Product Description

If you love the designs, fabrics, and sheer beauty of 19th and early 20th century women's fashions, this book will be your guide and time machine. It presents over 450 enchanting color photographs of modern-day models wearing the dresses, waists, undergarments, and accessories of this elegant era, including daywear, sportswear, and formalwear. Unusual items such as fancy dress, aesthetic garments, and reform styles are explained and illustrated. This book will help both novice and expert collectors accurately identify and date their collections by evaluating the silhouette, construction, style, and details of fashionable garments. Sound advice for maintaining, laundering, and repairing them is also provided, as is an updated price guide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #683253 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author
Kristina Harris of Springfield, Oregon is one of the antique clothing field's recognized experts. A member of the Costume Society of America, she is an enthusiastic writer, lecturer,and workshop director.

Customer Reviews

Wonderful fashion archive
I enjoy all of Kristina Haris' books on fashion, and I am so thankful that she has taken the time to show everyone actual pieces of fashion history. One poster remarked that it was hypocritical of Kristine to photograph women in these delicate vintage clothes that need to be preserved -- as a museum director, I understand that remark, yet I believe that sometimes it is good to show how the clothes would have actually looked on a real person, especially with accessories. I am just delighted Kristine shares pictures of these outfits with us, because good color photos of authentic historical dress are very hard to come by.

Fabulous Clothing....Poorly handled
When I first began collecting antique clothing, I picked this book up. It has some beautiful pieces pictured, and seems to be competently written. I know that not all antique clothing is worth collecting and preserving. But it seemed that it was the intent of the writer to encourage people to care for antique clothing properly in her writing. However, the photos of modern women being skinned into fragile pieces of history, playing dress-up for a photographer is a bit hypocritical. I can not take this book seriously, and it makes me cringe when I try to flip through to reference the styles. It doesn't often come off of my bookshelf, and it's almost been donated to the book exchange a couple of times.

Beautifully photographed, concisely written overview of a great fashion era
This book is a perfect companion to Alison Gernsheim's compilation of vintage B&W fashion photographs (for Dover). Schiffer, best known for its books aimed at antiques collectors, presents this survey by Kristina Harris (who herself models some of the outfits) of women's fashion decade-by-decade from 1840 to the edge of the Jazz Age. Most of the outfits presented here are reproductions, but perfect ones; as Harris explains, real vintage clothes dating back to the Victorian and Edwardian periods are often too fragile to wear and are better suited for display purposes. The photography is mostly full-color, of modern models wearing the clothes (mixed with an ample number of vintage photographs and illustrations) and excellent. The text is smoothly written and highly detailed, going over every detail of Victorian costume from hats to underwear. Put this in your vintage-fashion library!