What do you think?
Rate this book
Underwear: Fashion in Detail
Get intimately acquainted with the V&A’s world-renowned collection of undergarments in this eye-opening visual history. From camisoles to corsets, basques to boudoir caps, Underwear: Fashion in Detail traces the peculiar evolution of underwear. Revealing photographs highlight close-up details in the garments, while intricate line drawings show their masterly construction. A wide range of designs is represented, from rare 16th-century examples to Dior’s curvaceous New Look, to Calvin Klein’s notorious briefs.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2010
7 people are currently reading
1052 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 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 16, 2020
Oh historical underwear, you subject of oh so many wikipedia spirals. I was put over the edge finally by a twitter thread about corsets and the need to be able to speak with some authority when I get all up in arms about people having weird hangups about corsets when making period-set movies (Gerwig, i love you, but i'm looking at you) I went to the nonfiction section of the library. Me! The nonfiction section! And finally some answers. And more questions.
I loved this book, the historical overview from the seventeenth century to the high fashion of the beginning of the 21st. The focus was on the specific pieces of the collection of the V&A museum, so the pieces were actual historical artifacts and were photographed beautifully. The blurbs were well-done, even if they were a little repetitive as the book clearly wasn't to be read straight through word-for-word on a Friday night like a gossip magazine. The photographs were sometimes too close and detailed to get a feel for the whole piece, but the sketches were wonderful. Really I wanted about sixteen pictures of each piece. It also was clearly about the standout pieces of the museum collection and less about offering a representative overview of the history they were tracking.
In short, this was totally delightful and I need about .... ninety more books to answer all my questions. How did these pieces work with the clothes? How did what the rich, titled women with maids wear compare to what the maids were wearing? How much was fashion and how much was morality-adjacent modesty and how were they interconnected? How did the pieces work together, and what about movement? I must know.... every single fact. This and Russia, I have two (2) research interests. I must be an expert!
*flashes forward to sixty years in the future, where my grandchildren repeat the inevitable cycle, cleaning out my house full of books, hitting the "curse you grandma, how many books about underwear and russia does one person NEED?!" refrain at the same pitch and frequency we've been saying "isn't there a limit to the amount of things one can learn about trains and american history, papa, come on!"*
I loved this book, the historical overview from the seventeenth century to the high fashion of the beginning of the 21st. The focus was on the specific pieces of the collection of the V&A museum, so the pieces were actual historical artifacts and were photographed beautifully. The blurbs were well-done, even if they were a little repetitive as the book clearly wasn't to be read straight through word-for-word on a Friday night like a gossip magazine. The photographs were sometimes too close and detailed to get a feel for the whole piece, but the sketches were wonderful. Really I wanted about sixteen pictures of each piece. It also was clearly about the standout pieces of the museum collection and less about offering a representative overview of the history they were tracking.
In short, this was totally delightful and I need about .... ninety more books to answer all my questions. How did these pieces work with the clothes? How did what the rich, titled women with maids wear compare to what the maids were wearing? How much was fashion and how much was morality-adjacent modesty and how were they interconnected? How did the pieces work together, and what about movement? I must know.... every single fact. This and Russia, I have two (2) research interests. I must be an expert!
*flashes forward to sixty years in the future, where my grandchildren repeat the inevitable cycle, cleaning out my house full of books, hitting the "curse you grandma, how many books about underwear and russia does one person NEED?!" refrain at the same pitch and frequency we've been saying "isn't there a limit to the amount of things one can learn about trains and american history, papa, come on!"*
October 23, 2018
Well! If you ever want to know what ladies wore underneath all of those incredible dresses, this is the lusciously illustrated book for you. Layers and layers of cotton, silk, bone, metal, lace, and straps, ties, pockets, petticoats, garters, and more lace. Structured to corral your body into whatever shape was in fashion at the time, regardless of what harm it might have done to your internal organs or pregnancy. ( God forbid you try and sit down in a full length metal boned corset) or even use what ever facilities that were available.
Happy eye candy folks!
Happy eye candy folks!
September 29, 2014
A beautiful book with great photos and diagrams.
I really had little interest in the post 1950’s underwear in the book but it was fascinating to see the metamorphoses of the undergarment from the 16 century to the 21st.
I really had little interest in the post 1950’s underwear in the book but it was fascinating to see the metamorphoses of the undergarment from the 16 century to the 21st.
March 21, 2011
A gorgeous assortment of photos from the Victoria and Albert museum collection with actually useful description and commentary.
December 27, 2022
This is a very specific book. It aims not to teach of The History of Undergarments but instead to discuss the details of Victoria and Albert Museum's pieces, and to investigate the specific details of them - decorations, construction, fastenings, etc. Therefore photos are very upclose to show the details of the garment rather than showing the garment overall. I believe it would be especially useful to those studying the craft of making undergarments and learning about the little details that made it work, and how it changed over time in accordance to fashions. It's very beautiful and big and glossy.
August 13, 2023
It had moments of interest but was lacking in reality. For instance 3 out of 4 women in the 1950s did not wear falsies. Of all the women I could find over 80 only one wore falsies and that was in her wedding dress. Mostly they were mildly offended at the author’s ability to treat their generation as freaks.
This, I guess, is part of the folklore that insists all women in the 1700s wore stays so tight that they couldn’t even sit.
An interesting book and very pretty. But my takeaway is that Ms. Lynn’s data has more to do with shock value than actual reality. So as long as no one repeats her numbers, it’s a great book.
This, I guess, is part of the folklore that insists all women in the 1700s wore stays so tight that they couldn’t even sit.
