Costumes Books

If you like fabric and textile design this a very inspirational book. Full of beautiful prints and color palettes.

This is my first online book purchase. I am so impressed with this book. The photos leave nothing to the imagination. Clear and concise from page 1 all the way through to page 117. This book is a must have for every textile collector, buyer, seller.

If you are as passionate as myself for the American curtain and upholstry fabrics of the mid 20th century, you will want to have this book. The photographs of these bold and colorfull textiles are so well desplayed throughout the book it is almost a book of fabric art as well as an excellent reference. The text covers where the designs originated as well as the who, what, when and where that influenced the changes of the textures and designs from the 1920s through the 1950s.

As a graphic artist this is one of those books I really prize. It as good pictures - as a graphic artist I don't read much - so this review if more about the illustrations. And the illustrations are perfect. I will probably be on my shelf in my studio till I die because of the wonderful selection of fabrics. I do like the way the book is laid out too. This book would be very handy for anyone trying to do a vintage look in any type of house.

It was a wonderful book full of great images ... I would say that the title should be revised to read "florals of the 40's (and other terrific florals of the 20's and 30's)" as that is what a majority of the book is. Based on the cover and title I would have expected that more than a 1/3rd of the book should have been dedicated to the 50's.

What a delightful book! The design engineers, who created this masterpiece, must be incredibly clever! This book is not only historically educational, it is fun. (Remember to be gentle--this is not for small children)

I have always loved pop-up books and this one is no exception. Each page has an interesting new surprize. The illustrations are bright and well-rendered. The only quibble I have is that the ladies are a bit tricky to set up. In other words,be gentle or you might rip them a tiny bit(yes,it happened to me.) This book would make a lovely gift for anyone who enjoys fashion and or novelty books..

Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave has made an amazing lifesize collection of period paper dresses which have been exhibited all over the world. Silks, brocades, taffetas and lace are recreated by painting on various types of paper. In this wonderfull popp-up book, some of the costumes come alive. Wonderful little details will enchant young girls, such as beautiful lace collars which unfold, a fan you can actually use, bags which open to reveal charming secrets and a model which steps out of the book onto the catwalk. A wonderful gift, full of inspiration and creativity.

This book is absolutely unbelievable. It was my first pop-up book and after purchasing this book I can't get enough pop-ups for my growing collection. If you're interested in fashion or just love to look at pretty books this is one for you.
Pop-up books are no longer just for children. I am constantly amazed at the workmanship that goes into one of these books. I never buy a used pop-up book, especially ones that say some of the pop-ups don't work. Then why buy it! Take my advice, buy this book and you'll be hooked on pop-ups too. I even bought pop-up Christmas cards this year and a 2006 calendar. Robert Sabuda is my all-time favorite pop-up artist.

This book contains seven spreads:
-Egypt
-The Court of Elizabeth I
-The Court of Marie Antoinette
-At the Opera
-The Art of the Kimono
-Coco Chanel: Liberating the Ladies
-Fashion as Art

My favorites are the kimono and art(Mariano Fortuny and Issey Miyake) spreads. I really love the Fotuny paper doll in her Delphos gown and loose fitting cloak, despite their being less than well rendered.

As a pop-up collector and hobbyist, I'm disappointed with this book. Though a great subject, the form and function of the pop-ups don't mesh well for me. There's an assortment of pull tabs, lift the the flaps, accordion fold outs and free standing pop ups that can be totally detached from the book. The many movable items are well organized by theme, but the parts are always catching on each other. I also had some trouble securing the freestanding stuff back into the book because it's not immediately obvious how the tabs and slots work with each other. For the price, I think the illustrations could have been better looking. In the end, the mish mash of the contents and sometimes ugly illustrations killed this book for me. I didn't hate it enough to go through the trouble of returning it, but it sits in its plastic wrapper collecting dust.

Es un libro de mucha ayuda para consultar sobre los diseños de los diferentes períodos de la historia, lo mejor es que no sólo tiene dibujos de la vestimenta de hombres y mujeres , sino que incluye además la de los niños en varias época, lo que es muy educativo.

