Worn on This Day: The Clothes That Made History

by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell

This stunning visual guide is a journey of discovery through fashion's fascinating history, one day at a time.
Beginning on January 1st and ending on December 31st, Worn On This Day looks at garments worn on monumental occasions across centuries, offering capsule fashion histories of everything from space suits to wedding gowns, Olympics uniforms, and armor. It creates thought-provoking juxtapositions, like Wallis Simpson's June wedding and Queen Elizabeth's June coronation, or the battered shoes Marie-Antoinette and a World Trade Center survivor wore to escape certain death, just a few calendar days apart.
In every case there is a newsworthy narrative behind the garment, whether famous and glamorous or anonymous and humble. Prominent figures like Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe, and the Duchess of Cambridge are represented alongside ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. Beautifully illustrated throughout, Worn On This Day presents a revelatory mash-up of styles, stories, and personalities.

Genres: History, Fashion, Nonfiction, Fashion History, Art, Coffee Table Books, Reference

336 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2019

About the author

Dr. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell is a fashion historian, curator, and journalist based in Los Angeles, CA.

Reviews

[♏ Gina☽ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book. It is very much different from other books written about fashion in history.

This book takes the reader through a calendar year. Each day there will be stories (and some photos) of what was worn on that historical day.

For me, there weren't enough photos or illustrations as I wanted to see everything. Of course, it is understandable that there won't always be photos when talking about many times before the invention of the camera. Even small drawings would have sufficed, should any exist, because far more stories were not illustrated than illustrated. When reading what happened on a certain day, and given a written description of the garment worn, I found it hard sometimes to envision the garment. However, that should not stop anyone from reading this book as it is filled with historical facts, and for those of us of a certain age, garments we will recall vividly (think Jacqueline Kennedy's pink pill box hat worn on the day JFK was shot, and Princess Diana's over-the-top fluff wedding dress).

[Jec · Rating 3 out of 5]

the concept of this book is wonderful however....the pictures are few and many are in the binding of the book which make them so hard to enjoy. i am sure the author did a tremendous amount of research which showed but i feel most of it was lost in the way the final product all came together. i was excited to purchase this but in the end i was glad i got it from the library first and sadly have changed my mind.

[Kate McMurray]

Very interesting, but I wanted more pictures. This would make an excellent page-a-day calendar, though.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would have been much better if there were more pictures. Also, several of the pictures are in the binding and difficult to see.

[Renuka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish it had more illustrations/pictures, but a great gift!

[Brian Centrone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book to delight any fashion lover or history buff.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worn on This Day basically goes through the year and assigns a single memorable garment or accessory to each day. This is everything from the yellow vests worn by Parisian rioters in 2018 to a gold snake bracelet worn in Pompeii, from the generic uniform of a WAVES officer to the very specific dress worn to Queen Elizabeth's coronation. This isn't really something you should read straight through, the way I did; it's meant to be dipped into. I wish it had more illustrations and photographs. Most of the costumes were only described, and I would have loved to see more things. It's also very Western and white-focused, though there are some notable exceptions. Still, I did enjoy it and it's a good look at fashion history.

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this book and hoping to see many photographs of clothing over the many years. There was an entry for nearly every day of the year for many years. However, there were only a few photos. What really irritated me was the photos were after the dates they were shown so you had to go back to read about the particular clothing. Another problem was some of the photos were placed in the middle of two pages and therefore cut into by the spine of the book.
I wasn't pleased with this at all.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book with a unique take on history. I was impressed at how garments influence, make and describe history. However, this book could have been so much better with some good editing and formatting. Many descriptions are unnecessarily long and could have easily been condensed, making the book more readable and also less cumbersome. Pictures often are not next to their description making this a frustrating read. Obviously, I would have loved many more pictures, but understand this is very pricy.

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf bc were not enough photos/pictures to go along with descriptions and some of photos were in crease on book. The writing was fine but whoever designed the book did a poor job it’s a fashion book without many fashion photos in it. Interesting idea though.

[Erin Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell's "Worn on this Day" book. For a time, Crimson-Campbell was a writer for People Magazine and her well-researched descriptions serve as a guide to a day-to-day fashion timeline. It's entertainment to flip to dates that matter to you to find out the featured fashion of that day. I was excited to see Jackie Kennedy featured near my birthday page. Another friend took the book to work and her colleague found out that her birthday celebrates Monica Lewinsky's famous blue dress. Kurt Cobain's mohair sweater is included and Crimson-Campbell worked with Rolling Stone Magazine to source the original price ($15.95) vs the auction price ($137,500) after he died.

I had the chance to see her present highlights from her book in October 2019, and she's an impressive and interesting presenter. Crimson-Campbell's writing can also be found in the Wall Street Journal in the Life & Arts section.

