Customer Reviews

Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey

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I'm a costume designer, and I found this book extremely helpful! It's absolutely full of images and really lets you get a good idea of how pleats, gathers and all of that was done during this time. It also gives you a look into the aesthetics of the time (hair/make-up) because these are real people of the time and not just some drawings. I highly recommend this book it would have been all I needed to make multiple victorian/edwardian costumes.

I have bought (and loved) several costume research books on the Victorian/Edwardian era. Fashion plate oriented books, most notably "Victorian and Edwardian Fashions from 'La Mode Illustree'", are great for research, but for true visual aides, the photographs found in this book are indispensable. The photos range from amateur snapshots to posed, professionally done portraits. With an almost equal distribution of male and female subjects, this book may be the best guide to authentic Victorian and Edwardian costume. Unlike fashion plates, the photos show costumes for a variety of occasions and suitable for different ages and sizes. Spanning the entire Victorian and Edwardian eras, you can locate most popular styles within the tons of black and white photos. For realism, check out this book. If you are more interested in the latest in fashion of the time, check out "Victorian and Edwardian Fashions from 'La Mode Illustree'". A great source!

This informative book uses photos and illustrations well. It's probably best for readers with a pre-existing interest in the topic, as it's a bit dry and academic to draw in the first time visitor to the subject.

This book is perfect for anyone interested in the Victorian Era. The book is full of beautiful pictures, and each one has its own caption. The pictures are all in order by year, so its fun to see how the dresses and hairstyles slowly changed from 1840-1910. Besides pictures, there is also alot of interesting reading. You get to learn all about men, women, and children's fashions of this era.

I love this book, have read it before in the earlier edition (Fashion and reality.) as I haven't read them paralelly I take their word for it that this edition is revised. All the elements I appreciated are still there.Beautifull, clear photographs with every detail showing.Blocks of text on the fashion in generall. Comments on the changes of fashion and how different factors interlink, obvius once pointed out but not seen in many other books. Such as who leads fashion, follows the main stream or is allready out of fashion, and why! Individuall short texts for each photo, wich points out what can bee studied in this particular picture.That in the same photo a person may wear warying items, in fashion different years, and you must look for the youngest element in order to date it. A clear deffinition of the aim and boundrys of the book, notes to quotations, index, and a bibliography all adds upp to an impression of a reliabel and abel author who has researched the subject thorougly. In addition she manages to write an english that is fun and easy to read even for me who does not have it as my first language.

This book is an excellent contemporary resource for anyone interested in dress of the period. It contains portraits ranging from the posed and formal to the less formal (though still staged). As a record of what real people wore it is invaluable, showing not only the well-to-do and fashionable but the working classes as well, sometimes in uniform. Add to this that the settings also are recorded and it is a gold mine for anyone researching the period.