd also love to see a book that has dresses from non-North American/Western European countries.

But it was helpful. It made me think of the various period pieces I've watched and made me grateful that I don't have to wear some of these very cumbersome-looking dresses. It also made me glad that I didn't buy this as it's definitely more of a borrow for me.

But if you're someone who is interested in fashion, have an academic interest in the evolution of clothing, participate in cosplay, etc. this might be a handy book to have or at least access. It might be a good complimentary resource, though, and not something that can be used alone. ( )

There is a great variety of garments in this book, including some gorgeous examples from early periods circa 1550-1700. It feels thoroughly researched (though I admit I would not recognize errors since I don’t have a background in fashion history, merely an interest). I really enjoyed the introductory sections before each chapter, which laid out some of the historical, social, and technological changes that drove fashion history. I loved the photos that were included.

My criticisms would be: the font size is really small and there are a lot of details that are hard to see. I would gladly have paid $15-20 more for a larger-format book with larger text and illustrations. The quality of the reproductions is very high, just small. The other thing I would like would be to see more frequent images of the rear view of the garments, as well as more examples of the underwear or foundation garments that would be worn with different styles (there are maybe 4-5 pictures of undergarments; the rest are just described). Finally there are a fair number of pretty glaring typos, suggesting that the budget mainly went to reproduction rights and color printing, not editing .

Despite these quibbles, I really enjoyed the book. I’m not a costumer, so I don’t have any practical reason to have this book and can’t speak to its usefulness, but I enjoyed looking through it and learned a lot. ( )