Title: clothing-books-msg
Subject: Reviews of clothing and pattern books.
Author: Edited by Mark S. Harris
Last saved by: Mark S. Harris
Keywords: medieval, clothes, garb, books, patterns, fashion

clothing-books-msg - 12/30/14

Book reviews, bibliographies and pattern sources.

NOTE: See also these files: patterns-msg, merch-cloth-lst, clothing-bib,  clothing-FAQ, clothing-msg, costuming-lnks, p-sumpt-laws-msg, smptuary-laws-lnks.

************************************************************************
NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: 21464RM%MSU.BITNET at MITVMA.MIT.EDU ("Roseann.Miller")
Date: 7 May 90 18:43:18 GMT

Greetings to the Rialto, and esp. Elizabeth of Braidwood:

I have been experimenting with glovemaking, and have come up with a
few reference books you may find useful:

Collins, C. Cody.  Love of a Glove. New York, Fairchild Publishing, 1949.
  (has a simple history of gloves, some photos of period gloves from 1500
   on, and some quickie hints on leatherworking for gloves)
Cummings, Valerie.  Gloves.  London, Batsford. 1982.  (Good historical
  info, but starts at 1600.  Does very briefly cover Elizabethan gloves,
  and has reproduction of mid-17th-century patterns for gloves)
Johnson.  Leatherwork.  London, C.A. Pearson, 1949.  (Leatherworking
  how-to with instructions for making both lined and unlined leather gloves.
  The patterns given are not too far off from the ones in Cummings)
Smith, F.R.  Practical Leatherwork.  New York, Pitman. 1946.  (Dover took
  over this one, but I don't know if it's being published anymore.  Like
  Johnson, a modern book but with adaptable patterns and helpful how-tos
  on construction).

There are also extant period gloves to be found in books on period
embroidery and costume accessories.  There are knitted gloves in pictures
and references, knitters on the Net may know of some.

<snip>

Hopefully this information will be helpful.  Next project - gloves for
archery before the Pennsic!

     Roxanne of Bloekmedwe                :   R. Miller
     Barony of the NorthWoods, Midrealm   :   Okemos, MI

From: gwilym at micor.ocug.on.ca (Bill Sanderson)
Date: 15 Oct 90 12:51:32 GMT
Organization: M.B. Cormier INC.

Greetings again, from Gwilym

The book I referred to earlier is:

Tartans: Their Art and History, Ann Sutton & Richard Carr, Arco Publishing
inc., New York, 1984.  In the bibliography the following book is mentioned:

History of Highland Dress, J. Telfer Dunbar, Oliver & Boyd and Batson,
London, 1962 and 1979. (Some editions have an excellent appendix on 
"Early Scottish Highland Dyes" by Annette Kok.)

Awilda:

The lichen dyes which were and are used in the Highlands produce some
very bright colours, without mordants. The book referred to above has
a colour plate of lichen and vegetable dyed skeins, and the colours
while somewhat muted from modern chemical dyes, are quite bright.

The interesting thing about this book is that it gives the setts for
all of the registered and many of the unregistered clan 

From: sharpwa!grendal!nam at nosun.west.sun.com (Nicholas Marcelja)
Date: 1 Jan 91 22:14:26 GMT
Subject: Bibliography for Corset class

Tailor's Pattern Book 1589 (facsimile)  Juan de Alcega
Ruth Bean; Carlton, Bedford  1979

Hispanic Costume 1480-1530  Ruth Matilda Anderson
Hispanic Society of America; NY  1979

Patterns of Fashion (1560-1620)  Janet Arnold
Drama Books; NY  1985

Cut My Cote  Dorothy K. Burnham
Royal Ontario Museum; 1973

Period Costume for Stage and Screen  Jean Hunnisett
Bell & Hyman Ltd.; London  1986

The Annotated Arnold  R.W. Trump
Self-published; 1987

A Simple Doublet & Trunkhose  R.W. Trump
Self-published; 1987 

Corsets and Crinolines  Nora Waugh
Batsford Books; London  1954

Cut of Women's Clothes (1600-1930)  Nora Waugh
Faber & Faber, Ltd.: London  1968

Nicholas Marcelja ....sun!nosun!sharpwa!grendal!nam

Grendal

From: alg at cs.cornell.edu (Anne Louise Gockel)
Date: 18 Nov 91 18:27:43 GMT
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853

2) Are there any sources of historical costuming patterns
supplies?

Patterns and Supplies:

Fall Creek Suttlery
P.O. Box 530
Freedom, CA 95019
(408) 728-1888
- $2.00 catalog.  Civil War era items and patterns.

La Pelleterie
P.O. Box 127 Highway 41
Arrow Rock, Missouri 65320
(816) 837-3261
- $3.00 catalog.  Coats and cloaks, pre 1840.

NE Shutsa Traders
P.O. Box 186
Haven, Kansas 67542
(316) 465-3359
- $1.50 catalog.  Cal/Mex era and horsegear.

JAS Townsend & Son
P.O. Box 415
Pierceton, IN 46562
(800) 338-1665
- Hats, cloaks, clasps.

Campell's Designs
Box 400
Gratz, PA
17030-0400
- $3.00 catalog. ($4.50 in spring 1991?)  Patterns from 1776-1945

Carolina Stitches in Time
Box 10933
Winston-Salem, N.C. 27108
(919) 764-0790
- Period clothing patterns.

Amazon Vinegar & Pickling Works
2218 E. 11th St.
Davenport, IA 52803-3760
(319) 322-6800
(800) 798-7979 - orders ONLY and only from the US
(319) 322-4003 - fax
- $2.00 general catalog, $5 for historical patterns catalog.  This is "the
mailing list to be on".  Historical patterns selected from Folkwear, midiaeval
Miscellanea, early western, victorian, hoop-gown era, Past Patterns, Attic
Copies (1920's to 40's), Prairie Clothing, amish, kilts, ethnic and dance.

Past Patterns
P.O. Box 7587
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49510
(616) 245-9456
- $3.00 catalog.  Good selection of early 20th century clothing. 

Mediaeval Miscellanea
7006 Raleigh Road 
Annandale, VA 22003
- What else?  Midieaval patterns (think Robin Hood :-). 

Folkwear
The Taunton Press
63 South Main St, Box 5506
Newtown, CT 06470-5506
- Only some of the original patterns have been reprinted, but Tauton is
reprinting others regularly.  Mostly Victorian and Early American patterns.

G-Street Fabrics
11854 Rockville Pike
Rockville, Md 20852
(301) 231-8998

Fair Winds Pattern Co.
819 N. June St.  
Hollywood, CA 90038. 
- Send $1 for small brouchure featuring six patterns.  Very nice 1920's jazz
dress, Princess Bride-style wedding gown, a couple of nice casual, day-wear
1920's dresses.  One ho-hum 1940's dress.

R.L.Shep. 
Box 668 
Mendocino, CA 95460. 
- 1990-91 catalog has 1000 items.  $2.50 cataog.  Books, magazines and
reprints.  Books related to the costume and textile arts, including out of
print and hard to find books.  Shep has also reprinted a number of older
clothing books, including a couple of books of patterns for Victorian and
Edwardian clothing.

Raiments 
3345 East Miraloma
Suite 134
Anaheim CA 92806
- Patterns from 1100-1950 representing 15 pattern companies.  Catalog $5
(refundable with purchase).

The Cabinet of Vintage Patterns
3522 Deerbrook
Windsor Ontario N8R 2E9
- Canadian company featuring patterns from 1905 to 1930; reproductions of
women's and children's clothing.  Catalog $4.  Some very nice 1910-20 tea
dresses.

Old World Enterprises
Dept 302
29036 Kepler Ct
Cold Spring Minn 56320
- 19th century patterns.  $2 for catalog.  Their listing says they specialize
in 19th century garments.  Their patterns aren't copies of existing garments,
though, but originals based on the prevailing styles at the time.  They offer
multiple graded patterns in female sizes 8-10-12-14 and male sizes 38-40-42.
Catalog $2.

Prairie Clothing Co
3732 Tanager Drive NE
Cedar Rapids IA 52402
(319) 378-0125
- $1 catalog.  Lots of "Little House on the Prairie"-style clothing.  More or
less current clothing styles adapted for a combination prairie/Edwardian feel
without tons of sewing details.

Remember When Collection
361 N. Ohio
Salina, KS  67401
- Send SASE for brochure.  "Romantic" clothing.  Current designs adapted to a
Victorian feel.

Dave Uebele ({ucbvax!ucscc |uunet | sun}!sco!daveu) has provided a fairly
complete list of sources for 1850-1900 clothing and heavy materials
construction.  See his notes later in this article.

Magazines:

Vintage Fashions
Hobby House Press Inc.
900 Frederick St.
Cumberland, MD  21502
-- a bi-monthly magazine focusing on vintage apparel and instructions for
their care and repair.  One-year subscription $19.95, sample copy $2.95.

Books:

Some of these books are out of print. Most of them should be in a good
university library. Some of them will be in the public library:

Iris Brooke: "A practical guide to the constuction of theatrical medieval
garments" (or something like that) (Iris Brooke has written a number of
historical costuming books).

Alcega, Juan de. Tailor's Pattern Book 1589. (reprint)

Burnham, Dorothy.  Cut My Cote. (diagrams of actual historical (and ethnic?)
clothing in the Royal Ontario Museum.  Diagrams are graphed and shown with
metric dimensions.)

Hill, Margot Hamilton & Pater A. Buchnell.  The Evolution of Fashion: Pattern
& Cut from 1066-1930.

Houston, Mary G. & Florence Hornblower.  Medieval Costumes in England and
France.

Holkefer, Katherine Strand.  Patterns for Theatrical Costumes.  Edson, Doris &
Lucy Barton.  Period Patterns.

Fernald, Mary.  "Costume Design and Making" 

From an article on sewing costumes in Threads #30: Waugh, Norah: "The Cut of
Women's Clothes 1600-1930" and "The Cut of Men's Clothes 1600-1900" (Theatre
Arts Books) Concise descriptions and drawings of men's gaments from 1600 to
1900. Includes scaled patterns that can be enlarged.

Hillhouse, Marion and Evelyn A Mansfield: Dress Design: Draping and Flat
Pattern Making.  Riverside Press 1948. Clear instructions on draping, with
excellent drawings of bodice, skirt, sleeve, and neckline styles.  Perfect for
reproducing styles of the 1940's.

Covey, Liz: The Costumer's Handbook.  Prentice Hall 1980.  A good basic source
for the tecniques of theatrical cosumters.

Arnold, Janet: Patterns of Fashion 1: Englishwomen's Dresses and Their
Construction c. 1660-1860; Patterns of Fashion 2: Englishwomen's Dresses and
their Construction c. 1860-1940.  New York. Drama Book Publishers, 1972.
Contains notes on construction techniques and fabrics.  Very clear drawings
show the inside of each garment.

History of Costume from Ancient Egypt to 20th Century.  Blanche Payne.
c.1965.  New York. Harper & Row. Includes patterns drawn to scale.  One tactic
is to choose a garment in a book, make a transparency of the pattern in the
book, and go buy a pattern as similar as possible.  Then project the
transparency on the wall and use it to adjust the bought pattern to the style
of the garment in the book.

