Medieval Fashions Coloring Book

by Tom Tierney

Nineteen centuries of European fashions appear in a remarkable coloring book that doubles as a comprehensive fashion retrospective. From modest peasant garb to the regal attire of the nobility, the meticulously researched drawings depict soldiers, minstrels, lords, ladies, and many others in authentic garb from the 5th through mid-15th centuries. 45 black-and-white illustrations.

Genres: Art, History, Fashion, Colouring Books, Reference

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 13, 1998

About the author

Tom Tierney was a prolific creator of paper doll books. He was trained as an artist and worked as an illustrator for department stores before turning to paper dolls in the 1970s.

"Meticulously drawn and colored, and annotated with historical information, Mr. Tierney’s paper-doll books are not just for children — and some are not for children at all. His aim, he often said, was to contribute to the visual literature of costume history," noted his New York Times obituary.

"Pope John Paul II, shown a copy of Mr. Tierney’s book about him by a visitor to the Vatican, blessed it and asked where he might get one of his own."

Reviews

[Arghavan-紫荆 · Rating 2 out of 5]

These people had no chill, someone convince me these contraptions were either beautiful or comfortable or at least practical.

[ArwendeLuhtiene · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations are beautiful, but the accompanying descriptions on Medieval fashion contained more than one inaccuracy, and some of them were pretty glaring, so I'm guessing there are probably more than the ones I noticed :S. The most blatant one featured an illustration of a couple in late 15th Century Burgundian court fashion (in her case, complete with the V-neck houppelande and the steeple hennin, pretty difficult to get wrong) being described as '13th Century', two complete centuries off for one of the most visually recognizable Medieval fashions. The examples of headwear for the 12th-15th Centuries were also often mixed together (the hennin was pretty much a 15th Century fashion statement, it wasn't around centuries earlier, among other things), descriptions used 'cottehardie' for 13th Century fashion (it's very specifically mid-to-late 14th Century fashion), and the term 'bliaut' was also thrown around for 14th Century fashion, when it was no longer around. So yeah, it's not quite the book to go for when it comes to the timeline of Medieval fashion, even though many of the illustrations are quite beautiful.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I suppose this is technically a coloring book, since it is full of line drawings in black and white, I see it as more of a guide to medieval fashions. All the drawings are accompanied by text that describes what the clothing is called and what materials it's made of, as well as who would where it and at what occasion. There is also an introduction giving more detail about the medieval era and the history of its evolving fashions. The drawings at thee front and back are in color, to give an idea of the color pallet that we should be thinking of for the black and white drawings inside.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun. But I confess, I read this mostly because I can't believe people still make coloring books.

[Phil Syphe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following a short introduction about medieval clothing, the rest of the books features some superb black and white drawings, each accompanied with brief text descriptions.

[Jaye Sudar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting. Nice to see outlines on some of the clothes without the interference of patterned fabric.

[moi, k.y.a. · Rating 3 out of 5]

medieval is best period for me in the whole world history. so i really enjoyed reading and viewing it.