Product Description

This bestseller brings the authors' analysis of Western dress up to date, and adds a number of new features. "Survey of Historic Costume, 4th Edition", is a basic text for readers who want an overview and chronology of costume, discussing the dress of each era within its historical, cultural and economic contexts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9062 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 585 pages

About the Author
Phyllis G.Tortora is Professor Emerita at Queen's College, where she was department chair for 17 years, teaching historic costume and furnishings, and textiles. Among the textbooks of which she is the author or co-author are Survey of Historic Costume and Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles, 7th edition. Her professional memberships include the International Textiles and Apparel Association, the Costume Society of America and the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. She serves as a consultant to the Historic Costume Collection of the Huntington Historical Society in Huntington, New York. Keith Eubank is a Professor of History, Emeritus, Queens College, CUNY. He had previously been the Chairman of the History Department and he was also part of the Doctoral Faculty in History, CUNY. Keith maintains scholarly affiliations with the American Historical Association and the Southern Historical Association.

Customer Reviews

Good book with a few drawbacks
This book is often used as a textbook in costume history courses. As far as textbooks go, it is definitely one of the best. The text is quite dense, since it covers a lot of material in a limited space. Despite this, it is never dull. The authors are always careful to cite their sources, as well as explain why they support one point of view over others in those instances where several conflicting opinions exist. The text has several very useful features: extensive bibliographies at the end of each chapter, as well as at the end of the book, are an excellent resource guide for more in-depth study; the visual summary tables at the end of each chapter review the basic progression of the silhouette within a period; and every chapter includes a section titled "Contemporary comments", which shows what the people who actually wore these garments thought about them. The careful attention the authors pay to the general historical, cultural, and political backgrounds of each period present fashion history as part of the greater framework of the history of Western society, which makes for an engaging read.

I stopped short of giving this text a 5-star rating for the following reasons:
1. Illustrations in the body of the text, primary research as well as drawings, are black and white. Color illustrations are confined to separate pages inserted in the middle of the book. The plates are too few and too small, and the color fidelity doesn't seem to be of exceptional quality. It seems that in an effort to keep costs down, the publisher sacrificed a vital part of the book. After all, when it comes to clothes, a picture often is worth a thousand words.
2. Whoever was in charge of making sure that the illustration and page numbers correspond to the ones cited, did an extremely poor job. What I mean is, when authors describe a particular garment, they'll refer to an illustration in parenthesis (see figure 8.10, page 182). Well, this illustration may or may not be on the page named, as well as the illustration may or may not be an example of what the authors are talking about. The correct illustration is never far (usually on the same page or the next page), and I have not yet encountered an instance where a cited illustration is absent entirely, but this discrepancy has occurred once or twice in almost every chapter. I place the full responsibility on the publishers, and would ask them in the future to be more careful when proofreading an expensive and otherwise admirable text.

Bottom line: buy this book if you intend to read it. If you are looking for a quick and clear visual reference of costumes through the ages, your money will be better spent elsewhere. Try The Complete History of Costume & Fashion: From Ancient Egypt to the Present Day

No frills text book
If you are looking for great illustrations and colorful examples of historical costume, don't bother. If you can look past that, it is a great text book to learn clothing in history.

Decent textbook, lacking in pics
This is a textbook that I was required to purchase for a history class. The reading is full of info and seems to be laid out well. However, there are not very many pics to show what the text is explaining. There are some pics, but alot of the time you are left trying to imagine what the text is describing, and they are vague in their descriptions sometimes. I am learning a background of the history though.