Costumes and clothes are the most visible means we have of expressing ourselves. For hundreds of years they have been used to signify status, power, political messages and wealth, while for ordinary people they have been adapted for various trades and professions.
At the period when this guide begins, the 16th century, fashionable dress was the preserve of the privileged few. Only the wealthiest in the land (that is, royalty and the court), could afford to purchase the luxury fabrics, furs and jewels that cost many times more than the annual earnings of a working man.
Gradually, however, with the rise of the middle classes and general improvements in standards of living for most people over the centuries, it has become a commodity to which we can all aspire.
Perhaps because very few people, past or present, are immune to the seduction of beautiful clothes, we can relate our own experience of fashionable dress to that of our ancestors. This little book, takes the reader on a visual tour through various styles of attire, admittedly these predominantly show the outfits for the females, although there are a few examples of men's outfits in there as well.
Contents:
Tudor Magnificence and Elizabethan Imagery 1500-1600
Children's Dress
Excess, Revolution and Restorations 1600-1700
Behind the Masque
The Age of Elegance 1700-1800
Sumptuous Silks
Underwear up to 1800
Domesticity and the Industry of Fashion 1800-1900
A Life of Leisure
In Mourning
Flappers, Modern Women and Radical Fashion 1900-2000
Cutting the Cloth
Underwear up to 2000
Glossary