Dover has a Pictorial Archive catalog and a Needlework catalog.  The
Needlework catalog includes several books that discuss Renaissance embroidery.
The Pictorial Archive catalog has a FEW books that cover costumes.  Typically
these are books that contain pictures of people in costume.  There are few
(none?)  books with actual costumes drafted.

Dover Publications
31 East 2nd St
Mineola, NY 11501.

The whole costumer's catalog is probably available from:     
GCFCG (Greater Columbia Fantasy Costumers guild).
P.O. Box 194
Mt. Airy, Md 21771

Subject: book review: textiles and clothing
Date: 1 Jun 92 
From: SHERMAN%TRLN.DECnet at uncvx1.acs.unc.EDU ("Dennis R. Sherman")
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Organization: The Internet

Greetings to the Rialto from Robyyan.

My copy of _Textiles and Clothing_, the latest in the Museum of London 
series about medieval finds arrived this weekend.  For those that 
don't know, this is a series of books on recoveries from archeological 
sites in London.  The first three books in the series are _Knives and 
Scabbards_, _Shoes and Pattens_, and _Dress Accessories_.  The titles 
are indicative of the subject matter of each :-)

These books are terrific research and reconstruction material.  They 
include detailed descriptions, drawings, and photographs of recovered 
articles, in many cases with patterns from articles disassembled for 
preservation.  And they have *large* bibliographies.

This particular volume, _Textiles and Clothing_, contains information 
of interest to anyone working with cloth, although I think it will be 
of most use to weavers.  There are no complete garments included, 
although there are many fragments (i.e. pieces of a sleeve, a foot 
from hose, a couple of hoods, etc.)  I don't think there are sufficient 
clothing fragments to base a complete set of garb on the information 
here, but the information on details (how to sew buttonholes or 
eyelets, making cloth buttons, how hems and edges are turned or bound) 
is quite valuable.

Selections from the table of contents:  (typos mine, multiple -- 
indicate places where I left things out)

Techniques used in textile production
	wool-hair-linen-wilk-dyes-looms
Wool textiles
	state of preservation-the weaves of the cloths-three-shed 
	twills---tabby weaves--tapestry-knitting-felt
Goathair textiles
Linen textiles
	self-patterened weaves -- finishing
Silk textiles
	---sources of supply---tabby woven---weft-patterened---satin
	damask
Mixed cloths
Narrow wares
	tablet woven braids--fingerloop braids-plaited braids--
	-garters---hairnets
Sewing techniques and tailoring
	sewing threads-sewing techniques-bindings and facings-
	fastening methods---dagges

I highly recommend this series for people interested in historical 
accuracy in their reconstructions.

All are available from Her Majesties Stationary Office (HMSO):

	HMSO Publications Centre
	PO Box 276, London, SW8 5DT
	071-873-9090  (remember to dial for England first)

They take Visa and MasterCard.  Prices on the books are different, and
vary with the exchange rate.  _Textiles and Clothing_ cost me just
under $55, including surface mail shipping. 

Bibliographic data (try to get your local library to order these 
books! :-) --

Elisabeth Crowfoot, Frances Pritchard and Kay Staniland; _Medieval 
finds from excavations in London:4, Textiles and Clothing 
c.1150-c.1450_; London: HMSO, 1992.  ISBN 0 11 290445 9

*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
* Robyyan Torr d'Elandris  Kapellenberg, Windmaster's Hill  Atlantia *
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
* Dennis R. Sherman  	         Triangle Research Libraries Network *
* dennis_sherman at unc.edu       Univ. of North Carolina - Chapel Hill *
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: sherman at trln.lib.unc.edu (dennis r. sherman)
Subject: Re: Buttons
Organization: Triangle Research Libraries Network
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1993 22:22:09 GMT

Philippa d'Ecosse writes:
>I'm not all that good at tying bows with my teeth, I wondered if
>some sort of button might be acceptably period.

Geoff Egan and Frances Pritchard, _Dress Accessories c.1150-c.1450, 
Medieval Finds from Excavations in London vol.3_, London: HMSO, 1991.  
ISBN 0 11 29044 0

Find this book!!!  Available from HMSO bookshops, but you have to call 
London to order, and its the most expensive paperback book I've ever 
bought.  If you want to call -- country code + 071-873-9090, I think 
its a 24 hour order line.

Note from the title that this book deals with London in a restricted 
range of years -- that doesn't mean other times and places didn't use 
similar stuff, but you can't prove it from this source.

Brief notes from chapter on buttons:
- buttons probably came into common use in England and Europe in the 
early 13th century
- excavated buttons generally fall in three categories:
	*cast, usually solid lead/tin with integral shanks, or bronze 
	with embedded wire shanks
	*composite sheeting, made of two stamped pieces of copper alloy
	soldered together and wire shank soldered in place
	*cloth, bunch of scrap cloth sewn into ball
- buttons vary in size from 8mm to 15.5mm diameter for the metal, 
4mm-6mm for round cloth, 14mm-35mm for loose, flat cloth, which may 
have had a stiffener inside

--
  Robyyan Torr d'Elandris  Kapellenberg, Windmaster's Hill  Atlantia
               --------------------------------------
  Dennis R. Sherman  	         Triangle Research Libraries Network
  dennis_sherman at unc.edu       Univ. of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

From: nsmca at aurora.alaska.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.celtic,rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Instructions for ancient kilt - feileadh mor
Date: 21 Jul 93 08:11:13 GMT
Organization: University of Alaska Fairbanks

In article <1993Jul21.022229.3213 at cujo.curtin.edu.au>, Andy Weir <NWEIRANDY at cc.curtin.edu.au> writes:
> In article <1992Aug12.223147.18550 at access.usask.ca> Hugh
> Goldie, goldie at herald.usask.ca writes:
>>Please send instructions for folding and wearing the Great
> Scottish Kilt or 
>>feileadh-mor.  As I understand it, this was a large piece of
> tartan or 
>>other cloth, folded in pleats and worn about the body, with
> only a belt used
> 
> I saw a segment on this in a documentary about a year ago or
> so ago.  Sorry I can't remember what it was called or whether
> it was just a 5-10 minute filler between shows.  Someone has
> already described how it is put on which is exactly how I
> remember it from the TV.  It could have been the fairly recent
> documentary on Scottish migration shown in OZ in the past 12
> months which in the main covered migration to the USA.
> 
> I hope someone else may have seen it and can put you on to it.
> 
> Andy  Weir/Wier/Weer/Vere . . . . .

Might check out "The Clans of the Scottish Highlands" atleast for examples..
Author is RR. McIan, forward by Antonia Fraser....
The original book was doen c.1845/47..
ISBN: 0 907486 38 X
From Webb&Bower (Publications) Ltd.
Or Chancellor Press, 49 Grosvenor Stree, London W1.

Not sure of any other books right now, but my library is in storage for now..
Just to large for my apartment.

======
Ghost Wheel - NSMCA at acad3.alaska.edu

From: g_duperault at venus.twu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: costume biblio--LONG!
Date: 29 Nov 93 17:11:33 +600
Organization: Texas Woman's University

	Here it is kiddies!  Have fun!

				Avwye
 ______________________________________________________________________________

       _A Bibliography of Costume Sourcebooks_

	The following list has been compiled with the intention of providing a
list of recently published, and therefore reasonably available , sources for
costume and clothing reconstruction.  Titles listed with both ISBN and price
can be assumed to be in print and available in the US at this time.
	Additions, changes, etc. should be sent to G_Duperault at venus.twu.edu
	Permission is given to copy and freely distribute this list in its
complete and entire form, which must include this header.
	No warranty expressed or implied. Your mileage may vary.
	(c) 1993 D.M.Duperault

BOOKS:

Ancient Indian Costume,  Rosten Alkazi.  New Delhi: Art Heritage, 1983.  200p.
 A history of the costume of India, from earliest civilization to 1200. 
 Illustrated, with maps, index and bibliography.

Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd.  Janet Arnold.  Leeds, England: Maney,
 1988.  392p.  Illustrated, with bibliography and index.  Inventory of a wardr
 obe taken in 1600.  ISBN 0901286206.

A Handbook of Costume.  Janet Arnold.  London: Macmilan, 1973.  336p.
 Illustrated, with bibliography. ISBN 0333124812.

Patterns of Fashion; Englishwomen's dresses and their construction.  Janet
 Arnold.  London: Macmillan, 1990.  2 volumes, ill.  $30.00.  ISBN 0896760278

Patterns of Fashion: The cut and construction of clothes for men and women,
 c.1560-1620.  Janet Arnold.  London: Macmillan; New York: Drama Book, 1985.
 128p. Illustrated, with bibliography.  The history of dressmaking and
 tailoring of men's clothing.  ISBN 089676039.

Dress in the Age of Elizabeth I.  Jane Ashford.  New York: Holmes and Meier,
 1988. 159p. ISBN 0841911908.

Folk Jewelery of the World.  Ger Daniels.  Rizzoli.  200p. Heavily illustrated
 survey of ornaments and traditional dress. $60.00.

Kings, Queens, Knights and Jesters: Making medieval costumes,  Lynn Edelman
 Schnurnberger.  New York: Harper and Row, 1978.  124p. An illustrated history
 of costume, aimed at the juvenile audience.  $6.95.  ISBN 0060252413.

Dress Accessories, c1150-c1450.  Geoff Egan and Frances Pritchard.  London:
 HMSO, 1991.  421p. Illustrated.  Medieval finds from excavations in London. 
 ISBN 0112904440.

Dress and Undress: a history of women's underwear.  Elizabeth Ewing.  New York:
 Drama Book Specialists, c1978.  191p.: ill. Index.  

Everyday Dress, 1650-1900: a popular survey,  Elizabeth Ewing.  Chelsea House
 Publishers, 1989.  Illustrated. $19.95. ISBN 1555467504

History of Children's Costume,  Elizabeth Ewing.  New York: Scribner, 1977.
  191p.  Illustrated, with colour plates, index.

The Tie: trends and traditions.  Sarah Gibbings.  Barron's.  160p. An
 illustrated history of the tie and it's precursors, from the 1600's to today.
  $ 21.95.

The Hat: Trends and traditions.  Madeline Ginsburg.  Hauppage, NY: Barron's,
 1990.  160p: ill. 

After a fashion: How to reproduce, restore, and wear vintage styles.  Francis
 Grimble.  San Francisco: Lavolta Press, 1993.  352p. Line drawings.  $35.00
 ISBN 0963651706 Covers clothing styles from medieval to modern.

Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials: a comparitive study of costume
 and iron age textiles.  Margarethe Hald.  Copenhagen: National Museum of
 Denmark, 1980.  398p.  Illustrated, with maps.  Covers the textiles and
 costumes of prehistoric Denmark.

Renaissance Dress in Italy 1400-1500.  Jacqueline Herald.  London: Bell and
 Hyman; Atlantic Highlands, N., 1981.  256p. An illustrated history of costume
 in art during the Italian Renaissance.

Costume Construction.  Katherine Strand Holkeboer.  Englewood Cliifs,NJ:
 Prentice Hall, 1989.  232p.  Index and bibliography.  Costuming and costume 
 design.  ISBN 0131812076.  $29.00.

