Bath and North East Somerset Libraries

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The content, cut, construction & context of European men’s and women’s dress c.1560-1620.

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The content, cut, construction & context of linen shirts, smocks, neckwear, headwear and accessories for men and women c.1540-1660.

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Each period in the history of costume has produced its own characteristic line and silhouette, and the book includes numerous patterns taken from actual dresses, many of them rare museum specimens, illustrated by line sketches of the garments themselves. There are detailed notes on the production of women’s dress with diagrams from and references to early technical books and journals.

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From the momentous invention of the needle some 40,000 years ago to the development of denim, from Neolithic weavers to the biggest names in the fashion industry today, this is a guide to the landmarks of costume history.

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From our earliest ancestors to babies born today, fabric is a necessary part of our everyday lives, but it’s also an opportunity for creativity, symbolism, culture and connection. Travelling across the world and bringing history to life, Victoria Finlay investigates how and why people have made and used cloth. A century ago in Wales, women would sew their own funeral clothes over tea with friends. In Papua New Guinea, bark is stripped from trees and beaten into cloth. Harris Tweed has a particular smell, while Guatemalan weavers use dazzling colours. Uncovering the stories of the fabrics people wear and use from sacking to silk, this book combines science, history, tradition and art in a captivating exploration of how we live, work, craft and care.

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The complete visual account of how silk has been cultivated, woven, dyed, patterned, traded and worn throughout the world over 6000 years of human history. Silk has long captured the imagination of peoples round the globe, inspiring creativity in the making of luxurious textiles. This major new survey draws on the exceptional collections of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and explores tradition and innovation across the history and geography of silk production, celebrating the ingenuity and skill of designers and makers. Structured by technique, from weaving and knitting to dyeing, printing and embroidery, this compendium showcases a rich variety of artworks, furnishings and clothing, including fashions from recent designer catwalk shows in North America, Asia and Europe. Silk will inform every student, connoisseur and admirer of beautiful textiles.

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This authoritative survey covers the development of textiles from a huge geographical and chronological range – from China to South America, from Egyptian artefacts of 3000 years BC to contemporary crafts and furnishings.

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For everyone with an interest in needlework, this dictionary is a must. Essentially a book of extended definitions, it combines the “what it is” and the “how it is done” for a huge range of information both historical and contemporary. What is more, it is unique, being the only modern work to explain the meaning of the innumerable terms and techniques in use over the centuries for all kinds of sewing, stitchery, and embroidery. 

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This seminal text demystifies all the terminology around working with textiles today, providing definitions of processes, techniques, features, and even some historical terms that you need to know.

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A detailed book from the V&A’s fashion collections, featuring 15 garments. This breathtakingly detailed book presents dress patterns, construction details, embroidery and making instructions for fifteen garments and accessories from a seventeenth-century woman’s wardrobe. Full step-by-step drawings of the construction sequence are given for each garment alongside photographs of the objects and the groundbreaking use of x-ray photography revealing the hidden elements of the clothes, the precise number of layers and the stitches used inside.

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This book, the first of its kind, examines Stuart England through the mirror of dress. It argues that both artistic and literary sources can be read and decoded for information on dress and on the way it was perceived in a period of immense political, social and cultural change. Focusing on the rich visual culture of the age, including portraits, engravings, fashion plates and sculpture, and on the many and varied literary sources – poetry, drama, essays, sermons – the distinguished historian of dress, Aileen Ribeiro, creates a fascinating account of Stuart dress and reveals the ways in it reflects and influences society.

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A survey of the clothing worn by the middle and upper classes throughout Europe in the 18th century, and a discussion of what this meant in terms of social definition and identity. Aileen Ribeiro, a historian of dress, also looks at such subjects as developments in retailing and distribution, etiquette, the rise of the dress designer and couturier, the evolution of ready-made clothes, fancy dress, and the masquerade. 

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Remarkably thorough illustrated overview based on rare period photographs, periodicals, other contemporary sources. Description and information about hundreds of fashions: morning dresses, riding outfits, carriage costumes, evening dresses, bridal gowns, more. Also millinery, footwear, underclothing, other apparel. 

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This seminal text demystifies all the terminology around working with textiles today, providing definitions of processes, techniques, features, and even some historical terms that you need to know.

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From the turn-of-the-century S-bend silhouette to the bumster and bustier of today, this comprehensive survey explores all the significant developments in fashion in a century that has witnessed a growing occupation with personal appearance and style. The book focuses on the key movements and innovations in clothing for both men and women and discusses these through the work of the most original designers and couturiers. Chapters are organized around crucial shifts in style and major world events, and exciting and revolutionary developments in fashion are placed in context. International in scope, the work encompasses all the century’s most important designers and metropolitan fashion centres alongside developments in accessories, hairstyles and make-up. The importance of mass production, advances in man-made fibres, the growth of ready-to-wear and the major influence of postwar subcultural styles on contemporary fashion are also discussed. 

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Fashion has never changed so quickly as in the first half of this century: two world wars, the emancipation of women, technological advances, the increase in ready-to-wear clothing and the spread of chain stores have all contributed to the breakdown of the traditional differences in dress that marked the social distinctions of the past. All aspects of women’s and men’s clothing, including accessories, are described in detail in this book, and accurate descriptions of cut, trimmings, fastenings, materials and colours are included.

