How to Read a Dress - Revised Edition

Fashion is ever-changing, and while some styles mark a dramatic departure from the past, many exhibit subtle differences from year to year that are not always easily identifiable. With overviews of each key period and detailed illustrations for each new style, How to Read a Dress is an appealing and accessible guide to women's fashion across five centuries. Each entry includes annotated color images of historical garments, outlining important features and highlighting how styles have developed over time, whether in shape, fabric choice, trimming, or undergarments. Readers learn how garments were constructed and where their inspiration stemmed from at key points in history - as well as how dresses have varied in type, cut, detailing and popularity according to the occasion and the class, age and social status of the wearer.

This new edition includes additional styles to illustrate and explain the journey between one style and another; larger images to allow closer investigation of details of dress; examples of lower and working-class, as well as middle-class, clothing; and a completely new chapter covering the 1980s to 2020. The latter demonstrates how the late 20th century and early 21st century firmly left the dress behind as a requirement, but retained it as a perennially popular choice and illustrates how far the traditional boundaries of 'the dress' have been pushed (even including reference to a newly non-binary appreciation of the garment), and the intellectual shifts in the way women's fashion is both inspired and inspires.

With these new additions, How to Read a Dress, revised edition, presents a complete and up-to-date picture of 'the dress' in all its forms, across the centuries, and taking into account different sartorial and social experiences. It is the ideal tool for anyone who has ever wanted to know their cartridge pleats from their Récamier ruffles. Equipping the reader with all the information they need to 'read' a dress, this is the ultimate guide for students, researchers, and anyone interested in historical fashion.

List of contents

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 - 1979
12. 1980 - 2020

Glossary of Terms
Notes
Bibliography
Photographic Credits
Index
List of Fashion Designers

About the author

Lydia Edwards is a lecturer at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia and author of the companion book, How to Read a Suit (Bloomsbury 2020).

Summary

Fashion is ever-changing, and while some styles mark a dramatic departure from the past, many exhibit subtle differences from year to year that are not always easily identifiable. With overviews of each key period and detailed illustrations for each new style, How to Read a Dress is an appealing and accessible guide to women's fashion across five centuries. Each entry includes annotated color images of historical garments, outlining important features and highlighting how styles have developed over time, whether in shape, fabric choice, trimming, or undergarments. Readers learn how garments were constructed and where their inspiration stemmed from at key points in history – as well as how dresses have varied in type, cut, detailing and popularity according to the occasion and the class, age and social status of the wearer.

This new edition includes additional styles to illustrate and explain the journey between one style and another; larger images to allow closer investigation of details of dress; examples of lower and working-class, as well as middle-class, clothing; and a completely new chapter covering the 1980s to 2020. The latter demonstrates how the late 20th century and early 21st century firmly left the dress behind as a requirement, but retained it as a perennially popular choice and illustrates how far the traditional boundaries of ‘the dress’ have been pushed (even including reference to a newly non-binary appreciation of the garment), and the intellectual shifts in the way women’s fashion is both inspired and inspires.

With these new additions, How to Read a Dress, revised edition, presents a complete and up-to-date picture of ‘the dress’ in all its forms, across the centuries, and taking into account different sartorial and social experiences. It is the ideal tool for anyone who has ever wanted to know their cartridge pleats from their Récamier ruffles. Equipping the reader with all the information they need to 'read' a dress, this is the ultimate guide for students, researchers, and anyone interested in historical fashion.

Foreword

With lavish color 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.

Additional text

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.

Report

This comprehensive, inclusive and updated guide to dress history is richly illustrated in full colour and is supplemented with detailed annotations that identify the key stylistic trends from 1550 to 2020 - making it an essential text for the novice fashion historian. Ingrid Mida, Author of The Dress Detective and Reading Fashion in Art

Product details

• Authors: Lydia Edwards, Lydia (Edith Cowan University Edwards, Edwards Lydia
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2020
• EAN: 9781350172210
• ISBN: 978-1-350-17221-0
• No. of pages: 288
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business; Fashion & style guides, DESIGN / Fashion & Accessories, CRAFTS & HOBBIES / Fashion, DESIGN / Textile & Costume, Fashion & society, Fashion & textiles: design, Fashion and style guides, Fashion and textile design, Cultural studies: dress and society