While the text and drawings are separately very detailed and fairly descriptive, there is very little correlation between the text and drawings. At times it is unclear as to what kind of dress the author is talking about, making it useful that the picture of the dress should be right next to the text. The short descriptions of the costumes included with the drawings are also difficult to read due to the text they're written in. I also found that the sections for clothes from about 1930-2000 did not really cover the full scope of styles and fashions worn in that period of time.

However, despite these small difficulties, this is a great book, with abundant information and fairly detailed drawings. I've only had the book a week, and it has already been immensely helpful to me. :)

This book covers the largest time period in fashion history available today. Although the author limited herself to one book, the amount of information that is packed into this book is absolutely wonderful for anyone interested in costuming. Not only is politcal history covered, trival facts and those who influenced fashion are described in concise detail. Most helpful are the sketches on nearly every other page, which show details of full outfits and variations of certain garments. Diagrams of how to tie men's ties and special period collars are extremely useful. Men, women, children, underwear, shoes, accessories - this book covers it all.

Fashion in Costume 1200-2000 is an old classic catalog of western costume updated to 2000 in this paperback second edition. This detailed fashion survey contains a wealth of information valuable to costume researchers and designers and illustrators, and theatre workers and fashion historians. Over 800 line drawings illustrate the nine chapters which each cover a historical period. Incredible detailed information about underwear, accessories, jewelry, shoes, and hairstyles is included. An example of the 1980's-90's fashion era is a series of sketches of Diana, Princess of Wales in several outfits (p. 249). As in the previous edition, all is meticulously researched and presented. This reviewer has made good use of the previous edition in a second career as community theatre costume designer. I look forward to using this valuable and much needed updating of a classic costume reference.

Nancy Lorraine Reviewer

Throughout history, clothes have been worn not only for warmth but also, with constant variety and innovation, to convey status, wealth, occupation, personality and social and more values. Joan Nunn's detailed survey of costume in the western world over the past eight centuries not only gives the reader a vivid visual impression of the clothes themselves, but also out lines the historical and social background and the changes in manufacturing techniques the way costume has developed and the manner in which it has been worn. Each of the nine chapters covers a certain period, with an introductory section followed by descriptions of the underwear, outer garments, hats, footwear, hairstyles, accessories, jewelry, fabrics and colours worn by men, women and children. There are over 800 line drawings, specially made by the author from contemporary sources (carvings, paintings, portraits, fashion plates and photographs). This is an invaluable, copiously illustrated reference book for students of costume, social history and the visual arts and for those concerned with designing costumes for the theatre. It is also a fascinating book for general reader interested in fashion and the art of dress.

As a Kimono enthusiast it's nice to find a book that has pages and pages worth of JUST Kimono. The focus on a particular time period makes it interesting. Worth the bucks.

This book is beautifully produced with an excellent history of kimono plus many pages of designs, including children's and men's as well as obi, from the past 100 years. Many of the kimono designs are very "art-deco" which might turn off some who like plainer styles. But to my mind the colors and patterns are fabulous! Just look at the front cover image to get a sense of how rich these designs are.

The early decades of the 1900s were the final flowering for the Japanese kimono, the standard clothing for men and women going back for centuries. This was literally so for many kimonos; for they have bright, sometimes lavish, flower patterns and images from the influences of the Western art styles of art nouveau and even art deco. The growing modernization and Westernization of Japan at this time was seen in the changing patterns in the kimono. The stylistic innovations came to an end with the turn to Western clothing after Japan's defeat in WWII and the destruction of the country's industry. One hundred and fifty modern kimono from about the 1890s to the 1930s from the collection of Jeffrey Montgomery are shown in color photographs with close-ups of the details of a few. The photos are full-page on the right with notes on the facing page. The book is done in conjunction with an exhibition of the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum through May 2006. The beginning essay by editor and contributor Annie Van Assche--textile artisan, Japanese art historian, and one-time curator of education for the Japan Society Gallery in New York--is an outstanding brief course on the artistic aspects, manufacture, and types and eras of kimono while serving as a lead-in to the following four essays taking up different topics regarding its final, modern, period.