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With contributions from experts on cloth, fashion and cultural history as well as the voices of makers and designers, this inspiring book offers a window into one of the most innovative, exciting and thoughtful areas of fashion today. `We face forward’ Kwame Nkrumah, 7th April 1960 From Amanda Gorman in kente cloth (courtesy of Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton) on the cover of US Vogue, to Naomi Campbell’s outings in Kenneth Ize, African fashion exerts worldwide influence. Africa Fashion explores how radical post-independence social and political re-ordering sparked a cultural renaissance across the continent. Designers such as Shade Thomas-Fahm, Chris Seydou, Kofi Ansah and Nina Gessous drew on past traditions, recovered and reinvented them and so laid the foundation for today’s fashion revolution. 

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The End of Fashion focuses on the ways in which our understanding of fashion and the fashion system have transformed as mass mediation and digitization continue to broaden the way that contemporary fashion is perceived and consumed. Exploring everything from the rise of online shopping to the emergence of bloggers as power elites who have revolutionised the terrain of traditional fashion reportage, this volume anatomises a world in which runway shows now compete with live-streaming, digital fashion films, Instagram, and Pinterest.

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John Picton looks at West Africa and the relationship between the vibrant textile patterns dyed and woven by local tribespeople and the statuesque robes worn by West African communities, while Carolyn Cooper concentrates on Jamaican dress and its historical roots. Susan B. Kaiser, Leslie Rabine, Carol Hall and Daryl Ketchum highlight hip-hop culture within a broader historical context, placing the concept of respect, originating in the early years of slavery, at the centre of African-American style identity. Carol Tulloch draws on a wide range of examples, from the Evangelical church and gospel singers, to family events such as weddings and funerals, the world of pop music, carnival and street markets, to portray the multiple strands that make up black dress and identity in Great Britain. Generously illustrated, this book portrays the wonderful diversity of approaches to fashion and individual style within the black community, while also giving voice to black men and women and engaging with current debates on the significance of dress in political and socio-cultural terms.

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From the civil rights and Black Power era of the 1960s through antiapartheid activism in the 1980s and beyond, black women have used their clothing, hair, and style not simply as a fashion statement but as a powerful tool of resistance. Whether using stiletto heels as weapons to protect against police attacks or incorporating African-themed designs into everyday wear, these fashion-forward women celebrated their identities and pushed for equality.

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The Dress Detective is the first practical guide to analysing fashion objects, clearly demonstrating how their close analysis can enhance and enrich interdisciplinary research. This accessible book provides readers with the tools to uncover the hidden stories in garments, setting out a carefully developed research methodology specific to dress, and providing easy-to-use checklists that guide the reader through the process. Beautifully illustrated, the book contains seven case studies of fashionable Western garments – ranging from an 1820s coat to a 2004 Kenzo jacket – that articulate the methodological framework for the process, illustrate the use of the checklists, and show how evidence from the garment itself can be used to corroborate theories of dress or fashion.

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Fashion History: A Global View proposes a new perspective on fashion history. Arguing that fashion has occurred in cultures beyond the West throughout history, this groundbreaking book explores the geographic places and historical spaces that have been largely neglected by contemporary fashion studies, bringing them together for the first time.Reversing the dominant narrative that privileges Western Europe in the history of dress, Welters and Lillethun adopt a cross-cultural approach to explore a vast array of cultures around the globe. They explore key issues affecting fashion systems, ranging from innovation, production and consumption to identity formation and the effects of colonization. Case studies include the cross-cultural trade of silk textiles in Central Asia, the indigenous dress of the Americas and of Hawai’i, the cosmetics of the Tang Dynasty in China, and stylistic innovation in sub-Saharan Africa.

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In a well-documented, profusely illustrated volume combining impressive scholarship with an entertaining, often humorous style, two distinguished clothing historians consider undergarments worn by the English over the past 600 years. Beginning with the Middle Ages, the authors cover centuries of clothing history, including the Tudor period, the Restoration, the Victorian and Edwardian eras, and the twentieth century up to the eve of World War II. Drawing on extensive, research, the Cunningtons illuminate the role and function of underwear: it protected the wearer against the elements, supported costume shapes, served as an erotic stimulus, symbolized class distinctions, and fulfilled other social, sanitary, and economic functions.

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Who besides the carpenter worked in a paper cap?

Which Fire Brigade dressed in Royal Naval Uniform?

When did a woman go milking in a dress with a train?

Who were backsters?

These and many other questions are answered in this book. It fills a wide gap in the history of costume, since former books on the subject have concentrated on the fashions of the more leisured classes (a minority) rather than on the clothes worn by people at work. The occupations covered include those of outdoor manual workers, tradesmen, craftsmen, miners, seamen, public and domestic servants.

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Mourning Dress chronicles the development of European and American mourning dress and etiquette from the middle ages to the present day, highlighting similarities and differences in practices between the different social strata. The result is a book which is not only of major importance to students of the history of dress but also to anyone who enjoys social history.