Costume

DK Eyewitness Books

by L. Rowland-Warne

DK Eyewitness Book. Full-color photos. Live models display loincloths and togas, powdered wigs and "steeple" headdresses, buckskins and bloomers, shoes, wedding dresses, children's clothes, and bathing suits in this guide to clothing throughout the ages.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Childrens, Fashion, Picture Books, Art, Reference

63 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The reason this book is so wonderful is that it uses live models photographed in old-fashioned clothing to demonstrate past fashion. One of the best is a two-page spread of a lady putting on a crinoline dress (1860s). This is illustrated with seven different photographs showing each step of dressing.

All the photographs are in full-color.

You get to see people dressed as vikings, Renaissance men and women, a Roman in a tunic and toga, and many other fun things! And on live people, not lame illustrations or mannequins or something. It is excellent.

However, the text is lacking. It only provides bare-bone information and some interesting tidbits. But there is not enough detail or explanation.

I found the book fascinating because of the pictures, but I couldn't give it a higher rating due to the lack of comprehensive information.

[Lauren G · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, this book is only OK. It's definitely meant for children, so you can't really expect much.

It has lots of photographs of clothing, both actual antique/vintage and some reproduction work for plays. It also has various drawings.

My main problem is it starts off chronological, and then goes all over the place and starts doing themes such as blushing brides instead of time periods. The problem with that is a lot of the theme pages don't give an accurate time next to the object (or too broad of a time period; fashion changed very fast), so if you find it interesting you might not really be able to find out when it is from. This is especially important if you were trying to put something together that is period accurate.

I think this book is fine to introduce a young child to various costume throughout history, but I think even teenagers would be better off getting a book that has more information about the clothing and objects and that has a better layout.

[Meg Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE Eyewitness Books. This one is great for quick period costume reference-it doesn't cover much of each important century, but it gives good photographic examples of specific silhouettes. Furthermore, instead of the cruddy illustrations that tend to accompany most history books for children (this sounds like a pretty big generalization, but I can't think of a whole lot outside of the realm of the interactive Klutz books that look all that good), we get illustrations from the respective historical periods. If you're an adult costumer and see this at a library sale, grab it-it's great for quick reference.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember being incredibly taken with Eyewitness books as a kid, and I was equally charmed as an adult. I was really pleased to find reliable, well-illustrated, kid-appropriate historical information, which will certainly be useful to me in developing some children's costuming activities for this summer. I'm planning on scoping out the Dinosaurs one to get my knowledge up to snuff.

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you have kids, teach kids, or have any influence in the local library this DK Eyewitness series is a must. it is easy to use, broken into kid size bites, and has very cool pictures. a perfect home reference collection for any household with children!
however, this particular book needs an update. it ends before today's youngsters were born.

[Victoria Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Costume" by L. Rowland-Warne is so thoroughly researched and well-written it would make a fashion lover out of the most hardened academician. Published by Dorling Kindersley it's organized chronologically from man's earliest relationship with clothing during the Ice Age, "about 30,000 yearsago", to the contemporary British design company, "Workers for Freedom" in the early 1990's.
Interwoven with exquisite illustrations, paintings and photographs the sections come alive with a wealth of fascinating facts. One of the most interesting is the "Bells and boxes" section on pages 22 and 23, which features an elaborate black and white "engraving by Dutch artist Hans Holbein of a woman in typical northern dress," and a picture of a German couple with the "gentleman wearing a gown resembling a houppelande and his wife in a ballown headdress."
Along with the intriguing accompanying captions, the 64 pages of "Costume" also has charming photos of professional models in costumes that fit in with the surrounding data. As a standard for costume reference books this one is to be emulated by those who want to write one and use it for their research. For me, the most valuable thing about "Costume" is the knowledge that can be gained from repeated reading.

[Autumn Kearney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all of the DK Eyewitness books. They are sold individually, but together, they make up a set of small, encyclopedia-like books. The color photographs alone are worth the admission price. They are all so beautiful.

[Perri Irwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun book! It is very interesting. It talks about how fashions have changed over the years. It has a lot of fun pictures along with details about the different cultures and eras. This is a fun book to use to teach kids. They will find it interesting to see fashion change over the years. It may be fun to discuss how they think fashions are going to change in the future.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a history of British Costume, not a history of Costume, which is fine, since you couldn't do World Costume in a book this size, but since it's the American edition, and it's intended for kids, it might be nice for it to *say* somewhere that it's British costume only and not leave it to be deduced from context clues.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Eyewitness books. They are a phenomenal way to learn loads of information in a short amount of time. The entire series is a great resource for students studying any topic.

[Cool]

LIBRARY SHELVES

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great images, but it jumps around a lot rather than going in chronological order. Also, there are some inaccuracies, especially in the corset information.