"Fashioning Kimono" is a virtual panoply of color, art, and history focusing on kimono from the vast collection of Jeffrey Montgomery. Among the 1200 rare objects in Montgomery's enviable collection are these 150 kimono dating from the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth centuries. It is an array comprehensive in scope with kimono and haori jackets worn by men, women and children.

The almost 200 photographs of the textiles by Stefano Ember are stunning - bold, aresting in hue, delicate as a butterfly's wing in design. Publication of this volume accompanies an exhibition of the same name at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which runs from mid October of this year through May 1, 2006.

Annie Van Assche, the editor and primary author, presents a history of the kimono, while additional essays include such topics as new styles based on Art Nouveau and Art Deco designs, the kimono's influence on Parisian fashion, and the fascinating memoir of a Japanese girl growing up in the 1930s and 1940s.

As Van Assche notes silk is at the very heart of the Japanese kimono culture. It's strength, sheen and adaptability to dyes make it the ideal material. The inspired use of color, we learn, may be due in part to the fact that in ancient times the Japanese believed "color imbued a garment with special powers."

All with an interest in fashion, design and the Japanese culture will find "Fashioning Kimono" an indispensable addition to a personal library.

- Gail Cooke

The first fourth of the book contains a lot of valuable information about styles and techniques, then the rest is page after page of photos. Beautiful photos, but I wish there was more discussion about cultural significance of the designs depicted.

this book had all ages of wedding celebrations and some really great pictures of many years and many celebrities as well as us common folk. I loved looking back at all the great fashions and memories. This would make an excellent gift book to a newly engaged person as she begins to plan a wedding. clinta ingraham

Some interesting studies for designers

This beautiful, full color books features stunningly photographed dresses of all shapes, sizes and colors with a well written and extensive history of gowns and related traditions. The photo spreads are lavish, and not at the expense of the text of the book. But as some other reviewers have mentioned, each time period starts out with a few examples of the appropriate vintage gowns and then shifts into photos of modern gowns interpreting or inspired by that period, which is a little disappointing. Unless you're a designer or a collector this book isn't worth the nearly $90 sticker price, but if you can get it used or at the bargain price (as I did), it's a beautiful coffee table book with enough text to keep you reading for quite awhile!

This book is definitely modern, presenting sofisticated and classy designs. It focuses on how modern designers are inspired by the past. Unfortunately there's not a lot of documentation, 98% of the dresses are modern, but brides looking for ideas will find it very useful. If you're more interested in the past, I suggest you look up Maria McBride-Mellinger.

I got this book literally two days ago for Christmas. I love it. I had it on my amazon wish list, and somebody bought it for me. I expected the book to be much smaller -I was happily suprised at the size and thickness! As a browser, it has spectacular large photos.

I am am in the wedding industry and I did recognize some of the more recent photographs from designers' advertising campaigns. I love some of the older photographs, and old sketches. I do think there was an excellent representation of gowns from each decade. Most of the photos seem to come from the fashion industry or pop culture archives. There are only a few more photos from real everyday brides' weddings.

I plan to read the text cover to cover this weekend. So far the captions and the layout I notice are straightforward, organized chronologically. It should be a short read like any coffee table book. The book covers the decades of the 20th century. Each decade shows representations from popular culture, from everyday weddings, from marketing campagins, as well as some designers' over-the-top "visions." I did not expect it to read like "history" book like some of the other feedback. What I expected to get out of it was an inspiring visual browse, and overview of wedding fashions of the 20th century, and I was very satisfied in that respect.

Wow--I had this book when I was a little girl. The warnings of the other reviewers are quite correct: it's heck trying to cut out those fiddly little details, and a lot of bits got lost. These are dolls for admiring, not playing with. Having said that, the level of detail and color in the costumes is wonderful, simply beautiful. Even if they *were* a bit fiddly, I had a great time with them as a child!

