This lively autobiography evokes the adventurous spirit of the 1960s and describes an extraordinary life with clarity and wit.

    Covering the world history of costume, dress, and style from antiquity through the end of the 19th century, the great work -- "consolidated" in 1888 into 6 volumes containing nearly 500 plates -- remains, to this day, completely unique in its scope and detail. Racinet's organization by culture and subject has been preserved in TASCHEN's magnificent and complete reprint, as have excerpts from his delightful descriptions and often witty comments. Perusing these beautifully detailed and exquisitely colored illustrations, you'll discover everything from the garb of ancient Etruscans to traditional Eskimo attire to 19th century French women's couture. Though Racinet's study spans the globe from ancient times through his own, his focus is on European clothing from the Middle Ages to the 1880s and this subject is treated with exceeding passion and attention to detail. Costume History is an absolutely invaluable reference for students, designers, artists, illustrators, and historians; it is also an immensely fascinating and inspirational book for anyone with an interest in clothing and style. al text (2500 manuscript pages) in French and German, as well as all plates and details in the form of high resolution image files which are free of rights and can be used for any creative project.CONTENTS: Part I The Ancient World (Egypt, Assyria, Israel, Persia and Phrygia, Greece, Etruscan, Greco-Roman, Rome, Barbarian Europe, Celts and Gauls)Part II 19th CenturyAntique Civilizations (Oceania, Africa, Eskimos, North American Indians, Mexican Indians, South American Indians, China, Japan, India, Ceylon, Middle East, Orient, Turkey)Part III Europe from Byzantium to the 1800s (Byzantium, France-Byzantine, Poland, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, England, Holland)Part IV Traditional costumes of the 1880s (Scandinavia, Holland, Scotland, England, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France)

    Fashion historian Claire B. Shaeffer opened the door to this exclusive realm in her authoritative guide to the techniques that define couture sewing. And now, the industry bible, Couture Sewing Techniques , has been revised and updated throughout -- with new photos and a chapter on specialty fabrics.No one can unravel couture garment construction the way Shaeffer can, from the art of hand sewing to mastering edge finishes, from classic closures to shaping a garment for a perfect fit. Readers learn all the basics -- and more importantly: how to apply the techniques -- on skirts and sleeves, pockets and jackets, evening gowns, and more. Gorgeous photos, clear illustrations, and concise language combine to make this the most complete couture-sewing course available.

    Fashioning Fashion takes you through fashion and time with the sumptuous variety of an extraordinary collection. I promise, it cannot fail to inspire you." -From the preface by John GallianoThe creation of eighteenth and nineteenth century fashion moved at a much slower tempo than the lightning-speed pace of contemporary fashion, so great attention was paid to the smallest detail. Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915 celebrates these and brilliantly examines the transformation of the fashionable silhouette over this span of more than two centuries. Lavish photographs and illustrative text provide historical context, showing how technical inventions, political events, and global trade often profoundly affected style. It is little wonder that many of today's top haute couture designers often look to fashion of the past to find inspiration in the present. The intriguing and stunning examples of historic dress in this opulent volume are as captivating today as they were centuries ago. Fashioning Fashion showcases nearly two hundred highlights from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's new European collection of rare pieces of historic fashion and accessories for men, women, and children. LACMA recently acquired this singular collection, which numbers more than 1,000 objects and represents a total of fifty years of acquisitions by prominent historic dress dealers and collectors Martin Kamer of England and Wolfgang Ruf of Switzerland. The pieces were chosen for their roles in the story of fashion's aesthetic and technical development from the Age of Enlightenment to World War I. This in-depth look at the details of these luxurious textiles, exacting tailoring techniques, and lush trimmings is the first presentation of this remarkable collection.

    It provides an awareness of the fashion skills and techniques, as well as pointers on what to look for when sourcing original vintage pieces.

    Vogue on Christian Dior tells the story of Dior’s searchfor the perfect line and how his unique style and vision of women’s ideal silhouette developed. One of the most famous designers of the 20th century, his name still fronts one of the most successful haute couture fashion houses. Vogue on Christian Dior is a volume from the series created by the editors of British Vogue. It features 20,000 words of original biography and history and is studded with 80 color and black-and-white images from their unique archive of photos taken by the leading photographers of the day, including Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst, Irving Penn, and Richard Avedon.

    People are waking up to the seedy history of the world's art collections, and are starting to ask difficult questions about what the future of museums should look like. In The Whole Picture, art historian and Uncomfortable Art Tour guide Alice Procter provides a manual for deconstructing everything you thought you knew about art, and fills in the blanks with the stories that have been left out of the art history canon for centuries. The book is divided into four chronological sections, named after four different kinds of art space:The Palace The Classroom The Memorial The Playground Each section tackles the fascinating and often shocking stories of five different art pieces, including the propaganda painting that the East India Company used to justify its control in India; the Maori mokomokai skulls that were traded and collected by Europeans as 'art objects'; and Kara Walker's controversial contemporary sculpture A Subtlety, which raised questions about 'appropriate' interactions with art. Through these stories, Alice brings out the underlying colonial narrative lurking beneath the art industry today, and suggests different ways of seeing and thinking about art in the modern world.The Whole Picture is a much-needed provocation to look more critically at the accepted narratives about art, and rethink and disrupt the way we interact with the museums and galleries that display it.