[Summer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was such a cool idea but unfortunately the execution just wasn't great. I'll bet the editor and publisher had a lot to say about making it just the right size and shape for mainstream consumption. And eurocentrism is ALLOWED, I supposed, but I felt disappointed that 99.9% of the items were from Europe or the US. I'm exaggerating if I say that it's 50% royal wedding gowns but I'm only exaggerating a little.

The worst part of this book is that not every item had a picture and the ones that did were not always easy to connect. For instance, a dress on page 266 is labeled "Empress Eugenie's Guardian Angel Gown" but the write up about it doesn't appear until 269. It's not a lot of pages, but it's enough to have the reader flipping back and forth to try to match the words and pictures.

[Susan Liston · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was SO disappointed with this book. It was a good idea, and there is a lot of interesting information, I guess... it's pretty boring to read a description of what someone was wearing. I see most of the reviews are saying what I'm going to say... IT NEEDED MORE PICTURES. Of everything it talked about. Not just a third of them. And some pictures, as others mentioned, are trapped in the binding and you can barely see them. And come a page or two AFTER the description. The cover features one of the most iconic outfits worn on any specific day, Jackie Kennedy in Dallas, but was there another picture of that pink suit? Nope.

Overall, this was a missed opportunity.

(Although I don't know that I needed a picture of Mark Zuckerberg in his "iconic gray t-shirt"....there wasn't one.)

[Theresa Jehlik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers a year and gives a day-by-day story or tidbit about an article of clothing. Some items were worn by famous people while others were worn by ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. Ranging from the years 79 to 2018, the author details the significance of each item in the context of world history. The 79 entry is a gold snake bracelet that was found in the ruins of Pompeii while the 2018 articles were the yellow vests worn by Parisian rioters. An annotated calendar at the beginning of each month gives a day-by-day teaser description of the item worn with the year. I appreciated that the lavish illustrations had the date on each photo. My mother would have loved this book and probably would have stayed up night to finish it.

[Britt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great concept, but the execution led much to be desired. This is a heavy book that is meant more as a coffee table read where you can peruse 365 days worth of historical outfits. However, the author doesn’t include pictures for every entry so you constantly have to pull your phone out to look up clothing items and to get more historical context then just a paragraph. This makes it an annoying read, although I learned many interesting tidbits like Keds made the first sneakers and the evolution of Olympic wear.

[LillyBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun diary-type book in which every calendar date of the year corresponds to an article of clothing worn for an important event in history. I think it's designed to be read one day at a time throughout the year, but I read it all at once. Because I like clothes and history, I found it enjoyable. I especially appreciated the liberal use of color photographs, although I was often frustrated because the picture of the item in question was pages away from the description.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look into how clothes are as much of a part of a historical moment as anything else. The format needed work - I would have liked more photos/illustrations, and some of the images were placed in the center, getting lost in the binding - but the text - both primary sources and analysis - was great, with an interesting array of people and their outfits all over the socio-economic scale.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book has a wonderful concept but I had some issues. There could have been more photos throughout. I feel like it was a lot of text for a book about clothing. Also, some of the pictures were not placed appropriately. Photos were in the middle of book so that they weren’t even visible. Sorry I purchased this for our library.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book looks at various outfits and accessories that have played a role in historical events. It is different from the traditional chronological look at fashion history. I noticed the author focused a lot on clothing from America or Britain with a just a few outfits from other countries. Also some of the photos were placed in the middle crease of the book, making it difficult to view.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoever planned the layout of this book was stupid - as much as the reader might want there weren't going to be pictures of every garment mentioned, but to put a fair portion of the illustrations in the crack of the binding was ridiculous. That said, it was an interesting & fun book to read & I liked the `chapters' being the different months

[Shana]

Some of the selections felt like a bit of a stretch and I would have wished for visuals for each of the entries if possible, but all in all this was extremely enjoyable and informative. The "On This Day" format is one of my absolute favorite ways to learn about history.

[Tammy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyed the text, but the limited amount of pictures, and the ridiculous amount of photos that ended up in the gutter between pages, all but hidden, disappoints. Who edited this book, they should have been fired!

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like everyone else who reviewed this book, I wish it had more pictures. Barely a quarter of the items were pictured. How can someone research and write about clothing and fashion...and have so few pictures?

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's some interesting choices here, but there simply aren't enough illustrations for a book like this. I'd say less than 20% of the pieces of clothing described have any kind of illustration, and that just doesn't work.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

More illustrations would have made this a 4star title. A fun stroll through history.

[Rhena Tantisunthorn]

( A 10 years old ) "ok so I'm like this fashion crazy person so when I got this book I fell head over heels in love
I haven't finished it yet but I am hoping 2 in these days we are stuck at home"

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. Fun to read each day in 2020. Just plan on googling all the pictures.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great range, but so many photos centered in the gutter

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I'm of the mind that there can never be too many photos in books about fashion or food, this is a good run-through of clothing/accessories that have made history or influenced fashion.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this! What a fun approach to the subject!