Patterns for Theatrical Costumes: garments, trims, and accessories from 
 ancient Egypt to 1915.  Katherine Strand Holkeboer.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
 Prentice-Hall, c1993.  352p: ill.  Index and bibliography.  $29.95  ISBN
 0136542603  paperbound.

Patterns for Women's Dress 1500-1800.  Jean Hunnisett.  London: Bell & Hyman,
 1986.

The Costume Designers Handbook: a complete guide for the amateur and profess
 ional costume designers.  Rosemary Ingham.  2nd ed.  Portsmouth, NH:
 Heinemann, 1992.  286p.

Costumers Handbook.  Rosemary Ingham and Elizabeth Covey.  Englewood Cliffs,
 NJ: Prentice Hall, 1980.

Put Your Foot Down: a treatise on the history of shoes.  Florence E. Ledger.
 Meksham, Wiltshire, U.K.: C. Venton, 1985. 214p.  An illustrated history of
 shoes.  ISBN 0854751114.

900 Years of English Costume: from 11th to 20th century,  Nancy Margetts.  New
 York: Crescent Books, 1987.  200p. Includes bibliography and index.  ISBN 
 051761670X.

The Duchess of Devonshire's Ball.  Sophia Murphy.  London: Sidgwick and Jacson,
 1984.  176p. Illustrated, with bibliography and index.  18th century costume
 balls and parties.  ISBN 0283989882.

Historical Costumes of Turkish Women.  Nisantasi, Istanbul: Middle East Video
 Corp., 1986.  175p. Mostly colour illustrations, some maps, bibliography.
  $100.

Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince: a study of the years 1340-65.  Stella
 Mary Newton.  Woodbridge: Boydell Press;  Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield,
 1980. 157p. Index and bibliography.  ISBN 0847669394.

Costume: a general bibliography.  Anthony Pegaret and Janet Arnold.  2nd ed.
  London: Costume Society, Department of Textiles, Victoria and Albert Museum, 
 1974.  42p. ISBN 090340706X.

The Historical Encyclopedia of Costumes.  Albert Racinet.  New York, NY: Facts
 on File, 1988.  320p. lithographic illus.; translation and abridgement of Le
 Costume Historique. Index.  $45.00  

Period Style for the Theatre.  Douglas A. Russell.  2nd ed.  Boston: Allyn and
 Bacon, 1987.  375p. Illustrated, with bibliography and index.  History of 
 Western costume and it's applications in theatre and acting.  ISBN 0205104886.

Late Gothic Europe, 1400-1500.  Margaret Scott.  London: Mills and Boon,
 Atlantic Highlands, N., 1980. 256p. An illustrated history of European costume
 in the 15th century.

History of Men's Costume,  Marion Sichel.  Chelsea House Publishers, 1989. 
 $14.95.  ISBN 1555467555.

History of Women's Costume,  Marion Sichel.  Chelsea House Publishers, 1989.
  $14.95  ISBN 1555467563.

Costume Reference: Roman Britain and the Middle Ages.  Marion Sichel.  London: 
 Batsford, 1977.

Costume Reference: Tudors and Elizabethans.  Marion Sichel.  London: Batsford,
 1977.

Costume Reference: Jacobean, Stuart and Restoration.  Marion Sichel.  London:
 Batsford. 1977.

Ancient Costumes of England, from druids to Tudors,  Charles Hamilton Smith.
  New York: Arch Cape Press, 1989.  Drawings. ISBN 0517678829.

Textiles From Medieval Egypt, A.D. 300-1300.  Thelma K. Thomas.  Pittsburg, PA:
 Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 1990.  66p. Illustrated, with bibliography
 Covers the costumes and textiles of medieval egypt.  ISBN 0911239200.

A Survey of Historic Costume.  Phyllis Tortora and Keith Eubank.  New York:
 Fairchild Publications, 1989.  361p. : ill. Bibliography.  ISBN 0870056328

Costume Patterns and Designs.  Max Tilke.  New York: Rizzoli, 1990.  49p. 128
 leaves of plates.  Translation of Kostumschnitte und Gewandformen.  $35.00
  ISBN 084781209X

L'Encyclopedie de Costume.  Max Tilke.  New York, NY: French and European
 Publications, Inc., 1973.  $250.00  ISBN 0828862877

Elizabethan Costuming.  Janet Winter and Carolyn Savoy.  Oakland, CA: Other
 Times Publications, 1991.  $15.00  ISBN 0963022008

European Costume: 4000 years of fashion.  Doreen Yarwood.  New York: Bonanza
 Books, Crown Publishers, 1982. 312p. An illustrated history of European
 costume. With index and bibliography.

Costume of the Western World: a pictoral guide and glossary.  Doreen Yarwood.
  New York: St. Martins Press, 1980.  192p: ill. Bibliography.

Of His Array Telle I No Longer Tale: aspects of costume, arms, and armour in 
 Western Europe, 1200-1400.  H.M. Zijlstra-Zweens.  Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1988.
 Illustrated, with index and bibliography.  Text in English, Dutch and German.
 Covers medieval clothing, social life, and customs between 500 and 1500. 
 ISBN 9051830254.

OTHER MEDIA:

National Types and Costumes: with explanatory text.  [Microfilm.]  London: F.
 Bruckman.  32p. Illustrated history of costume photography in the 1880's.

Visual Catalogue of Fashion and Costume in the Victoria and Albert Museum. 
 [Microform]  Photos by Philip Metcalf.  Haslemere, Surrey: Emmett Microform,
 1981.  57 microfiches.  Index.  Pictoral history of items in the Victoria and
 Albert collection, with historical and informational notes.  #1 in the
 Fashion, Costume, and Uniform series.

Costume: The journal of the Costume Society.  Costume Society, Victoria and 
 Albert Museum.  Published annually.

Bibliography of Sourcebooks 
for Historical Costume Construction

From: jab2 at stl.stc.co.uk (Jennifer Ann Bray)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: 14th C textiles & clothing book
Date: 11 Jan 94 15:30:14
Organization: STC Technology Ltd., London Road, Harlow, UK.

I just got a book that might interest someone else out there:

Medieval finds from excavations in London: 4
Textiles and Clothing c.1150 - c.1450
Elizabeth Crowfoot, Frances Pritchard and Kay Staniland
Published HMSO 1992
copyright of the Board of Governors of the Museum of London
ISBN 0 11 290445 9

Price 29.95 pounds sterling

Most of the stuff is fourteenth century, though as the books title
says the range is from c.1150-c.1450

The book begins with details of sources and where the textiles were
found, then there is a short chapter on techniques used in textile
production. This has some very dodgy looking drawings of looms, there
seems to be no wat to move the beaters on them, either They've missed
something or medieval looms were wierder than I thought.

Then the book goes into details on weaves and structures with chapters
on wool, goathair, linen, silk and mixed cloths. 
The wool chapter even includes a couple of pages on knitting and one
on felt.
The chapter on silk is a masterpiece of deduction, by hunting around
ancient silks the authors have reproduced patterns of whole pieces of
cloth from tiny scraps and offcuts.

A whole chapter is devoted to narrow wares including tablet woven
braids, fingerloop braids, plaited braids, garters and hairnets.
This was my favourite, as I'm a tablet weaving freak, there was a good
description of a method of sewing braid onto edges by simultaneously
weaving and sewing, using the weft of the braid as the sewing thread.
I'm dying to find something to try this out on.

There is also a chapter on sewing with lots of detail on stuff like how
seams were sewn, how cloth buttons were made, how the buttonholes were
stitched, how to edge necks you name it, it's there. Anyone like me
who spends hours fiddling about with fiddle about with period details
that hardly anyone appreciates will love this section.

There is not so much on patterns of clothing as mostly the stuff found
was very fragmentary, but there are pictures of hoods and hose that
are complete enough to work out a pattern from. There is also a well
preserved buttoned sleeve which might interest someone with a
masochistic inclination to make buttonholes by the dozen!

The illustrations are great with lots of colour plates and close ups,
so you can see every detail of the textiles. The text puts everything
into context and cites just about every other relevant find there is.

This is definately not a beginners book, and it's quite expensive, but
if you're looking for something to add to a 14th century English
costume and you've run out of sources, this is the book for you.

I don't even do 14th century stuff and I got it anyway, I can never
resist a good book on textiles, maybe that's why I never have enough
money left over to buy the bookshelves I need to put them all on!

Jennifer
Vanaheim Vikings

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: proberts at castle.ed.ac.uk (P Roberts)
Subject: Re: 14th C textiles & clothing book
Organization: Edinburgh University
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 18:42:57 GMT

Jennifer mentioned a book she has just bought:

> Medieval finds from excavations in London: 4
> Textiles and Clothing c.1150 - c.1450
> Elizabeth Crowfoot, Frances Pritchard and Kay Staniland
> Published HMSO 1992
> copyright of the Board of Governors of the Museum of London
> ISBN 0 11 290445 9
> Price 29.95 pounds sterling

  There are three other books in this set (hence the "4" in the title):
Knives and Scabbards; Shoes and Patterns; and (I think) Dress
Accessories.  They are all published by HMSO but I'm afraid I don't have
further details to hand.  Speaking from memory, I think the Textiles and
Clothing volume is the most expensive of the set. 

Edward

From: huff at bronze.lcs.mit.EDU (Robert Huff)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: 14th C textiles & clothing book
Date: 13 Jan 1994 22:42:48 -0500
Organization: The Internet

Ave!
	When this series was discussed many months ago, someone claimed
that a Canadian entity - I believe it was the Univ. of Toronto Press -
had either distribution rights for North America, or reprint rights.

					Diego Mundoz
						Carolingia

From: sclark at epas.utoronto.ca (Susan Clark)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Need references for early 14c man's clothing.
Date: 14 Feb 1994 21:45:11 GMT
Organization: EPAS Computing Facility, University of Toronto

Greetings....
	I highly recommend _Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince_
by Stella Mary Newton (Woodbrige-Boydell, Rowman, Little field, 1980,
ISBN 0-8476-6939-4).  This is mostly late 14th century, but it is
excellent.  You're not going to get much on hoppelandes here, but
it will give you an overview of the late 14th century innovations.
	Surviving patterns from this period are nonexistant.  There
are a few surviving pieces here and there, but they are rare.  If
you want a pre-drafted pattern, the Period Patterns for cotehardies and
houppelandes aren't too bad.

Cheers--
Nicolaa/Susan
Canton of Eoforwic
sclark at epas.utoronto.ca

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: foxd at silver.ucs.indiana.edu (daniel fox)
Subject: New Costume references
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington IN
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 1994 10:05:07 GMT

Spreading word about sources and reference books is my mission in
the SCA, so here are some I've come across recently:

Hansen, Henny Harald.  Mongol Costumes. Thames and Hudson.  London
and NYC:1993.

ISBN:0500015856

If you're familiar with the edition printed in 1950 you'll
probably want to look this one up anyway.  The book has been
entirely re-organized and the original pictures have been
supplemented  by large full color photographs of the garments--
some of them on mannequins.  The latter give you a good feel for
the hang of the clothing, and for the way the various pieces are
put together. 