    His style philosophy is: Less is Modern.The good news is: the most stylish clothes you can have are probably already in your closet. But savvy women are on a perpetual quest to find the perfect addition to their wardrobe: the perfect bathing suit, a traffic-stopping pair of jeans, that classic little black dress. While the editorial pages of high fashion magazines can offer inspiration, they can’t help you find what works for your looks and lifestyle. But Lloyd Boston’s The Style Checklist offers basic guidance to help make your everyday commute your runway. With solutions to common fashion problems and a lot of how-to advice, this book simplifies and demystifies how to achieve style.

    With overviews of each key period and detailed illustrations for each new style, How to Read a Dress is an authoritative visual guide to women's fashion across five centuries. Each entry includes annotated colour images of historical garments, outlines important features and highlights how styles have changed (whether in shape, fabric choice, trimming, undergarments) from those shown previously. Readers will learn how garments were constructed and where their inspiration stemmed from at key points in history, as well as the differences between dress types for various occasions, variations in detailing, cut, and popularity, and the class, age and social status of the wearer.This beautifully illustrated guide equips students, researchers, curators and anyone interested in historical fashion with the tools to 'read' a dress. Using this book, readers are able to identify specific period styles, and will really know their cartridge pleats from their Récamier ruffles. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/au/how-to-r...

    Fashion was as turbulent as the times. Throughout it all, Vogue magazine was there, as the leading visual filter.20th Century Fashion, published in association with Vogue magazine, is the definitive style bible for anyone interested in the past, present and future of fashion. It takes a fresh look at fashion history over the twentieth century and charts the evolution from corsets to Coco Chanel to punk.The book chronicles and explores one hundred years of developments and movements, including:20s flappers Christian Dior's New Look Swinging Sixties New Romanticism 90s Eclecticism Illustrated with eye-catching archive images, 20th Century Fashion also features the work of the photographers who helped immortalize seminal fashion images. An A-Z section profiles two hundred and fifty of the greatest fashion designers who inspired, created and altered the course of fashion -- from Azzedine Alaia to Zoran by way of Balenciaga and Yohji Yamamoto.20th Century Fashion is an informative and inspirational look at how fashion reflects and projects social mores and individual values.

    Features include: health and safety practices in the costume shop; chapters on pattern drafting and sewing operations; and an expanded section on alterations.

    Presented as an intimate "conversation," Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations aims to tease out formal and conceptual similarities between the two designers. Striking photographs and insightful texts illustrate the parallels between the two, including their preferences for interesting textiles and prints, eccentric color palettes, and a bold and playful approach to styling and accessories.Schiaparelli, in the 1920s through 50s, and Prada, from the late 1980s to today, exploited the narrative possibilities of prints, sought out unconventional textiles, played with ideas of good and bad taste, and manipulated scale for surrealistic outcomes. Contemporary art plays a major role in the work of these inventive women—Schiaparelli in her famous collaborations with Dali and Cocteau, and Prada via her Fondazione Prada. Blending the historic with the contemporary, the catalogue brings the masterworks of both designers together into a grand conversation between the most important women fashion designers to ever emerge from Italy.

    With subjects that both reflect the zeitgeist and contribute to its creation, each exhibi­tion—from 2005’s Chanel, to 2011’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty and 2013’s Punk—creates a provocative and engaging narrative attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors. The show’s opening-night gala, produced in collaboration with Vogue magazine and attended by the likes of Beyoncé, George Clooney, and Hillary Clinton, is regularly referred to as the Party of the Year.Covering the Costume Institute’s history and highlighting exhibitions of the 21st century curated by Harold Koda and Andrew Bolton, this book offers insider access of the first order. Anchored by photo­graphs from the exhibitions themselves in tandem with the Vogue fashion shoots they inspired, it also includes images of exhibited objects and party photos from the galas. Drawn from the extensive Vogue archives, the featured stories showcase the photographs of icons such as Annie Leibovitz, Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, and Craig McDean; the vision of legendary Vogue editors like Grace Coddington and Tonne Goodman; and the knowledge and wit of writers such as Hamish Bowles and Jonathan Van Meter.

    The book also offers an overview of the development of fashion, as seen through the eyes of the greatest illustrators of the day. Early in the century fashion illustration reflected new, liberating currents in art and culture, such as the exoticism of the Ballets Russes, while the postwar period saw inspiration from the great Parisian couturiers. After the dominance of the celebrity fashion photographer in the '60s, a new generation of illustrators emerged, embracing the medium of the computer, while many returned to more traditional techniques.

    From short tunics worn by Saxon men in the fifth century to a lady's bustle dress of the late 1800s, this profusely illustrated text contains a wealth of authentic patterns. Information on pattern sizes, materials required, and methods of sewing accompany simply drawn diagrams for Elizabethan doublets, capes, and trunks; a man's coat and vest from the Restoration period; a lady's bell-shaped gown of the eighteenth century; an early-nineteenth-century empire gown; a crinoline; and other wardrobe items.Diagrams have been carefully and accurately drawn to scale from working patterns, and detailed notes for making costumes include suggestions for the most suitable colors and textures to be used for costumes of particular historical periods. A final section includes diagrams and information for creating period headdresses, caps, and hoods. Students of costume design, home tailors, and community drama groups will welcome this carefully researched guide to fifteen centuries of English fashions.