Clothing - 8.Fashion: The Definitive History of Costume and Style by DK Publishing

Product Details

Hardcover: 480 pages

Publisher: DK ADULT (October 1, 2012)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0756698359

ISBN-13: 978-0756698355

          Tracing the evolution of fashion — from the early draped fabrics of ancient times to the catwalk couture of today — Fashion: The Definitive History of Costume and Style is a stunningly illustrated guide to more than three thousand years of shifting trends and innovative developments in the world of clothing.

          Containing everything you need to know about changing fashion and style — from ancient Egyptian dress to Space Age Fashion and Grunge — and information on icons like Marie Antoinette, Clara Bow, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Alexander McQueen, Fashion catalogs the history of what people wear, revealing how Western fashion has been influenced by design from around the world and celebrating costume and haute couture.

          Fashion will captivate anyone interested in style — whether it's the fashion-mad teen in Tokyo, the wannabe designer in college, or the fashionista intrigued by the violent origins of the stiletto and the birth of bling.

5/5 Upholds the DK Name

By C. Heiremans on November 1, 2012

I own multiple DK books and multiple volumes about the history of fashion. This book follows DK's tradition of gorgeous, informative coffee table books, as well as offering new information to someone with an amateur interest in historical dress. (For some context, here are some of the fashion books I already own: Taschen's Fashion, John Peacock's The Chronicle of Western Costume, and John Peacock's 20th Century Fashion.)

The chapters focus on eras, and within those, the individual page spreads focus on specific topics (suits, sportswear, silhouettes, etc.) with multiple pictures of outfits on each page in a timeline format. DK uses this format to trace different trends, so sometimes there are several spreads that cover the same decade. The book differs from Taschen's and Peacock's books in that it has much more explanatory text and a greater variety of pictures: full costume photos, detail photos, period illustrations from advertisements and fashion plates, and examples from fine art.

This tome covers men's and women's fashion from King Tut to Kate Middleton, and mostly focuses on Western costume. If you're an expert on the history of fashion, this may end up being little more than a book of pretty pictures for you (and pretty pictures they are!). If you have a hobbyist's interest, then this book has a lot to offer. Either way this book definitely lays out information in a way that cannot be found anywhere else.

          I believe that this novel will teach its readers how certain styles of dress came about and how they evolved and progressed through eras of time. This book will also teach its readers about how events in those eras shifted the style of dress and how styles of clothing were spread across the world.