What do you think?
Rate this book
Survey Of Historic Costume: A History Of Western Dress
Survey of Historic Costume, 5th Edition, which now includes a free student Study Guide, presents a thorough overview of Western dress from the ancient world to the trends of today. Each chapter presents social, cross-cultural, environmental, geographic, and artistic influences on clothing. With visuals, illustrated tables, and in-depth discussions, readers come to recognize recurring themes and concepts and understand the role of dress from a diverse, global perspective. This book is perfect for students, instructors, fashion industry professionals, and anyone interested in historic costume, fashion, art, and design.
704 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
19 people are currently reading
592 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 23, 2010
I use this book to teach college Fashion History. Good descriptions of terms along with great images. A good textbook that students will hopefully keep at the end of the semester!
June 14, 2018
I genuinely liked this text book, in part because I enjoyed the subject matter and the class I read it for, but also because it had a real flare to it. Something about the way it would coldly state things like: "1430, men switch to leggings." just tickled me. It's so...ominous somehow. I guess that's probably just the brain of a overtired college student finding entertainment where there is little, but it wasn't just the ominous little updates that kept me interested. Where else would I learn that actual lifelong hardened criminals used to make a living snatching wigs off of the heads of rich people? If that's not a movie you'd like to see then frankly I don't understand what's wrong with you. I also relished the descriptions of fine Venetian ladies all done up like John Waters heroins with giant hair, platform shoes, and trashy amounts of cleavage. These are the sorts of images that really keep me shuffling on through my days. And if you think the fun stops when things get a bit more contemporary you would be wrong! I can't tell you how disorienting it was to see the members of Salt-n-Pepa gazing up at me from a textbook. Honestly a thrilling read. My only complaint is the cover, which is just alarmingly hideous.
June 30, 2025
The textbook for the class I read this for were so good, they were really well laid out and very enjoyable reads.
April 19, 2022
A textbook on the history of fashion in the West. Plenty of helpful line drawings and images, with clear, no-nonsense writing. I wasn't using this for a class, just found it on my own for fun, and learned more about the history of production and the place clothing has had in society over the years. I especially enjoyed the "Contemporary Comments," which present primary texts commenting on fashion. Plenty of this is negative (folks are more loquacious when they dislike something than when they like it) but it is fascinating to see, all the same. Not a ton of attention is paid to fashion subcultures in the 20th century, but that would make this textbook very long indeed.
Read
May 3, 2016I love the book as it provides a description of fashion as well as cultural, technology, and creative influences. To me, this is a multithesis book that works at many levels as culture, communication, and leadership in addition to theater.
January 10, 2020
Part 5 – Nineteenth Century 1800-1900
p.299 – INDUSTRIALIZATION – The Industrial Revolution produced the factory system, which involved the migration of people from rural areas to towns and cities that were unprepared to receive them.
The labourers in factories who were most abused were women, children, and the unskilled. Even those who worked at home were subjected to exploitation.
For the industrial capitalists, however, industrialization brought wealth and luxury.
CROSS-CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON FASHION – The importation of fine linen muslins from India, first seen in the soft chemise dresses of the late 18th century, continued.
Indian men wore Kashmir shawls made from the soft hair of the cashmere goat, woven in Kashmir, a northern province on the Indian subcontinent.
The Scottish town of Paisley began producing large quantity of shawl.
Fashion from Kashmir or paisley shawls continued for almost 100 years.
p.300 – TRADE WITH JAPAN – One of the first Japanese industries to profit from the opening of trade was the silk industry. A silk blight in Europe in 1860 created a demand for Japanese silk and silkworm eggs. […] Because Japan was the first non-Western nation to adopt Western industrial techniques on a large scale, by the end of the 19th century textiles dominated Japanese exports.
Once Japan opened its ports, collectors obtained examples of Japanese prints, lacquer, porcelain, glass, and textiles. Impressionist painters were inspired by Japanese woodblock prints. […] Japanese art had an immediate and major impact on European fine and decorative arts in the second half of the 19th century.