You have to hand it to Tom Tierney, his descriptions and the information he offers on his paper dolls are first class. Ming-Ju Sun has made really lovely paper dolls, and if I just wanted some paper dolls I'd be very happy. But I also want to find out about the fabrics and layers and traditional fabrics for the season...

This book of richly colored paper dolls is great for anyone interested in Japanese history or fashion. Also great for teachers doing units on Japan and Aisa. The dolls in the book are designed after prints by Japanese artists. In the back of the book it describes and tells the history of each of the kimonos. It also contains a small history of the Kimono and Japanes clothing. There are 26 kimonos and 2 dolls.

I consider this to be more of a coffee table book than an actual paper doll book. The costumes are gorgeous with really great details and remind me a lot of old Japanese woodblock prints. However, if you or your child really want to cut these out for play or display, I would recommend scanning or copying the costume pages separately so that you can play with them but not ruin the whole book.

Out of all Ming-ju Sun's illustrated books, I like this one the best. There are 26 costumes, all of which are wonderfully detailed. There are explanations and descriptions of all of the kimonos. There are two paper dolls, one facing to the left and the other facing to the right. For almost each costume, there is an ornate head piece-a wig of sorts. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in Kimonos or simply Japanese Art. This is a nice book just to have on the shelf where you can flip through it and look at the pictures. I don't, however, recommend cutting the costumes out. Some of the details on the head pieces and on the kimonos may be lost. A real treasure and a great value. Buy it today!

After purchasing a number of adult coloring books, this book finally gave me the coloring experience I was looking for. The drawings are very well done, and they give a wide representation of styles available during the age. Will probably purchase again. The reason I gave four stars instead of five is that if you use markers, it bleeds through the pages, making the other side impossible (or messy) to color. Otherwise, it's an excellent purchase.

Some of the historical fashion coloring books are too simplistic for all but the very young colorer. Tierney does a wonderful job blending clean illustrations with eye-catching fashion. My 10 year old daughter and I both enjoy coloring in it.

I just purchased these Dover COloring Books for my mother and she loves them. The detail is out of this world and the variety of colors you can use are only limited by your inagination. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This coloring book presents 29 fashion illustrations from 1863 to 1910, including wedding and coronation fashions of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, bathing outfits, women's undergarments, "Aesthetic Look" of Oscar Wilde, six outfits for children and many other.

The pages are thick enough for gentle watercoloring. Coloring Tierney's fashion illustrations is always a pleasure.

I enjoyed this book, but unlike many other Tierney's coloring books with 45 illustrations, this book offers only 29 illustrations for the same price.

However, if you are into this period and love coloring, I guess you wouldn't regret this purchase.

Enjoy this book if you enjoy the studying the time period. High in detail, its enjoyable if you have the time and patience and care about what Tom Tierney has pulled together for this wonderful book. Really, I do recommend it to those who like and study historical fashion and history. I loved this book for all the above!

I am a fan of the "Pretty Little" series, and this is probably my favorite. So many cute ideas to "snaz up" the humble potholder. Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year?

I first got this book from the library & bookmarked most of the pages. Then I remembered to look it up on Amazon and there it was, at a great price, too! Although it arrived just when they promised, it wasn't fast enough because I was painfully anxious to get it in my hot little hands. No reflection on the seller, just my impatience. The seller is great!
This book is so EXCELLENT, with well-written instructions, marvelous ideas that are original and fresh. I LOVE THIS BOOK, so it MUST be illegal-- how could anything this good be otherwise?!? My sewing machine is going to be smokin' from all the goodies I'll be making now!

For the most part this book should have been called 'Pretty Little *DECORATIVE* Potholders.' Too many of them have items on them that are fairly incompatible with a hot pan. The aforementioned metal hanger on the sweater potholder, beading on another, and plastic buttons on several.