If you aren't familiar with it this is a catalog of garments
dating from the first third of the 20th century.  It includes
diagrams and detail sketches, as well as general commentary.

For documentation puropses this book is best used as cross-
reference to SCA period sources--such few that exist.  However, in
the absence of those sources, this book is very valuable.

Weidtz, Christoph.  Authentic Everyday Dress of the Rennaissance:
All 154 Plates from the "Trachtenbuch".  Dover.  New York:1994.

Trachtenbuch was orginally printed about 1530.  It's a collection
of sketches from the artists sojourn in Spain (and some from side-
excursions elsewhere in Europe.)  Interpretation isn't always easy
for the seamstress, but there are costumes from many walks of
life--including peasant, middle-class and some occupational garb. 

It's a good primary source.

Dunlevy, Mairead.  Dress in Ireland.  Holmes and Meier.  New
York:1989.

ISBN: 0-8419-1269-8

Good coverage of period material.  Chapters on Medieval and 16th
century differeintiates between the fashions of the English in
Ireland and the Irish themselves, and between wealthy and poor. 
Good reproductions of previously published sources and some new
matierial as well.

Campbell, Louise.  Renaissance Portraits:European Portrait Paining
in the 14th, 15th and 16th Century.  Yale University.  New Haven
and London:1990.

ISBN 0-300-04675

Excellent source for reproductions.  Includes many old friends and
many rarely reproduced ones.  Text is fascinating--Campbell is
attempting to dispell the modern predjudice against portraiture as
an art form, by showing the methods the have used to shape the
viewer's impression of the sitter.

(BTW this book was listed as still being in print as of June
'94....)
Comments welcomed....

Mistress Audelindis de Rheims, OL OW

From: odlin at reed.edu (Iain Odlin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Janet Arnold
Date: 8 Dec 1994 07:19:46 GMT
Organization: The Stuffed Animal Trauma Team  (We're Trained Professionals)

  If you're going to be using Arnold's book to create garb, I *highly*
  recommend locating a copy of "The Annotated Arnold" as well.  It deals
  (very well) with a number of (very stupid) errors in Ms Arnold's"re-
  constructions".

  Last I checked, it was available from a company called "Raiments" who
  advertises on occasion in TI.
--
 ------------------------- Iain Odlin, odlin at reed.edu -------------------------
                      42 Clifton Street, Portland ME 04101

From: foxd at silver.ucs.indiana.edu (daniel fox)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Costuming
Date: 9 Dec 1994 05:32:20 GMT
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington

There are two good books on the period, neither of them include much in the
way of existing examples, since there are none, but they do use primary 
sources:

Herald, Jacqueline, Rennaisance Dress in Italy, 1400-1500.  Humanities Press,
1981.  This book is out of print.

Birbari, Elizabeth.  Dress in Italian Painting 1460-1500.  Murray, 1975.
Also oop.

Also try the following books in Italian (the pictures are good.)

Levi-Pisetsky, Rosa.  Storia del Costume in Italia.  Vol. 2 and 3.  I
Instituto Editoriale Italiano, 1965-69.

Bentivegna, F. C.  _Abbigliamento E  Costume Nella Pittura Italiana_
Volume 1.  Bestiti:?

I hope these help.
Audelindis de Rheims

From: dduperault at aol.com (DDuperault)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Costuming
Date: 15 Dec 1994 11:50:11 -0500

foxd at silver.ucs.indiana.edu (daniel fox) writes:

> However, I have never seen another book showing Italian Ren. 
>clothing still intact.  Are there any out there?  If so, how can I 
>find it.  Any info. would be appreciated

Look for _Lives of the Courtesans_. Published in the late '80's. Beautiful
pictures and decent text. With details of some of the garments. Sorry I
don't recall the author or publisher. I'm sure there are people here who
do..
                                   Avwye

From: Rick Gaigneur <rgaigneu at unb.ca>
Newsgroups: alt.sewing,rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: costume patterns
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 09:06:43 -0400
Organization: University of New Brunswick

Hi!  For those of you interested in the Patterns for Theatrical Costumes 
book, here is the most up-to-date information I have on it (thanks to 
having Books in Print on CD-ROM on this computer. Just a joyous thing to 
have, by the way!):

Patterns for Theatrical Costume  02/1993  Drama Book Publishers
Katherine S. Holbeboer  
illus.
Trade Cloth   ISBN 0-89676-125-8    352p.
$ 29.95 US

Publisher:  Drama Book Publishers
            260 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10001, US
            Phone:  212-725-5377
            Fax:    212-725-8506

This information was in the most recent (January 1995) update of Global 
Books in Print, so it's definitely still available.  Drama Publishers 
also has a UK office, so it's available there too.

>AETHERIC LINDEBERENDE<                  >Rick Gaigneur<
>Shire of Lyndhaven< 

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: cathal at netcom.com (James Pratt)
Subject: Re: costume help - female celt
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 03:06:58 GMT

: 	Good Milady:
: 		The best reference (IMHO) for Celtic (sic) costume
: 	is:
: 		OLD IRISH AND HIGHLAND DRESS
: 		by H.F. McClintock
: 		Dundalgan Press, Dundalk, 1943.
: 	Most major University libraries should have it our your local
: 	can get it for you through ILL.  
: 		Cathal Mac Edan
: 		Barony of the South Downs, Meridies.

From: henrys at icicle.winternet.COM (The Henry's)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Book on researching and recreating historical costumes
Date: 22 Mar 1995 16:59:15 -0500

This review is being posted with the permission of its author, Danine 
Cozzens.  

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
l  Rosanore of Redthorn  (Susan Guthmann Henry)    Member #8769 since 1976  l
*                        henrys at winternet.com                               *  
l                                                                           l
*  "Every status quo is a prison house of the spirit."                      *
l                                                     --Henry Nelson Wyman  l
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* 

---------- Forwarded message ----------

   After a Fashion - Book Review

   Frances Grimble recently posted that her new book, _After a 
   Fashion_, was available by mail for $35. I was probably one 
   of the first to receive a copy, and thought folks on this 
   group would appreciate a more detailed description 
   before sending for the book sight unseen.

   If you have subscribed to this group, you will probably want 
   to buy this book. It is so well targeted to living history 
   reenactors that someone living in utter isolation, with only 
   this book and the appropriate patterns or costume diagrams 
   in hand, could outfit themselves respectably for a major 
   historical event. Frances Grimble has had national exposure 
   as an expert on vintage fashion with her articles in 
   _Threads_ and _Vintage Fashions_; this book should establish 
   her as an authority on historic costume construction as well. 

   _After A Fashion_ is almost five books in one: It's a survey 
   of historic costume, a costume planner, a book of period 
   sewing techniques, a guide to vintage fashions, and a 
   costuming resource list.

   The first chapter (57 pages) describes "garb" for the most 
   popular reenactment eras: Medieval [12th, 13th and 14th 
   centuries each described separately], Elizabethan, American 
   Revolutionary, English Regency, Civil War, Gay Nineties, 
   Ragtime, and Art Deco. These overviews give a good sense of 
   what upper-class men and women wore, and whether you or your 
   significant other would want to be seen in it.

   Chapter 2 deals with planning your outfit. There are 
   numerous practical hints on planning your costuming project, 
   including a catchall list of everything you need to pack for 
   any event in any period, from 
   "Paltock/pourpoint/cotehardie/double/coat/jacket" to 
   "Bag/pouch/pockets/purse." The list consumes an entire page; 
   no wonder it takes so long to get dressed for an event! 
   Other sections tell how to hire a dressmaker, how to 
   overcome budget limitations, and how to buy by mail. I loved 
   the "historical mix and match" Civil War weekend wardrobe, 
   based on separate day and evening tops for the same skirt--
   as practical now as it was at the time. 

   Chapters 3 and 4 address construction techniques. The 
   instructions are so complete that the financially challenged 
   could well purchase this book instead of a conventional 
   sewing encyclopedia. The numerous line drawings by Deborah 
   Kuhn, who illustrated the original Folkwear patterns, show 
   what you need to know at a glance. A one-page analysis of a 
   Regency shirt conveys the principle of geometric garment 
   construction shown in _Cut My Cote_. Another example shows 
   how a Civil War skirt was "leveled" at the waist after 
   applying the copious ornamentation to the hem. 
   
   Chapters 5, 6 and 7 cover buying vintage clothes, mending 
   garments, and altering them. Fran explains the need for 
   preservation of old and truly unique garments, and shows how 
   one can incorporate parts of dying dresses into new 
   costumes, or replace worn portions, such as underarms. The 
   altering and mending hints would also help transform stage 
   or thrift shop finds into something "peri-oid" that could be 
   worn at less rigorous historic events, or let you rescue a 
   tired costume of your own. 
   
   The book ends with twenty-five pages of annotated 
   bibliography cover books, book dealers, and periodicals; 
   supplies for reproduction and restoration; reproduction 
   clothes, accessories and weapons; vintage clothes and 
   accessories; and the organizations who put on events where 
   you can wear all these duds. Each entry has a short 
   description. And it is cross-referenced for easy locating.
   
   _After A Fashion_ is beautifully laid out, clearly written, 
   and professionally printed. The big (8-1/2" by 11"), thick 
   (over 300 pages) format boasts a slick cover whose ink 
   won't come off on your hand. Since Fran is a dancer, most of 
   the couples are shown in dance positions, a good reminder 
   that our ultimate goal as historic costumers is to make a 
   believable appearance at period events (and to have a 
   wonderful time!). 
   
   _After a Fashion_ can be mail ordered from:
   
   Lavolta Press
   20 Meadowbrook Drive
   San Francisco, CA 94132
   
   The price is $35 (plus sales tax for CA residents) plus $3.50 shipping. 
   
   Danine Cozzens   Internet: dgc3 at pge.com
   (I will be happy to respond to further inquiries 
   individually or in subsequent postings.)

From: odlin at reed.edu (Iain Odlin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Designs for Cavalier Clothes
Date: 10 Jun 1995 15:40:12 GMT

Susanna Richardson  <70357.3331 at CompuServe.COM> wrote:
>The 'Annotated Arnold' has been discussed a number of times by 
>costumers, and there is a consensus that the author had a serious 
>axe to grind.

  Yes, the author did.  In a word:  so?  That doesn't mean the points made
  in the "Annotated Arnold" are wrong.  Have you, my lady, ever read it?

>Ms. Arnold is a respected expert in her field, she has published 
>a great many articles, and outside that one ... publication, I 
>have never seen her conclusions called into question.

  Ms. Arnold is without question a wonderful conservator and curator, but
  a seamstress she is not.  The errors she makes in "Patterns of Fashion"
  are numerous, easily verified, and some of these mistakes make reproducing
  the garments as she describes them impossible.

  The two easiest examples of egregious error are seen on page 5 (the hanging
  sleeve) and pages 112 and 113 (the 'Pair of bodies' or corset).

  I won't go into detail, but I suggest cutting out both these patterns in
  muslin and trying to put them together.  You'll soon find that the sleeve
  is impossible (I spent hours on it, since I believed, at that point, that
  Arnold was perfect), and that the corset is unwearable (and ends up looking
  more like a Rocky Horror costume piece than an Elizabethan anything).