Part 6 – From the Twentieth Century to the Twenty-First Century
p.413 – GLOBALIZATION OF FASHION – Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating in the 1980s and after, the production of clothing tended to move from more affluent countries to low-wage countries.
p.419 – EFFECTS OF WWI ON FASHION – Women began to wear more comfortable, practical clothes for more active participation in the variety of jobs that they had taken from men.
p.299 – INDUSTRIALIZATION – The Industrial Revolution produced the factory system, which involved the migration of people from rural areas to towns and cities that were unprepared to receive them.
The labourers in factories who were most abused were women, children, and the unskilled. Even those who worked at home were subjected to exploitation.
For the industrial capitalists, however, industrialization brought wealth and luxury.
CROSS-CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON FASHION – The importation of fine linen muslins from India, first seen in the soft chemise dresses of the late 18th century, continued.
Indian men wore Kashmir shawls made from the soft hair of the cashmere goat, woven in Kashmir, a northern province on the Indian subcontinent.
The Scottish town of Paisley began producing large quantity of shawl.
Fashion from Kashmir or paisley shawls continued for almost 100 years.
p.300 – TRADE WITH JAPAN – One of the first Japanese industries to profit from the opening of trade was the silk industry. A silk blight in Europe in 1860 created a demand for Japanese silk and silkworm eggs. […] Because Japan was the first non-Western nation to adopt Western industrial techniques on a large scale, by the end of the 19th century textiles dominated Japanese exports.
Once Japan opened its ports, collectors obtained examples of Japanese prints, lacquer, porcelain, glass, and textiles. Impressionist painters were inspired by Japanese woodblock prints. […] Japanese art had an immediate and major impact on European fine and decorative arts in the second half of the 19th century.
Part 6 – From the Twentieth Century to the Twenty-First Century
p.413 – GLOBALIZATION OF FASHION – Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating in the 1980s and after, the production of clothing tended to move from more affluent countries to low-wage countries.
p.419 – EFFECTS OF WWI ON FASHION – Women began to wear more comfortable, practical clothes for more active participation in the variety of jobs that they had taken from men.
December 23, 2024
The glossary and index could use some attention. I understand that people reading this book are typically interested in fashion, but the resources need to assume the reader is brand new to the subject.
November 18, 2020
Great information, but definitely reads like a textbook
December 16, 2021
This is the most interesting textbook I’ve ever read!
July 1, 2020
This book is an absolutely fascinating and detailed look at fashion through the history of humankind. I don't know where to begin, so I'll keep it short.
There are illustrations. There are extant examples where available (though the sourcing wasn't the best). There are fashion plates. But unlike a lot of other books I've read lately, that's not all it is. In fact, it's quite the opposite: The information was incredibly detailed and covered a variety of subjects within each larger culture and era- including beauty ideals, political climates, and other cultural elements where necessary or known.
If you want an encyclopedia of historic fashion, in my opinion, this is it. And I think it's probably going to be particularly useful for someone in the SCA, or other forms of historical costuming or re-enactment.
There are illustrations. There are extant examples where available (though the sourcing wasn't the best). There are fashion plates. But unlike a lot of other books I've read lately, that's not all it is. In fact, it's quite the opposite: The information was incredibly detailed and covered a variety of subjects within each larger culture and era- including beauty ideals, political climates, and other cultural elements where necessary or known.
If you want an encyclopedia of historic fashion, in my opinion, this is it. And I think it's probably going to be particularly useful for someone in the SCA, or other forms of historical costuming or re-enactment.
April 12, 2014
Read this as part of my research on the types of clothing worn in the Early and Late Middle Ages, so my review is largely limited to those sections. The book had extensive details on clothing and ornament worn on various parts of the body, as well as details on how common articles were based on social class. A very accessible guide and good for increasing a non-fashion-expert's vocabulary in regards to descriptions of period style dress.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews