This is part of a series published by "The Heritage: Care-
Preservation-Management" programme in the UK, aimed at museum
professionals. I find it a very useful introduction to the study of
dress -- or as the author says, "Why people wear clothes," -- for
both fashion history and museum practice classes. You may already
know much of this information, but here it's presented in a well-
written, well-organised single package with excellent illustrations.
Tarrant writes that "The theme of the book is the structure of
western European dress," and she starts with fibres and looms and
moves on through construction techniques and shaping, with separate
chapters for women's and men's styles from the 16th century to the
late 20th century, plus some useful bits about haute couture and
ready-made clothes. There are 2 brief chapters on museum display at
the end. There's also a good bibliography (still useful in spite of
being 13 years out of date). I think it's worth the $42 [at
Amazon.com], even for a paperback.
The publisher's blurb says, "Clothing is the outward and visible sign
of taste, discrimination, social attitudes and status. ... What
then does clothing 'mean', and how should it be understood? Naomi
Tarrant answers the question not so much from an abstract theory but
from the physical reality of the clothes themselves." That's
probably as good a summary as anything I can tell you!
Suzanne
From: "Chiara Francesca" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: August 6, 2007 10:30:04 AM CDT
To: "Historical Costume" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [h-cost] Book: The Development of Costume, Naomi Tarrant
The Development of Costume, Naomi Tarrant is a book I am thinking of
purchasing but it is over 40.00 where I am looking at before the
discount.
Does anyone have this book? What do you think of her viewpoints
since she is actually working with the garments instead of the
theory of the garment?
Chiara
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