> I'm interested in playing with Regency England fashions but know almost > nothing about them. Can anyone recommend a good book or two on this topic?
I just finished a regency dress :-) (you can see it here: http://sbuchler.livejournal.com/61788.html ) 'cause of that I have an enormous regency book collection...none of which is with me at the moment, so I'm going to list my favorites from memory: For basic construction "getting started" advice, I'd turn to: Janet Arnold's _Patterns of Fashion 1: 1660-1860_ Jean Hunnisett's _Period Costume for Stage & Screen: Patterns for Women's Dress 1800-1909_ >From a pretty pictures/good read standpoint I'd turn to: _Fashion_ published by the Kyoto Institute (not much text, and it's not specific to regency, but the regency dresses are well worth drooling over ;-) and it has all the photos that the earlier _Revolution in Fashion 1715-1815_ had, but it's lots cheaper the pictures in the 1-volume and 2-volume sets are the same as far as I can tell.) Katell le Bourhis' _The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789-1815_ (only useful for French fashions, but has interesting text and beautiful pictures) _In Royal Fashion_ (this isn't as generally useful, as it's an analysis of Princess Charlotte's and Queen Victoria's wardrobes, but the text is fascinating, the pictures are beautiful, and it's not that often you get to analyze the wardrobe for an individual) _Ackermann's Costume Plates_ published by Dover (this is pretty cheap, and gives a nice smattering of the late-regency fashion plates) Nancy Bradfield's _Costume in Detail: Women's Dress 1730-1930_ (this is all re-drawings of extant garments, but it shows how the clothes are fastened and other useful bits that are generally hard to see when looking at either the pattern or photos of the garments) Penelope Byrde's _Jane Austen Fashion_ (this doesn't have much in the way of pictures but it does talk about how clothes were used/worn and has a good breakdown of accessories and all the bits and pieces that make up an outfit. Of the books, this is probably the best overview, if you combine it with something that has lots of pictures) For one-stop-shopping overview, my favorite sources are all on-line: http://locutus.ucr.edu/~cathy/reg3.html (generally a really nice overview with portraits, extant garments and fashion plates, plus useful historical and cultural info) http://www.demodecouture.com/realvict/ (pictures of extant garments) http://www.songsmyth.com/costumerscompanion.html (useful breakdown of the parts that make up the outfits, plus reviews of patterns and pointers towards sources for accessories) Hope that wasn't too much :-) -sunny _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