>-just my two cents worth on the subject of Arnold, whose books I 
>always recommend along with Jean Hunnisett.

  I'm not saying "Patterns of Fashion" is without merit (which would be
  incredibly stupid -- there's a lot of good stuff here).  I am simply
  observing that Arnold makes many errors, and all the ones I've run into
  while trying to make some of the clothes therein are addressed in 
  "The Annotated Arnold".  It is therefore worth the time of anyone who
  is making clothes from Arnold's book to read though it.
--
 ------------------------- Iain Odlin, odlin at reed.edu -------------------------
                      42 Clifton Street, Portland ME 04101

From: sclark at blues.epas.utoronto.ca (Susan Carroll-Clark)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Definative books on medieval garb?
Date: 27 Mar 1995 03:04:03 GMT
Organization: University of Toronto -- EPAS

Greetings!
	There is no ONE definative book on medieval garb.  Why??  Because
the medieval part of the SCA is about 800 years long, with 200 or so of
the Renaissance tacked on.  Can anyone name a single history book which
is the "definative history" of this very long period?  (rhetorical
question!!!)
	There are definative books for specific periods (for instance,
Janet Arnold's _Patterns of Fashion_ for the late 16th century;
Stella Mary Newton's -Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince_ for the
14th century, and so on.  And there are also good overviews with lots
of pictures, such as the big fat Davenport book whose name escapes
me at the moment.  However, there are a number of periods that don't
have a "definative book" --my own (13th century) is a good example.
Theree are some books that cover it well--but you can't really
understand the period until you've read all the books AND ppored over
illuminations, paintings, and statuary--and you're still just
guessing in many instances.

Cheers!
Nicolaa/Susan
Canton of Eoforwic
sclark at epas.utoronto.ca

From: sniderm at mcmail2.cis.McMaster.CA (Mike Snider)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Definative books on medieval garb?
Date: 27 Mar 1995 21:38:00 -0500
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Greetings,
  I am certain you will get a flood of postings on this one, but I will 
add a few good books to Nicolaa's.
 Jeanne D'Arc Ses Costumes, Son Armure by Adrien Harmand is an excellent 
source for costumes of the 1400s. Unfortunatly it is in French, but has 
many useful pictures.
 The Museum of London: Textiles and Clothing. This covers English 
clothing from 1150-1450 and is very detailed and informative. Actualy, 
The Shoes and Pattens book in the same series might also come in handy.

  Good luck with your project.
  Elizabeth Cadfan

From: foxd at silver.ucs.indiana.edu (daniel fox)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Suggestions for books dealing with Ren. Italy.
Date: 22 Mar 1996 05:44:40 GMT
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington

I found a wonderful book in the costume section of IU library:

Newton, Stella Mary.  Dress of the Venetians, 1490-1520. 

It's not just a study of costume, but also a study of clothing in relation to
politics, and social order.  She uses important primary sources, such as
Sanudo's Diaries for her research.  It's very well done, and very funny in
places....

Audelindis de Rheims

From: pat at lalaw.lib.CA.US (Pat Lammerts)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: costume book citations (was I need help...)
Date: 27 Nov 1995 16:17:11 -0500

CaitlynMK wrote:
>
>>Newton, Stella Mary.  _Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince_
>>1980, Boydell Press. {covers the years 1340-1365}
>>
>>Crowfoot, Elisabeth, et al. _Textiles and Clothing; Medieval finds
>>from Excavations in London_ (Museum of London).  1992, HMSO
>>
>Greetings from the Outlands, Baroyn of Caerthe.  Do you by any
chance
>have the ISBN nos for these books.  I would love to get a look at
them.
>Thanks
>
>CaitlynMK

Here is what you asked for.  I hope it is of help.

Newton, Stella Mary.
  Fashion in the age of the Black Prince : a study of the years
1340-1365 / Stella Mary Newton. -- Woodbridge : Boydell Press
; Totowa, N.J. : Rowman & Littlefield, 1980.
  vi, 151 p., [1] leaf of plates : ill. (some col.) ; 29 cm.

  ISBN 0847669394 (Rowman & Littlefield.) L15.00
  LCCN: 81111912

Crowfoot, Elisabeth.
  Textiles and clothing : c.1150-c.1450 / Elisabeth Crowfoot, Frances
Pritchard, and Kay Staniland ; photography by Edwin Baker ; 
illustrations by Christina Unwin. -- London : HMSO, c1992.
  x, 223 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 25 cm. -- (Medieval finds from
excavations in London ; 4)

  Series: Museum of London. Medieval finds from excavations in London; 4.
  ISBN 0112904459

Huette

From: gileshill at aol.com (Gileshill)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Truly Worthwhile Later-Period Costume Resource
Date: 21 May 1996 11:03:41 -0400

My friends:  I have just purchased (well, Louise and I split it) an
incredible book called "Dynasties, Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England,
1530-1630"  edited by Karen Hearn, ISBN 0-8478-1940-X, published by
Rizzoli.

Cost $60.00, and worth every penny.  It's 267 pages of FULL COLOUR protrait
reproductions, with expert commentary on the clothing, architecture, flora
and fauna, and sitters.  I strongly recommend you put this on your birthday
wish lists, your suggested prize for competitions, or just go out and buy it;
you won't be disappointed.

Giles

From: LIB_IMC at centum.utulsa.edu
To: ansteorra at eden.com
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1996 10:28:33 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: Survey (was Castellan)

<Antoine D'Aubernoun<"\"Randy Shipp\"" <rshipp at molly.hsc.unt.edu>>
>My persona is 1280 Norman.  Know where I can get patterns or pictures?

Yes.  I'm going to suggest some sources that are, er, not pristine pure
from an academic standpoint, but if you are careful, will help you out
a lot.  The first is "Patterns for theatrical costumes" by Katherine
Holkeboer.  She also has one called "Costume Construction", but I haven't
actually read it.  If nothing else, this is a good way to see how these
things can be pieced together, even if the patterns aren't always
absolutely correct (as with making shoes, sometimes you just have to
take the knowledge you have on hand, and make a blind guess as to a 
pattern).

I'm about to make a suggestion that will likely get me sneered at, and
I'll expain why in a minute.  See if you can find a series of books called
"Costume and Fashion" by Herbert Norris.  Many people don't care for
this set of books (even though his material on Ecclesastical Costume
is, I believe, a standard text in that area).  He doesn't cite his
sources and there *are* accusations that he makes things up at times
(although I have yet to see anyone offer examples or citations to support
the accusation).  Keep these in mind when you read the books, and be
a little cautious (it's sort of like eating cheese that's got moldy bits
-- you can easily just throw out the whole thing, but if you are careful,
most of it's still perfectly good :) ).

You will notice that I do use him in my Shoe document, and I also will
try and supplement that where I can with other, more reliable material.

These should get you past the initial "Ok, so how do I do this?" stage.
Later, you can progress onto the inner mysteries of costuming (or so 
my wife tells me :) ).

Diarmuit

From: Laura McKinstry <dalm at why.net>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Period costume patterns?This was from the wrong account
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 11:16:47 -0400

For the
Elizabethan period, I don't think you can beat "Elizabethan Costuming
for the years 1550-1580" by Janet Winter and Carolyn Savoy.  ISBN
0-9630220-0-8.  $15  This will put you in England or Ireland during the
reign of Elizabeth Tudor.  Possibly other coutnries, but as an
Irishwoman, I didn't research that far.

The drawings are clear, and they not only show you what the finished
product looks like, but also the shapes of the patterns you need to cut
out to create the finished product.  It's black and white.  Men's,
women's, children's clothing, headwear, jewelry, cloaks, underpinnings
(corsets, bumroll, etc.,) sleeves, hairstyles, ruffs, hose, and some
background on the whole thing.  I picked up my copy of this book at an
EXCELLENT bookshop at a medieval faire.  It might be available through
the SCA as well.
--------------------------------------------------
Laura McKinstry   aka   Lark of Cire Freunlaven
Dallas, TX              harper

From: foxd at silver.ucs.indiana.edu (daniel fox)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Sources for 11th cent. English clothing?
Date: 24 Jul 1996 04:41:30 GMT
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington

Cunnington, C. Willet and Phyllis, _Handbook of English Costume in the
Middle Ages_.  Faber and Faber: 1968.  (There are several editions and
publishers.

Owen-Crocker, Gale R.  _Dress in Anglo-Saxon England_.  Manchester University
Press. Manchester, UK: 1986.

These are both out of print--or at least Owen-Crocker is, the Cunnington goes
in and out regularly.
But you should be able to get hold of them via ILL.

Audelindis de Rheims

From: sclark at chass.utoronto.ca (Susan Carroll-Clark)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Italian Rennaisance Costume
Date: 25 Jul 1996 11:43:57 -0400
Organization: University of Toronto -- EPAS

Audelindis said,
>Oh, and the book in question is Winters _Elizabethan Costuming: 1580-1600_
>(or as close as I can recall the title not having it in front of me.)
>It is a book on how to do quick and easy elizabethan--a concept which I
>find a contradiction in terms.

I never found Winters as bad as many people have claimed it is--so
long as you realize its limitations, chief of which is its advice on fitting
female corsets/bodices.  For lower-class or middle class stuff, it's
acceptable, and the advice it provides on hats and head coverings is not
too bad.  I'd _never_ use it for documentation--not when there are fabulous
books like _Patterns of Fashion_ out there.  I think the problem is that
it looks so comprehensive that people assume that it must be accurate as
well.  Like many other books of this type, I think it started its life
as a guide to making acceptable RenFaire clothing and has been taken as
Gospel by people who have mistaken the authors' original intention.

Cheers!
Nicolaa de Bracton
sclark at chass.utoronto.ca

From: foxd at silver.ucs.indiana.edu (daniel fox)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Italian Rennaisance Costume
Date: 25 Jul 1996 03:52:16 GMT
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington

If we're talking about _Patterns of Fashion 1560-1620_ there is very little
English costume in the book.  She does pattern the bodice of the gown
Eleanore of Toledo--wife of Cosimo de Medici--was wearing when she was
buried.  Since Eleanor's black and white brocaded gown is the usually the
dress that people refer to most often for mid-16th century Italian it's 
the best reference I've seen.

Audelindis de Rheims

From: Diana Habra <dch at inreach.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Desperately seeking cotehardie pattern
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 05:39:25 -0800

However, since I
> have seen the Jean Hunnisett version of the Greenland Dress ("Period
> Costume for Stage and Screen: Patterns for Women's Dress, Medieval-1500"),
> I disagree, since they look very similiar.  So this should be a pretty
> good version.
> 
> Eleanor Courtenay

Please be cautious about taking Jean Hunnisett as gospel.  While I agree that her late period costuming is about spot on, her early patterns leave much to be researched.  I am not saying she is totally wrong, I am merely stating that she does patterns to LOOK good on stage and screen.  You would be better off to go to actual sources like photos of preserved clothing (i.e. dresses found in bogs/marshes) or paintings where seam lines can be seen.  This type of research on costume will earn you more brownie points with the Laurels of your area.

Just a costumer who lives for research....

