Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
1. 1550 - 1600
2. 1600 - 1699
3. 1710 - 1790
4. 1790 - 1837
5. 1837 - 1869
6. 1870 - 1889
7. 1890 - 1916
8. 1918 - 1929
9. 1930 - 1946
10. 1947 - 1959
11. 1960 - 1970
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Photographic Credits
Index
With lavish colour images and commentary on the key features of every major dress style across five centuries, How to Read a Dress is the ultimate guide to how fashions change and the ideal tool for identifying historical styles.
Lydia Edwards is a Lecturer at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia.
For a knowledgeable introduction that has plenty of eye candy
alongside its scholarship, Lydia Edwards' How to Read a Dress hits
the spot…The curated collection, featuring everything from funeral
finery to department-store finds, offers [a...] fascinating fashion
primer that invites you to make connections across centuries, to
wonder about the ways huge social shifts are reflected in everyday
life, and tips you off about the placement of shoulder seams.
Whether you're a costume nerd or just casually curious, How to Read
a Dress will give you some insights into the language of dress.
*NPR*
The general principle of this book is excellent and provides a
much–needed overview ... [It] is a perfect introduction to the
world of dress history and provides a good stimulus for further
study. For those with specialist knowledge of particular periods,
it provides a quick and easily accessed reference for the main
points of other periods.
*The Journal of Dress History*
This original, accessible take on fashion history is packed with
color images, and each example garment annotated with terminology,
key elements of the shape and construction, and other details of
note.
*CHOICE*
Those looking for a detailed, object centered and carefully
researched study of historic dress will find a satisfying, richly
illustrated guide for looking at clothes.
*The Fashion Studies Journal*
Lydia Edwards’s How to Read a Dress is a detailed, practical, and
totally beautiful guide to the history of this particular form of
clothing from the 16th to the 20th centuries.
*Jezebel*
The ‘How to Read’ series of books are perfect research guides for
students, researchers and anyone with an interest in historical
fashion.
*Costume: The Journal of The Costume Society*
Ultimately, this is an excellent book for scholars of fashion
history, costume designers and makers, and really anyone looking to
improve their ability to determine the period of a given dress.
*La Bricoleuse*
This is a beautiful, well-written book. The photos are a joy to
study, and I finished it wishing it were twice as long.
*The Vintage Traveler*
Exceptional … Lydia Edwards has created a visual masterpiece
charting the development of women’s fashion and underscoring the
merits of integrating dress into historical studies more broadly.
... [A] detailed and beautiful reference work of women’s garments
over almost five centuries.
*Eighteenth-Century Studies*
Using examples from lesser known international collections, this
well-illustrated and informative book tracks the evolution of the
dress through expert analysis and description. It will be an
invaluable guide for anyone with an interest in dating and
contextualizing the dress as a garment within the culture of
fashion.
*Cally Blackman, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts
London, UK*
This appealing and accessible work offers a fresh perspective on
fashion history from 1550 to 1970. Images of surviving garments
from museums in Australia, Canada, Europe and the United States of
America have been annotated to highlight and elucidate key
fashionable details. This book would make an excellent companion to
The Dress Detective.
*Ingrid Mida, Curator and Dress Historian, Ryerson School of
Fashion, Toronto, Canada*
This book explores the realities of what we can and cannot know
about a garment, particularly in terms of the why and when of its
creation. The author’s concept of the fluidity of time is critical
to our better understanding of how individuals approach dress.
*Jean Druesedow, Kent State University, USA*
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