The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Costume and Fashion 1550-1920
Blandford Press | 1986 | ISBN: 0713718110 | English | 168 pages | PDF | 24.7 MB

Take a colourful journey through time. We start in those turbulent years of war and intrigue, the Late Middle Ages, which spanned the reigns of some of Europe's most memorable monarchs before moving on to the High Renaissance and through to the so-called Age of Reason and Elegance. In every period a host of figures depict the age's colourful characters ranging from peasants to princes, from musicians to musketeers. This book then goes on to explore the most brilliant and exciting epoch in costume history, the Rococo. Its elaborately ornamented architecture, furniture and art provided new concepts in decorative and even fantastic costumes. France continued to lead the fashion world throughout the Revolution, the Directoire, the Empire, the Romantic Era and the Second Rococo but then English, German, Spanish and other European influences begin to emerge. English designs became increasingly influential during the Victorian era and the early years of the twentieth century. Nor was America behind. Elias Howe's invention of the sewing machine in 1846 facilitated great advancement in the clothing industry and led to the late twentieth century revolution in casual fashion. In tracing the fascinating and colourful changes of nearly 400 years, this encyclopedia with its 150 colour illustrations of the great years of fashion will be as interesting and valuable to the modern fashion designer, the photographer, the wardrobe mistress or theatrical performer as it is to the general reader.