This beautifully illustrated book reveals sharp pleats, high collars, gleaming pastes, colorful beads, elaborate buttons, and intricate lacework that make up some of the garments in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s extensive fashion collection. With an authoritative text, exquisite color photography of garment details, and line drawings and photographs showing the complete construction of each piece, the reader has the unique opportunity to examine up close historical clothing that is often too fragile to be on display. It is an inspirational resource for students, collectors, designers, and anyone who is fascinated by fashion and costume.
This new edition features an updated design, fresh content and new research, a comprehensive index, and an introduction that focuses on the makers and processes involved in producing 18th-century fashion.
Reviews
Close-up and detailed photographs highlight exquisite embroidery, lace, pleats, stitching, and hand-painted fabrics alongside line drawings of the complete garment… Recommended for clothing designers and anyone interested in 18th-century attire.
— Library Journal
Provides an amazing up-close look at fashion of the 18th century.
— Choice
Contributors
Susan North
Author
Susan North is the curator of Fashion, 1550-1800, at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She co-curated “Style and Splendor: Queen Maud of Norway's Wardrobe” in 2005 and has published several books for the V&A.