Still, despite that (you can always leave those bits off or substitute some appliqué or lace) there are some very clever and cute potholders featured. The butterfly is adorable (minus the buttons), and the recipe card one is very clever (minus the button). The instructions took a second reading and a good hard look at the picture to decipher on a few of them (admittedly, the butterfly is one of the more complicated ones) but the slight frustration is worth it. And, yes, some of them are a little finicky, but I think the end result would definitely be worth it.

Perfect for a person with a lot of scraps who's in need of some nice, but quick, presents.

First of all the designs are too cute in this book. I especially liked the Butterfly Flutter, Girly Garden, Pompoms and Pearls, Handle with Flair, and my daughter liked Little Bunny Foo Foo. You will need a copier for this book, and I would suggest at 200% to 400% enlargement. The directions are very simple. My 12 year old daughter is just learning to sew, and she can understand these simple steps. I also bought A Is For Apron book, and they make a wonderful pair together. We plan on combining designs from each book to make Christmas presents for the ladies in our family.

If you are ready to get really creative by thinking of potholders as mineature works of art, then you will adore this book. The photographs are clear, colorful and inspirational. The directions will take you step by step through each project, but you will certainly find tons of inspiration here to come up with designs of your own!

The major plus of working on potholders is their small size, which will afford you a small canvas on which to lavish the most luxurious details. There is something here for the beginner and the most advanced sewer, although you are certain to learn as you go!

You'll soon have an awe-inspiring collection of these useful but beautiful household items that need never languish in a drawer again!

Middle school age kids attempt to play matchmaker for a pair of bashful peers by developing their own production of Shakespeare's classic with those two shy folks in the lead roles. The characters are very age-appropriate in interaction and approach to the production's challenges. This makes for some funny results in terms of such things as costuming and timing and forgotten lines and/or actions and adolescent ego. This would be a good way for a youngster to get his or her first taste of The Bard, a source many youngsters see as intimidating. The kids' loyalties, friendships, and social observations and dislikes ring true. Having read several of Avi's other works before, this is just one more that shows him to be a consistently reliable choice of author for young people.

I though this book was very good and i htink alot of ppl should read this book. It is very funny and once u start to read it u wont be able to put it down! it talks about these kids that want to get there friend to kiss this girl so in stend of in romeo and juliet they dont want the ppl to kiss they turn the play around and get them to kiss.but if u ever coem across this book i think u should pick it up and read it or amybe just a couple of pages but i htink u should read the whole thing!!!!!

This is a cute, quick read about a class of eighth graders and their efforts to put two classmates together. This is so typical of this age group. Their rendition of Romeo and Juliet will leave you laughing as they torture Shakepeare's language, but get the two shy classmates to kiss and fall in love.

I read the book, Romeo & Juliet Together at last (and alive) by Avi Wortis. It was about a boy who was in love with a girl . The boy liked poetry and the girl could never put a book down. The boy's friends think that if he could put on the play Romeo & Juliet his friend would be Romeo and his lover would be Juliet. It worked out as he planned and they got the parts .There is one problem; a bully named Hamilton wanted to be Romeo. They though they had convinced him to be a knight but it was a joke. During the book, Hamilton gets back to the cast of the play and ........ oops sorry you have to read the book to find out the ending. I give the book 4 stars out of 5- stars.

This book follows some middle school kids in their attempt to perform the play "Romeo and Juliet", but the play is just an excuse to try to get two of their friends together (they have cast them as Romeo and Juliet). Unfortunately, they do not realize that they need much more than two weeks to get the play off the ground. But, that's all the time they have.

This book is wonderfully funny and imaginative. I recently read it to my sixth graders, and they really enjoyed it.

I was surprised by how much I liked this book. I'm not a rubber fetishist, and that's part of why I got the book - I kind of wanted to find out what it was about the subject of rubber that got people so hot.

Now I think I get it. I think it was the "bathing" story that really first opened my eyes to the fact that it's an ingrained thing - this was the first story I read in the book, luckily. After that, it made the rest very, very enjoyable - "Tight Dress" and "Slicker than Slik" especially (my girlfriend also liked the latter story a lot.

