Clothing - 10.The Complete History of Costume & Fashion: From Ancient Egypt to the Present Day by Bronwyn Cosgrave

Product Details

Hardcover: 256 pages

Publisher: Checkmark Books; Reprint edition (February 1, 2001)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0816045747

ISBN-13: 978-0816045747

          Now a multibillion-dollar global obsession, fashion from clothes and jewelry to makeup and grooming has reflected both individual identity and cultural mores since the beginning of history, declares Bronwyn Cosgrave, an editor at British Vogue. The Complete History of Costume & Fashion: From Ancient Egypt to the Present Day is a well-written, lavishly illustrated resource that, the author maintains, corrects many of the errors found in previously published references. Fashion-magazine devotees will enjoy flipping through this beautiful, engaging book just as much as serious students of the subject will relish poring over it. 

Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

4/5 A good general costume history

By "daniel0302" on September 8, 2001

This is a beautifully designed publication certain to be rewarding to someone seeking an overview of the subject. The text, while not truly in depth, is very readable and is written in a vernacular yet polished style. Customs of the various cultures and periods, along with manners and gender roles in society, are covered as well. Ancient Europe and the Mesopotamian cultures (Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria) are omitted. Some of Ms. Cosgrave's information about other early cultures - especially the Egyptians - does not totally coincide with other authors and should not be taken as gospel, but rather as a possible interpretation. In other chapters, some of the observations and conclusions are quite insightful. The illustrations are wonderful and astutely chosen (with the exception of some 19th century line drawings used to illustrate early Egyptian, Greek and Roman costume.) The illustrations are also reproduced well, and the number of color plates is quite abundant for a book of this price. The books main weakness, and this is a big weakness, is that these beautiful and well chosen illustrations are not consistently attributed with the date, name of the work, artist, or museum, and in fact some of them are incorrectly identified or dated. Also, in the sections of the book on the 19th and 20th centuries - both in the illustration placement as well as the text - the reader does not really get a clear picture of the looks of the individual decades and periods within these centuries. Given the rapid changes of silhouettes and styles that occur in these years, a more thorough and detailed account would be welcome. With these notable reservations, this publication has still achieved reasonable success, and is still a recommendable text on the subject, especially for novices. The attractive price - especially the Amazon price - makes this a good value as well and contributes to its overall rating.

          I believe that this book will give its readers a large source of material about clothing's transition to different styles and forms from century to century, and will teach its readers about the important changes in societal structures that came with clothing.