Lady Roseline d'Anjou
Kingdom of the West

From: cromabu at aol.com
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Desperately seeking cotehardie pattern
Date: 23 Nov 1996 09:55:47 GMT

Keep in mind that no matter what style, period, or country you are trying
to recreate the mind set and habbits of the people.
 Even the rich were stingy with their fabric, they didn't like to waste
even a scrap.They were not as privlidged as we with these enormas widths
we are privlidged to use now a days.This didn't mean that they only had
28" looms (as I have been told).Janet Arnold has real patterns in the back
of her books that show how an outfit would be pieced toghter. With the
right fabrics you don't even see the pieced seems.Tailor's Pattern Book
1589, pub. by RuthBean Carlton, Bedford 1979, is an excellant way to see
how people piced their patterns together.
 These are all out of your period but they can be helpfull anyway.
                                               Cate

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 10:02:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: Gileshill at aol.com
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Requesting book review

In a message dated 97-06-10 09:42:54 EDT, you write:

> Amazon Dry Goods is offering Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, by Janet
>  Arnold, for 139.95.  While I greatly respect Janet Arnold, this is a lot of
>  money for me, and I have not been able to locate a library copy to look
>  through.  Does anyone else have this book?  Is it useful for making garb as
>  well as enlarging my Tudor garb vocabulary--in other words, does it have
>  good pictures as well as informative text? Thank you for your time,

It has great pictures;  color, closeups, details.  (Of course, they're all
girls, dammit!)  The text is Ms Arnold's usual exhaustive, documented,
original sourced, interesting writing... I recommend it highly.  Chapter
heads include Portraits of the Queen,  Robes of Ceremony,  Designs for
Jewellery and Embroidery:  their Sources and Symoblism, Gifts of Clothing and
Jewels,  The Pursuit of Fashion,  The Wardrobe of Robes,  The Queen's
Artificers,  and Editor's Notes on the Transcripts of the Stowe and Folger
Inventories and Extracts from the New Year's Gift rolls, and Warrants from
the Wardrobe of Robes.

It's well worth the $139.

Giles
(who won his copy)

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 10:27:44 -0400
From: "lwperkins" <lwperkins at snip.net>
To: <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Re: Book Review Succeeds

I wish to thank everyone who wrote to me regarding Queen Elizabeth's
Wardrobe Unlock'd; the book came a few days ago and it is an astonishing
book---I learned more reading this book about noblewomen's garb in England
from 1560 to 1600 than from all my previous books combined.  For anyone who
is interested in this period's embroidery , find a copy of this book--it
has close-ups of the most intricate blackwork, fabulous beasts, allegorical
symbols and just amazing needlework that I've ever seen. There's a complete
chapter on how the garb was made, close-ups of stitching and fastenings,
pictures of underwear(!).  I learned that light colors were fashionable,
not just dark ones, that Tudor garb was hot to wear even in period, found a
picture of a period "Barbie" doll (an 11-inch fashion doll), and read a ton
of juicy gossip.  Since I probable wouldn't have ponied up the 130.00
without some outside advice, I'm very grateful to all of you. 

Yours in service,
Ester du Bois
lwperkins at snip.net

Date: Sun, 29 Jun 1997 11:11:53
From: Sheron Buchele/Curtis Rowland <foxryde at verinet.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: On Fur Trims

Gentle Cousins,

There is an excellent book I read many years ago that talked alot about the
various furs used in later period.  I don't remember the exact title - it
was out of the Iowa State University library and I am now (thank the Lord)
not there.  It was "The Clothing in the Time of the Black Prince" or
something like that.  It went throught the rolls of the chamberlain and
discussed what clothing was worn and given away and the fabric of each (and
it is not as dry as it sounds).  I remember being struck by the
mono-chromatic Christmas's.  He would give out many many outfits of one
particular color and everyone (who was anyone) in court would wear them to
the season's parties.  There have been a couple of color specific holiday
events here in the Outlands, but I never asked the sponsors if they lifted
the idea from the court of the Black Prince (or if this was done in other
times and other courts).

Anyway, I hope that this book would be helpful to you and I apologize for
the vagueness of the cite.

Baroness Leonora

Date: Sun, 29 Jun 1997 17:35:47 -0400
From: "lwperkins" <lwperkins at snip.net>
To: <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Re: On Fur Trims

Baroness Leonora wrote:
> There is an excellent book I read many years ago that talked alot about the
> various furs used in later period.  I don't remember the exact title - it
> was out of the Iowa State University library and I am now (thank the Lord)
> not there.  It was "The Clothing in the Time of the Black Prince" or
> something like that. 

The book I have is  "Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince-- A study of
the years 1340-1365." by Stella Mary Newton, published by Boydell Press,
P.O. Box 9. woodbridge, Suffolk,1p12 3DF, in USA Rowman and Littlefield, 81
Adams Drive, Totowa, New Jersey, 07512 ,ISBN 0-85115-125-6.  I have been
told that it has been out of print, I got my copy as barter from an
individual. It is a fantastic reference book for the period, though it is
light on pictures, it has excellent text.

--Ester Du Bois
lwperkins at snip.net 

From: Dieterich <cjw at vvm.com>
To: ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 1997 11:34:01 -0500
Subject: Re: ANST - 1400's garb

>As Janet Arnold is to the Elizabethan world of costuming...is their
>someone who "knows" 15th century clothing?  
>
>Kayleigh Drake
>Baroness of Bonwicke
>The Western Region of Ansteorra

*********

Well, at the risk of seeming contrary, the answer is both 'yes' and 'no'.
There are two books- both out of print, coincidentally- that I, a 15th C.
afficianado, deem to be the Gospels according to the 1400s and both are in
the same series- "The History of Fashion" series.  The first one
concentrates on late-gothic europe and the second concentrates on Italian
dress c. 1400-1485.  I have, as is my way, forgotten the names of these
precious tomes but luckily for you and I, Mistress Jeanmaire owns *both*
books and Baroness Clarissa owns the Italian one.  I have had them both on
the Inter-Loc book locating service for almost a year now and have yet to
have either one become availiable.

The only fault of these books- the thing that separates them from J.A.- is
that there is little in the way of construction listed.  Fabrics, yes.
Terminology, yes.  Illustration, *TONS*.  Hairstyles even.  But there just
aren't enough of Phillip the Goods hand-me-downs out there for us to do the
kind of construction analysis that Ms. Arnold does.  These books hinge on
painting and sculpture interpretation but they are the best sources that I
am aware of.

'The Rennaissance Dress in Italy, 1400-1500' by Jaqueline Herald 1981
ISBN 0-7135-1294-6

'Late Gothic Europe, 1400-1500' by Margret Scott 1980
ISBN 0-263-06429-8

If you pay $75 for either of these, I don't believe you'd be paying too much.

There is one other bright star in the quest for fine 15th C. knowledge, but
it is hotly contested:  The Medieval Soldier, by Gerry Embleton and John
Howe 1994, ISBN 1-85915-036-5.  This book is by another group of
re-creationists called The Company of Saynte George; essentially a group of
european (mainly Swiss and English) museum workers and medieval studies grad
students who center all their research on Switzerland in the year 1460.
IMHO, this book is nearly flawless and a must-have for anyone who is serious
about the 15th C.  And it's in print;)  You may recognize Mr. Embletons name
from his work on the popular Osprey Men-at-Arms series.

It occurs to me that I have failed to mention *why* this book is contested
at all.  Its content is almost entirely photographically recorded replicas
or interpretations of 15th C. pieces... hence, the garments you see are all
tertiary sources.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that the folks who
have done all this work are legitimate experts who work *only* in period
materials.  Much of the arms and armor is the real thing, on loan to
employees of the establishments that house them (doesn't help us with
*garments* per se, but you have to take these guys seriously).  

Dieterich

Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 01:53:26 -0700
From: Brett and Karen Williams <brettwi at ix.netcom.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Books about costuming

For a specific pattern-type book on SCA-period interest clothing for women, I
would recommend three specific books, and a reference to a hard-to-find
corollary volume for one of 'em:

Arnold, Janet: Patterns of Fashion, the Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men
and Women c. 1560-1620
ISBN 0-333-38284-6
This book is primary documentation together with secondary interpretation of cut
and construction (after all, Janet Arnold did not take apart each garment to
draft her patterns!). It has photographs of surviving garments from the period
listed. It is later in period than the cotehardie, but fascinating nonetheless.
Arnold mentions a forthcoming book on early period garments in the back of PoF,
but to date has yet to deliver the goods.

If you can find it, Robert Trump's "The Annotated Arnold", while written in a
somewhat  vitriolic manner, has some useful commentary on the problems inherent
in some of Arnold's graphed patterns. It is not necessary to have this book,
though, as long as one cautiously tries out the patterns in paper or cheap
fabric FIRST, before cutting into one's own cloth.

Hunnisett, Jean: Period Costume for Stage & Screen, patterns for Women's Dress,
Medieval - 1500
ISBN 0-88734-653-7    I love this book!

Hunnisett, Jean: Period Costume for Stage & Screen, patterns for Women's Dress,
1500 - 1800
ISBN 0-88734-610-3    I love this one, too!

The latter two books are secondary source material, written by an extremely
experienced and skilled theatrical costumer. While she is not particularly
interested in precise historical reproduction (apparently, she wasn't even aware
of this application of her books until after she published the second!), she is
nonetheless extremely accurate in translating period shape and form to flat
patterns. Compare the difference in cutting diagram between her houpelande
sleeve and Hill & Bucknell's Evolution of Fashion, for example. (I won't repeat
my rant on sleeves again....[grin]) I really like her sideless surcote patterns,
too.

I would also recommend that one seeks out copies of Compleat Anachronists #38,
#39 and #40. Contained in 39 are extremely useful articles on how to construct,
via slash-and-spread, period skirt pieces and sleeves-- and 39 and 40 point out
errors in Hill & Bucknell's "Evolution of Fashion", a flawed and very common SCA
source for costume cutting (as is Holkeboer, who somewhat shamelessly has taken
a few of the EoF cutting methods and reproduced them, lock stock and barrel!).
Most useful of all, in issue 39 is a very extensive Costume Bibliography, with
commentary on each book from two very experienced and well-researched SCA
costume Laurels.

And if you're really feeling ambitious with the Interlibrary loan system, go for
these:

Crowfoot, Elisabeth; Pritchard, Frances; and Staniland, Kay: _Textiles and
Clothing c. 1150-c. 1450; HMSO Publications; London, 1992

Newton, Stella Mary: _Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince_, Boydell Press,
Suffolk, 1980 ISBN: 0847669394

and for a general survey book with a few tertiary pattern diagrams far superior
to Holkeboer and Hill & Bucknell:

Daily Life in Charcer's England, Geffrey L. Singman and Will McLean, ISBN
0-313-29375-9

Hope this helps!

ciorstan

Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 17:16:45 -0700
From: "KHvS" <meistern at iquest.net>
To: <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Re: Books about costuming

Greetings,

I don't think anyone has mentioned "The Encycolpedia of World Costume" by
Doreen Yarwood.  This book has what I think you are asking for.  It is done
aphabetically, but not chronologically.  It does have definitions of types
of dress in different periods (just not done chronologically).  It was
published by Bonanza Books in 1986 and has an ISBN of: 0-517-61943-1.  You
might go to a good book seller and see if they can find it for you.  I
cannot recall what I paid for my copy, but the dust cover says it was
"Originally published at $32.50"  It has only line drawings, but it would
be a good starting point.  Also, try going to the SCA arts & sciences page
on the web for some good links to different kinds of things, costuming
being only one of many. <www.pbm.com/~lindahl/arts_and_sciences.html>

Also, I might suggest you look at Art History books, as SCA costuming is
always based off of paintings.  Most of the time, the artists painted
biblical subjects in the clothing of their own time periods (they seemed to
have great difficulty envisioning what they really wore in biblical times).
 Also, books on Medieval manuscripts will also be quite helpful.  They
won't give you actual patterns, but many dresses of the Medieval period are
not too far off from modern ones and you could perhaps figure out a way to
adapt on a pattern.  

Meisterin Katarina Helene von Schoenborn, OL (calligraphy & illumination)
(mka: Helen Schultz -- Peru, IN)

Date: Tue, 02 Sep 1997 13:07:16 -0500
From: mary boulet <boulet.roger at mcleod.net>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: books on costuming

May I suggest this text as a good general reference for those new to 
historical costuming:

History of Costume, by Blanche Payne, c.1965, Harper & Row, publ.

I purchased this book for a costuming class at UNL about a dozen years 
ago. It is well illustrated, albeit in b/w, from primary sources, most 
of which are noted. It covers a broad range, from ancient Egypt up to 
the twentieth century, with 205 pages devoted to the SCA time period. 
The text introduces many specific costume terms, including cotehardie. 
BTW did you know the short version worn by the men is often called a 
courtepy? The text helps to establish the evolutionary nature of 
costume, and places each costume in its cultural/historical context. Its 
a good place to begin, and can help a newcomer focus on the costume era 
they will be most comfortable with, before they head out to the art 
library for more specific research.
My own copy was purchased used for $27.50 from a college bookstore. I 
suspect other, more recent costume textbooks are on the market now. I 
would enquire of any college teaching costuming, whether through a 
textiles, clothing and design curriculum or a theatre curriculum, what 
texts they are now using. I refer to my copy of Payne frequently when 
I'm delving out of my own persona time frame. It's worth the small 
investment.
Myra Nedlesaeng, Calontir

Date: Tue, 9 Sep 1997 22:00:35 -0500 (CDT)
From: Eloise Beltz-Decker <eloise at ripco.com>
To: Sca Arts List <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Moderately interesting costume book

	Thought I'd share, since the list seems kind of quiet :-> The 
book I managed to actually take out on my odyssey into the public library 
system, is Iris Brooke's _Medieval Theatre Costume_, published in 1963, 
originally. My copy's from '67. Library of Congress number is 67-25699, 
for those interested. And now on to the review. :->
	Interesting - for the sketches, mainly. Construction-wise, it's 
meant for making good, sturdy garments that *look* medieval, but not 
necessarily constructed in a medieval manner. Its construction techniques 
and helpful tips are, however, meant for the sewer on a shoestring 
budget, and she explains all kinds of interesting things that might be 
of limited SCA use - like details about medieval ecclesiastical robes.
	Of much interest to SCAdians, however, are the multiple 
line-drawings in it, taken from period paintings; the explanations of 
same; and the rather long section on  ... basic heraldry, of all things 
:-> Explanations of how to divide the shield, what vair and erminoise 
are, and other ground-floor stuff. Nothing a real herald would be too 
interested in, but nice for those of us that are just still wannabes :->
	There's a section on footgear, a section on hats (including how 
to drape a wimple that's *real*, and why you don't use nun's patterns for 
them). All of it is meant to be kicked around, since it's for the 
theatre, and there's hints on getting used to moving with a sword on your 
belt and the like. The one I have is missing several color plates, one of 
which (according to later pages that refer to it) is a diagram of where 
to measure people to fit clothes properly to them.
--
Eloise Beltz-Decker
eloise at ripco.com

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 21:30:30 -0800
From: Michelle Meinhold <meinhold at csufresno.edu>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Costume Research

Here are some great books that do have pictures to look at.
You can get these from Barnes & Noble or maybe other bookstores in your area.

"The Chronicle of Western Fashion - From Ancient Times to the Present Day" by
John Peacock
 "20,000 Years of Fashion - The History of Costume & Personal Adornment" by
Francois Boucher
"The Historical Encyclopedia of Costumes" by Albert Racinet
"Racinet's Full-Color Pictorial History of Western Costume" by Auguste
Racinet

The last book is an inexpensive book to buy. The other three are quite
expensive...they cost about $50.00 a piece.

Giovanna Mocenigo

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 19:01:35 +0000
From: Karen at agent.infodata.com (Harris, Karen)
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: More books

Vitale wrote:
> My ex had a book that we got at a Renn fair, while in LA. It was a book
> about the same size and quality as the KWH, but was about Elizabethan
> costuming. Of course I can't remember the exact title. 
> 
> Does anyone recognise the book I am talking about? Is it in general
> publication?

Title: ELIZABETHAN COSTUMING FOR THE YEARS 1550-1580

Authors: Janet Winter & Carolyn Savoy

Publisher:  Other Times Publications, 361 60th Street, Dept. 
T, Oakland, CA  94618

Nope, haven't heard of it ;)

I bought my copy at the Folger Shakespeare Library for $15.00 US.  
You can buy it directly from the publisher for this price plus $1.50 
shipping and handling.

I really do like this book, and it's an excellent primer for 
Elizabethan costuming.  It's not the be-all and end-all, but it will 
give you a running start.  :)

Karen Larsdatter
  Barony of Ponte Alto, Atlantia

Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 10:20:47 -0600 (CST)
From: Lorine S Horvath <lhorvath at plains.NoDak.edu>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Costume Research

Try Anglo-saxon dress and accessories by Gale Owen Crocker.  It is one of 
the best sources I know of for pre-1066 northern european garb.  

Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 07:43:07 -0700
From: Nancy Lynch <lughbec at info2000.net>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Costume Research

For more early info I can recommend the following:
"COSTUME AND FASHION, The Evolution of European Dress Through the
Earlier Ages"; Herbert Norris, JM Dent and Sons

Any of several different books or articles by Margrethe Hald including;
"Primitive Shoes"

Prehistoric Textiles by E.J.W. Barber

Geschichte des Kostums by Erika Theil (in German :)

...and the bibliographies in these books.
Sonas ort! (Happiness on you!)
Mistress Lughbec

Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 21:12:44 -0500 (EST)
From: <Varju at aol.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Costume Research

An interesting book on Turkish garb is:

_Women's Costume ofr the Near and Middle East_
Jennifer Scarce

If you need it, I have ISBN number around here somewhere.

Noemi

Date: Wed, 26 Nov 1997 08:02:45 +0000
From: "Nancy Dalton" <nancykd at ea.net>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Costume Research

Please be careful when researching clothing.
The best sources would be archaeological journals talking about 
clothes found at digs or in graves.  
For 1300s England a good book is 
   "Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince".  
   (I don't have it myself or I'd include the ISBN.)  
For 1150-1450 England try
   "Medieval Finds from Excavations in London: Textiles and Clothing c.1150-1450" ISBN  0 11 290445 9

Good secondary sources would be manuscripts or artwork from the time 
period.  A lot of those can be found on the Web with some searching 
through places like the Labyrinth.  (although be careful about 
religious figures: saints, Joseph, Mary, etc.)
"20,000 Years of Fashion" is a good source because it uses and 
presents archaeological information along with period artwork to 
analyze the clothing.
Several other authors, Racinet and Peacock to name a few, redrew the 
artwork in their own image of what the clothing and human body should 
look like.  Racinet is a good source for determining what the 
Victorians thought medieval clothing looked like.  In his defense, 
the technology at the time did not allow the duplication of artwork 
to be printed in books, so all artwork that one wanted put in a book 
had to be redrawn.  Peacock and Racinet are very poor costuming 
sources, they are inaccurate in different ways and places that are 
hard to predict or find without seeing the original work that they 
drew from.
It's a lot of fun working with flat pieces of fabric for hours until 
they're transformed into an outfit that not only looks good on 
somebody, but looks just like one in a particular painting.
Happy Costuming,
Nancy Dalton
ska Earnwynn van Zwaluwenburg

From: schuldy at abel.harvard.edu (Mark Schuldenfrei)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: [SCA] BOOK WANTED: "Ancient Danish Textiles"
Date: 28 Apr 1998 14:28:09 GMT

Gwen Morse  <goldmoon at geocities.com> wrote:
  The librarians are having trouble finding it because it's not listed
  in the Library of Congress. They are apparently working on it,
  though. In any event, I would like to own a copy.

You need a better class of librarian.  I found it online at
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/catalog/booksquery.html in a few seconds.  This is the
Library of Congress listing.

        Tibor

Olddanske tekstiler. English Ancient Danish textiles from bogs and
burials : a comparative study of costume and Iron Age textiles 
     by Margrethe Hald ; [translated by Jean Olsen].
     [Copenhagen] : National Museum of Denmark, c1980. 
     398 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm.
     Bibliography: p. [394]-398.
     Translation of Olddanske tekstiler.
Series:
     Publications of the National Museum. Archaeological-historical
     series ; v. 21
Subjects:
     Iron age--Denmark.
     Textile fabrics--Denmark--History.
     Costume--Denmark--History.
     Costume--History--To 500.
     Denmark--Antiquities.

Call Number             LCCN            Dewey Decimal   ISBN/ISSN
GN780.22.D4 H3413 1980  82200893 //r97  677/.009489     8748003123
-- 
Mark Schuldenfrei (schuldy at math.harvard.edu)

From: mmy at innocent.com (mmy)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: [SCA] BOOK WANTED: "Ancient Danish Textiles"
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 07:08:19 GMT

On Mon, 27 Apr 1998 23:28:07 GMT, goldmoon at geocities.com (Gwen Morse)
wrote:
>I am in desperate need of finding the following book. I have it
>registered with some book searches, and it has still NOT turned up. I
>thought I might ask among those who would be most likely to have it...
>Anyone willing to sell their copy??? Anyone have a lead on where to
>DEFINATELY find a copy? It is out of print. Oh, yes, I need the
>ENGLISH edition! 
>
>"Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials"
>by Margrethe Hald  
>ISBN- 87-480-0312-3 

It's not at all out of print. I just bought a copy two months ago from
the National museum of Denmark. They're on the web, www.natmus.dk,
with an email link to their shop. And yes, that was the english
edition.

be warned, it's expensive.

/mmy

Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 12:05:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: Marybeth Lavrakas <lavrakas at email.unc.edu>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Book question

>The other day I was looking at books in print, and I came across a
>reference to "Dress in the Middle Ages" by Fran=87oise Piponnier and
>Perrine Mane, Yale University Press, 1998, $25.  ISBN 0-300-06906-5.
>Has anyone seen this book?  I was wondering if it is worth buying.

>Kathy/Katerina

Yes, I've read this book.  It's a very basic survey, with sadly few
pictures.  I don't think it's worth buying for $25.00  (I got mine free,
so I'm happy enough).  As a matter of fact, I thought it surprisingly
lightweight for a University Press book (especially Yale!)