Rachel's excellence as an editor shows in that she can take a subject and bring together authors that will appeal to all genders and sexual preferences because the writing itself is good. You don't have to be into rubber or a particular body type to get turned on by a well-turned phrase or a well-described feeling. There were passages that positively made the hair on my neck stand up, they were so damn evocative.

I love reading erotica. All types; kinky, straight, queer, all of it.

But I wasn't sure about reading about rubber, latex, and PVC. I'd never even considered how I felt about these materials (with the exception of this one fantasy I have about black latex gloves and being fisted). However, the cover was hot, and Rachel Krammer Bussel has never led me wrong with any of her anthologies, so I was excited to give it a go.

I'm one of those people that begins at the beginning, and we all know the first story influences how we feel about a book, and Kristina Wright's "The Dress" was really hot; regardless of how you feel about little black PVC dresses. My interest was caught, and I kept reading. Alison Tyler's "Rubber Necking" was well-written, and provided some beautiful mental imagery; an excellent story!

The story that really got me? "Slicker Than Slik," by Radclyffe. This story was so incredible, I was about ready to go out and buy a jar of latex pain, and shave off all of my body hair. I could completely imagine myself in this story; it is incredibly descriptive and I had to take a quick break from the book after reading it.

For those that are into more heavy kink, Thomas C. Roche's "Butterfly's Kiss" is decadent, delightful, and dark. I loved it.

This is one of the few anthologies I've read where I actually enjoyed a good 80% of the stories in it; outstanding. Plus, it's inspired me to go hunt down a latex dress of my own. Highly recommend -- even if you're not sure how you feel about Rubber Sex.

I was so glad to see a broad mix of stories and even more excited to see erotica that included straight, Bi and gay stories. I've been a fan of Rachel's books for a while and this one is right up there with them. If you are into rubber then you will love Rubber Sex.

Whether you're simply curious, or a fan of all things rubber, Rachel Kramer Bussel's "Rubber Sex" has something to offer you. The stories collected with in, range from flirtatious and experimental, to dark and highly erotic.

The reader is thrown directly into the mix, from the very first story, "The Dress." An erotic and sensual adventure of a woman and her PVC dress, "The Dress" sets the tone for what this anthology has to offer. Stories to excite your imagination, and offer you and a partner, new ideas, or simply the ability to spice up your latex passion.

Stories such as Andrea Dale's, "Bathing Beauty", shows the true depth of this collection, offering an entirely different take on how and why people enjoy rubber. While Bussel's own, "Tight Squeeze", is every boy toys fantasy, wanting desperately to please and be pleased by their Mistress.

Throughout every story, rubber is the main theme, but don't let that sway you one way or the other. Whether you're a fan of rubber or simply curious about what it means, the stories collected in this anthology have a way of playing within that theme, while still offering something to every fan of erotica.

First off, let me just say that I didn't even know that rubber and rubber-sex erotica would be a turn-on. I'd never given rubber garments much thought. Leather, sure. Lace and gauzy nightdresses, etc., absolutely. But rubber? It sounded...smelly and industrial. This book changed my mind. (I can't see myself decked in a rubber catsuit -- yet, but the idea has been planted.)

From Rachel Kramer Bussel's introduction onward, I was intrigued. Alison Tyler's excellent "Rubber Necking" led me to Jessica Lennox's stellar and breath-taking "In the Middle." I also enjoyed Rachel's "Tight Squeeze" very much. RKB has a distinctive voice but such a broad range, I never tire of her work. Thomas S. Roche's "Butterfly's Kiss" was another favorite from the anthology. An unusual choice (for me) and an odd and compelling tale, I had to read it twice to make sure I "got it."

The stories were all rubber-centric, and if you are a rubber enthusiast, you will LOVE this book. Even if you are on the fence about rubber, this book might help sway your opinion. Any book that can make me consider donning rubberwear in NYC's 100-degree heat has got to be good!