An interesting book and very pretty. But my takeaway is that Ms. Lynn’s data has more to do with shock value than actual reality. So as long as no one repeats her numbers, it’s a great book.
February 21, 2022
another fashion detail book where they show a line drawing of the garment along with a full page close up of the detailing and in this case sometimes the whole garment as well, which often these books don't. Very nice.
December 30, 2017
Organizationally (and sometimes grammatically) challenged. The blurbs are excellent. The photos, however, are too artistic to be useful; though the sketches are educational.
January 15, 2018
Beautiful book of 120 objects from the Victoria and Albert museum of the historical underwear
May 22, 2019
This is so much eye candy! Ideally, I would have liked more pictures of each garment, but this is an amazing book.
January 6, 2025
Gorgeous and fascinating! Pictures and layout were really well done. I loved this book!
July 1, 2020
I saw this title mentioned on a recommended reading list I found buried in the depths of the historical costuming internet, and immediately put in an Inter-Library Loan request for it hoping a library somewhere would have a copy. They did, and let me just say this book is absolutely amazing.
Do you want a book with high quality, full page detail photography of extant garments (not full length shots, but those nice tiny detail shots that are hard to find online)? A book with simple flat line diagrams of the extants photographed? A book which gives you the museum collection information- including the piece's official number (so that you can actually look up the full museum shots and information if a piece interests you)? Or quotes historical text examples from the time periods? Has a bibliography with superscript referrals in the body text? A freaking further reading and recommendations list? A mini glossary?
Then you absolutely, positively want this book.; this book, to me, is the holy grail that I've been looking for.
It's organized into sections based on subject focus,, instead of being a straight timeline of history. Which does mean that several pieces appear across multiple sections, and information is repeated. Personally, though, I enjoyed the opportunity to see garments from different angles in the detail shots and was happy to see them repeated.
Unlike someone in another review complains, it is not "mostly modern / 20th century" in terms of extant examples. While the majority are from the mid 1800's to the early 1920's (which is rational, given how few examples of earlier garments survive- let alone are in good enough condition to photograph), it has a healthy mix of time periods ranging from 1500's all the way up to the 00's; the book gives you an absolutely lovely, broad view of undergarment history and does allow you to see the evolution over the course of it.
I love this book beyond words. so much so that I'll definitely be picking up both it and the 2nd edition (blue corset cover; 2014) from Barnes & Nobles for my personal collection as soon as I can afford the $49.99 pricetag per book.
Do you want a book with high quality, full page detail photography of extant garments (not full length shots, but those nice tiny detail shots that are hard to find online)? A book with simple flat line diagrams of the extants photographed? A book which gives you the museum collection information- including the piece's official number (so that you can actually look up the full museum shots and information if a piece interests you)? Or quotes historical text examples from the time periods? Has a bibliography with superscript referrals in the body text? A freaking further reading and recommendations list? A mini glossary?
Then you absolutely, positively want this book.; this book, to me, is the holy grail that I've been looking for.
It's organized into sections based on subject focus,, instead of being a straight timeline of history. Which does mean that several pieces appear across multiple sections, and information is repeated. Personally, though, I enjoyed the opportunity to see garments from different angles in the detail shots and was happy to see them repeated.
Unlike someone in another review complains, it is not "mostly modern / 20th century" in terms of extant examples. While the majority are from the mid 1800's to the early 1920's (which is rational, given how few examples of earlier garments survive- let alone are in good enough condition to photograph), it has a healthy mix of time periods ranging from 1500's all the way up to the 00's; the book gives you an absolutely lovely, broad view of undergarment history and does allow you to see the evolution over the course of it.
I love this book beyond words. so much so that I'll definitely be picking up both it and the 2nd edition (blue corset cover; 2014) from Barnes & Nobles for my personal collection as soon as I can afford the $49.99 pricetag per book.
July 29, 2016
I have mixed feelings about this book, so I'll list both sides.
Good:
*The detailed photos in this book are FANTASTIC.
*There were several facts in this book that I didn't know preciously about undergarment/fashion history, and was pleased to learn.
Bad:
*There are hardly any full-length photos! That drove me bonkers. The sewing pattern-inspired illustrations left much to be desired, so I wondered what many of the pieces in the book actually looked like as whole garments.
*As I got deeper into the book, I noticed that the blurbs contained more and more repeated information.
Overall it is a pretty book, but I am glad that I borrowed it from the library rather than buying it.
Good:
*The detailed photos in this book are FANTASTIC.
*There were several facts in this book that I didn't know preciously about undergarment/fashion history, and was pleased to learn.
Bad:
*There are hardly any full-length photos! That drove me bonkers. The sewing pattern-inspired illustrations left much to be desired, so I wondered what many of the pieces in the book actually looked like as whole garments.
*As I got deeper into the book, I noticed that the blurbs contained more and more repeated information.
Overall it is a pretty book, but I am glad that I borrowed it from the library rather than buying it.
January 17, 2012
Way too much modern underwear for my taste (if I want to see men's boxer shorts, or balcony bras, I can look in the laundry hamper!) - and too much of the non-modern underwear is from the 30s, 40s, and 50s, which is still too recent for my taste. Probably only about 20% of the book were things I actually found interesting. Glad I borrowed it, rather than purchase it myself.
Want to read
October 19, 2010A quick look-through today. Fantastic photographs and details of undergarments from the 16th century to the modern. Terrific drawings, and showing a great collection of corsetry and the like. All from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. I must go there. I. MUST. GO. THERE.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews