A History of Costume

by Carl Kohler

Egypt, Babylon, Greece up through 19th-century Europe; based on surviving pieces, art work, much more. Includes many clear, measured patterns for reproducing historic costumes. Full text. 595 illustrations. "Landmark in the field of Western European costume . . . exceptional value for its price." — American Artist .

Genres: History, Fashion, Nonfiction, Reference, Art, Sewing, Fashion History

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

Reviews

[Joy Pixley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers clothing styles from antiquity to the 19th century. To give you an idea of how dry and academic the text is, the first English translation of this book was published in 1928. I have the black and white Dover edition, published in 1963. It is a no-nonsense reference book, and gives the impression (to me, a rank amateur) of being well-researched.

I was mostly interested in the sections on ancient cultures up to about the 16th century, so I read the first 300 pages or so and just skimmed through the illustrations for the last 150 pages. He gives less than 70 pages from the ancient Egyptians to the Romans, but that's still more than I could find anywhere else. We get a bit on Teutonic and then straight onto Medieval Europe, and then it's Europe all the way. Apparently other parts of the world didn't have clothing; there's no mention here of Asia, for instance, which was disappointing.

The illustrations are marvelous. He illustrates the types of clothing with sculptures, bas-reliefs, vase paintings, and the like, as well as photographs of authentic items of clothing found in bogs or graves, or saved and displayed in museums. I was most fascinated with how he reverse engineered the ancient clothing -- how did they get the specific sweeping folds shown in the sculptures, for instance. He includes many line drawings to help give visuals to his detailed descriptions (which I liked) and takes up lots of page space showing his ideas of patterns for recreating the clothes (which occasionally helped clarify his description but were mostly useless for me).

Why might you want to read this book? Good question. I wanted more insights into historical technologies and trends in clothing to give me worldbuilding ideas for my low-tech fantasy world. This book did that very well, although I would have liked more description of the reasons why various fashions changed the way they did. I expect to refer back to this book and its illustrations frequently as I describe how the various cultures in my fictional world dress at different time periods. If you are instead hoping to actually recreate these costumes for reenactment purposes and are looking for patterns, I would look somewhere else first; especially for more recent historical time periods, it seems that there are more detailed instructions out there. However, this was the best book I could find on ancient clothing styles -- if anyone knows of others in this area, let me know!

As I mentioned, this is a dry and scholarly text. It gets repetitive in some descriptions and incomplete in others, and the organization is not always clear. The index is decent, which I appreciate. Not a "fun" read, but a useful one.

[Leonie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very informative book. I was especially impressed by the many, many pictures and illustrations that were included with the text.

[Kathryn Baron]

Some patterns

[Anna Steinman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Includes some patterns!

[Phair · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my first costume books purchased while taking a costume class in college. I loved that it contained bits of patterns, line drawings and photographs of actual clothing pieces. One of our assignments was to create a 3/4 model of a costume from a period of our choice. I picked figure 234 in this book- a 15th c German dress with ermine pendant sleeves. A year or so later I made a full size version of the same gown to wear to SCA events. My Kohler is much marked and wobbly in its binding but it still brings back those good days when I first became interested in historic costume.

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a must for people intersted in costuming. To someone who is not native english speaker, the academic text might be a bit hard to understand. The book is full of information and it sometimes feels that you are drowning in the river and need to put the book away to get a breath of fresh air. Still, the book is interesting, full of information and patterns and lovable pocket size edition is easily carried in your bag.

[Nereid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually want to rate it 3.5 stars.
Generally, it's a really well-researched book about Western costumes, you can almost find everything you need in this book. However, it's really hard to follow the content when there's not enough image to support the description. It's very hard to picture what the costume would look like when you are not a pattern maker, seamstress or those who already have knowledge of outfit design.
A lack of visual support is a huge pity for such a detailed book.

[Xandie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book that detailed the many different styles of clothing humans have worn around the world and throughout the ages. It includes many images and patterns to help explain the clothes as well. Unfortunately, it seems as if you need to be a seamstress to understand everything the book is trying to tell you.

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personally, not that great. I rather use something like Costume in Detail, or 1000 Years of Fashion, if you can find it.

[Gerri George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for historical novels, especially sagas which span a hundred years.

[Thepaganpuzzler · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those quintessential authorities; every constumer should own one!

[Alessandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, but his patterns are all based on supposition.

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Nifty resource, but I really didn't like how the author talked about women's clothing masking our "natural defects".

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black and white, does include patterns.

[Rhode PVD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of illustration, mostly line drawings showing outlines and ratios for patterns.