Fashion: Amazon.ca: Kyoto Costume Institute: Books

Product Description

A person's clothing is an essential key to his or her culture, class, personality or even religion. This text shows how our ancestors dressed, considers the amazing accomplishments of contemporary fashion and shows how our descendants may dress in the distant future as clothing design evolves.

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.9 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most beautiful books I have seen, Dec 30 2002

By

C. Berte (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Fashion (Hardcover)

Being familiar with two earlier Kyoto Costume Institute (KCI) publications--The Evolution of Fashion (19th & 20th Century) and The Revolution of Fashion (18th Century)--I was excited to discover that Taschen had produced a new book covering fashions from the 18th to the 20th Century found in the KCI collection. Although I was concerned that this new book might just be a revision and compilation of photos from the two earlier exhibits (with, perhaps, some additional costumes to cover the second-half of the 20th Century), at 700+ pages, I figured there must be at least a few new entries.

The book arrived today and I have been unable to put it down. As soon as I opened the book, I knew that my fears had been unfounded. The new book not only includes costumes found in the earlier books, but includes detailed close-ups of those costumes and many new costumes. The depth of color and detail in the photos is extraordinary. (Taschen is well known for the quality of its publications.) Although the text accompanying the photos is generally quite minimal--limited in many cases to date, description and the inventory number of each piece--it will often include some historical information in an introduction to a period or style. Moreover, many of the 20th Century entries are preceded by a short biographical sketch of the designer whose fashions follow.

The KCI is well-known for its extensive collection of Western costume. One of the Institute's rather unique features lies in its presentation of those costumes. Rather than laying the clothes out flat, they are displayed on manikins in the manner in which they would have been worn--including shoes, hats, gloves, purses, fans, etc. Through this book, Taschen has succeeded in making the KCI collection accessible to the rest of the world.

(As testament to the quality and beauty of this book, two co-workers I showed the book to today--people who are not costumers or designers--have placed their orders for a copy.)

Without a doubt, this book will be a well-treasured addition to my library.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable Book, Aug 3 2005

By A Customer

This review is from: Fashion (Hardcover)

I needn't add more superlatives about this book on fashion since it has all been said. I will say that it is worth every penny whether you are a student of fashion design or are just an amazed spectator. A wonderful and remarkably assebled collection of fasion from the 18th century till now.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Worth Every Penny and Much More!, Jun 24 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Fashion (Hardcover)

This beautiful book blew me away! As a long time fashionista I always crave a book of many color pages showing lots and lots of exquisite dresses from centuries past as much as the last few decades and this book does it up right in spades for anyone who loves to look at page after page of full page color photographs showing loads of very fine detail in haute couture...over 650 pages of this, with a really fine quality printing of the images.
First rate! Should be in every serious fashionista's library!

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars this book is one of the best
This book is spectacular. I have nothing bad to say about it at all. It chronicles fashion from the 18th century to today, and it shows as well as tells you clear examples of... Read more

Published on Jun 23 2004 by EP Trauma

5.0 out of 5 stars nice nice nice
It is extremely nice and informative book. It helped me, when I was doing my fashion design practise at PPUPPY couture house. Read more

Published on Jun 18 2004 by Algirdas