Kathryn Rous

Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 19:45:16 -0400 (EDT)
From: Carol Thomas <scbooks at neca.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Book question

>The other day I was looking at books in print, and I came across a
>reference to "Dress in the Middle Ages" by Fran=87oise Piponnier and
>Perrine Mane, Yale University Press, 1998, $25.  ISBN 0-300-06906-5.
>Has anyone seen this book?  I was wondering if it is worth buying.

It has good text (according to a friend who is a costumer) and few pictures,
small and b&w.  Whether it is worth buying probably depends on the reader's
level of expertise and background.  It filled in a number of gaps and
questions for my friend.  It does not look like a beginner's book to me.  I
started reading it & want to finish just for general background, and find it
well written (some of these books are like wading through mud).

Lady Carllein

Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 07:50:20 PDT
From: "T Cardy" <otterbabi at hotmail.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Is this book any good?

>I was thinking of buying this book,Costume Technicians Handbook by Rosemary
>Ingham,  I've heard that it is good but what exactly is in it?
>
>Anna de Byxe

I have taught university costume classes using her book as the text
book.  Her attention to detail is good and offers quite a complete
coverage of the theatre costumer's arts.  The book does go into depth in
some techniques.

The key thing to remember, is that the book is a  costume technicians
handbook - short cuts, non period stuff, and a big chunk of the book is
specifically dedicated to theatre techniques.

It is a marvelous reference book, and offers a lot of basic information
that can get you started easily in learning new techniques.

Timothy Van Vlear

Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 00:53:54 -0500
From: Gwen Morse <goldmoon at northeast.net>
To: SCA-ARTS at UKANS.EDU, h-costume-digest at indra.com
Subject: Book Review: A History of Costume [SCA]

"A History of Costume" by Naomi Tarrant
National Museums of Scotland (1994)

Purchased for $24.95 through Amazon.com

My comments: Very few books can be useful to more than one time period or
region of historical costuming research. This volume is one that is. The
book starts out with a short discussion of skin garments, works through
early peplos or bog-style dresses, and continues through the various
centuries to modern clothing. It touches upon fabric weaving styles,
various types of material, stitches and alternative fastenings, pattern
layout and cutting methods, differences between male and female clothing,
ect. There is no in-depth coverage of any one particular topic, but the
varied nuggets of information would be of use to many different re-enactors
based in general European or Early American cultures. I would suggest this
book as an invaluable starting place for new garb makers. In particular, it
collects information from many singularly useful sources into one place (an
early Anglo-Saxon garment, the Greenland gown, when machine-sewn garments
became widespread, examples of stitch types, short discussions on natural
dyes, fiber and weave types, etc).

I bought this book because I heard about it on one of the lists, and was
curious about it. I fell in love with in after a few minutes of reading it.
I want to stress again that it's greatest strength is the range of topics
it covers - it would be of equal use to a Medieval or a Regency or a
Victorian re-enactor/costumer.
---
Gwen Morse // mailto:goldmoon%40geocities.com

Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 13:18:26 +0200
From: Jessica Tiffin <melisant at iafrica.com>
To: SCA-ARTS at UKANS.EDU
Subject: Re:  "Costume" Book resources

>I am fairly new to the SCA and am really interested in Garb designing and
>sewing.  I would like to further my knowledge of period garb and styles.  I am
>thinking of purchasing the following books and would appreciate any insight or
>opinions on their credibility as a resource.  They are:

>2)  "Historic Costumes in Pictures"  (Braun & Schneider)

I'd be a bit dubious of this one - as far as I know, it's a work written in
the Victorian age, and while there are lots of pictures, their accuracy is a
bit debatable by modern standards. (The dreaded Victorian tendency to
romanticise!).  No original sources, all redrawn.

>3)  "Medieval Costume in England and France: The 13th, 14th, & 15th Centuries"
>(Mary G. Houston)

This is _wonderful_ because she gives construction diagrams for the various
garments - the book has a "Construction" chapter for each century, and also
a chapter on embroidery designs.  Her main problem is that she redraws all
her pictures - the book contains no reproductions of original sources, so
you're looking at her interpretations.  On the other hand, she does tell you
where she's redrawn them from in most cases.  I personally think that the
advantages of this book outweigh the drawbacks.

Melisant

Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 12:58:48 EST
From: <Bjmikita at aol.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Costume resources

For a great  book that gives an overall view of texiles and has an fantastic
list of references and sources is TEXTILES 5,000 years. Edited by Jennifer
Harris  isbn 0-8109-3875-8.  A good friend is a historical costumer who has
done work for various museumns and she raves about this book.  Borrow it
from your local library as it is rather expensive.

Jeanne de La Mer

Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 17:40:35 -0500 (EST)
From: Jenne Heise <jenne at tulgey.browser.net>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re:  "Costume" Book resources

On Sun, 10 Jan 1999, Jessica Tiffin wrote:
> >2)  "Historic Costumes in Pictures"  (Braun & Schneider)
> I'd be a bit dubious of this one - as far as I know, it's a work written in
> the Victorian age, and while there are lots of pictures, their accuracy is a
> bit debatable by modern standards. (The dreaded Victorian tendency to
> romanticise!).  No original sources, all redrawn.

Braun & Schneider is also available on the web at:

http://www.siue.edu/COSTUMES/COSTUME1_INDEX.HTML

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa (Shire of Eisental; HERMS Cyclonus), mka Jennifer Heise
jenne at tulgey.browser.net

Date: Sat, 24 Apr 1999 14:35:00 -0500
From: KATHARINE WHISLER <KWHISLER at kentlaw.edu>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Juan de Alcega

Today my copy of "Tailor's Pattern Book 1589" arrived in the mail.  I am
very excited, this is a reissue of the 1978 edition which has been
unavailable for so long!  The book is a facsimile with translation of
"Libro de Geometria, Pratica Y Traca" (Book of the Practice of
Tailoring-- Measuring and Marking Out) by Juan de Alcega, printed in
Madrid in 1589.  Alcega was a master tailor.

The book was apparently intended as a guide for journeymen tailors, to
help them figure out economical ways of cutting out garments, as well as
giving them diagrams for some standard styles of garment.  For each
garment, there is a cutting diagram (much like the cutting diagrams that
come with modern patterns), an estimate as to how much fabric is required
(in Castillian ells) and brief directions on how the garment goes
together.  He also includes charts to help figure out how much fabric is
needed based on desired length of the garment and fabric width.

In "Patterns of Fashion" Janet Arnold cites this book extensively, though
she complains that the translation is not as perfect as it could be,
because the translators were not costume scholars.  Here's a great
opportunity for any Spanish-speaking costumers out there.  I believe that
the book is extremely useful even if the translation is not flawless.
The 3/4 of the book is a facsimile of the original, the remaining 1/4 is
a translation, glossary, and notes (including a conversion table for
Castillian ells to centimeters).

The book contains diagrams for 73 garments, plus a diagram for a "war
banner," and two diagrams for "silk saddle trappings for jousts."  The
garments are for men and women (and two for girls).  The men's garments
include ceremonial cloaks and church vestments.

At any rate, you can either ask your local bookstore to order it for you,
or order it direct from the publisher (as I did).  The details are:

Tailor's Pattern Book, 1589: Libro de Geometria, Pratica y Traca
by Alcega, Juan de
Pain, J.(Tr.); Bainton, C.(Tr.); Nevinson, J.L. (Ed.)
Costume & Fashion Press (an imprint of Quite Specific Media Group Ltd.)
[or Ruth Bean Publishers, if you are in the U.K.]
February 1999
ISBN: 0-89676-234-3 [0-90358-531-6 for U.K. edition]

To order directly from the U.S. publisher:
Quite Specific Media Group, Ltd.
Attn: Ralph Pine
260 Fifth Avenue, Suite 703
New York, NY 10001
(212)725-5377, fax (212)725-8506
email: info at quitespecificmedia.com
www.quitespecificmedia.com

The book costs $40 + shipping, and is a paperback.  The fact that it is a
paperback is my only problem with the book.  Even though it is reasonably
well-bound for a paperback, paperbacks never wear as well as a hardback
book, and I intend to continue studying this book for a long time to come.

Kathy Whisler (Katerina Arondel)

Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 16:59:53 -0400
From: Irene leNoir <irene at ici.net>
To: <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Re: PERIOD cloak clasps

Before I wrote:
>There are lots of pictures of various statues dating from
>around the 13th and 14th century showing women wearing
>cloaks.
<snip>
>Unfortunately, I can't think off-hand where you can find
>pictures of them.

Well, I've now found a book that's a good start.

A Visual History of Costume: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
Margaret Scott

It has _lots_ of photos of these types of statues.

Jessica Clark
SCA: Irene leNoir
irene at ici.net

Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 16:38:44 -0600
From: "Morgan" <morgan at lewistown.net>
To: <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Re: good basic garb books?

>> * Basic intro to historic costuming - not necessarily terribly accurate,
but provides a general survey over a wide range of time and locale to allow
the newcomer to get a sense of what they would be interested in.
>
>Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise       jenne at tulgey.browser.net

    Try:
      _A Pictorial History of Costume_  by Wolfgang Bruhn & Mike Tilke  ISBN
0 517 65832 1
    _Patterns for Theatrical Costumes_  by Kathrine Strand Holkeboer  ISBN 0
13 654278 6
and  The Musuem of London has a series of books;  of interest to your group:
"Textiles & Clothing"   and "Dress Accessories"

    There is also the different pamphlets in the Complete Anachronist
(Seams Like Old Times, Sewing to a T)

    Caointiarn

Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 15:08:02 -0600
From: Mary Denise Smith <costumemag at costumemag.com>
To: SCA-ARTS at UKANS.EDU
Subject: Mistress Drea's book, "The Well Dress'd Peasant" is available

Mistress Drea Pelligrini (Drea Leed)'s new book,
"The Well Dress'd Peasant: 16th Century Flemish
Working Women's Dress" has gone to press, as she
announced last week.

This is just a reminder that the special
pre-publication price of $15 with free shipping is
only available through tomorrow, Friday October
27. After that it will go to its regular retail
price of $20 + $5 shipping.

The book can be picked up at Known World Costume
Symposium on November 4, or it will be mailed out
after November 10.

Support your fellow costumer and order early and
often at http://www.costumemag.com

Thanks!

Mary Denise Smith/Lady Marged Tylluan Fach
Costume & Dressmaker Press

Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2006 22:01:12 -0500
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: [SCA-AS] guidebook for costumers
To: Arts and Sciences in the SCA <artssciences at lists.gallowglass.org>,
	EK Arts & Science list <EK_AnS at yahoogroups.com>,
	laurels at fiedlerfamily.net

For those in the US, this text may be worth looking at:

_Clothing and Textile Collections in the United States: A CSA Guide_. By 
Sally Queen and Vicki L. Berger. 2006. 424p. Texas Tech. Univ. $39.95 
0-89672-572-3

there's no specific index by type of garment/textile, but it got an 
overall good review from Booklist. I haven't seen it, just the review.
-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net

From: "Tina Michael" <tinabetta at gmail.com>
Date: December 18, 2008 6:52:37 PM CST
To: "Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] costume book query

Yep, that's the one I would have recommended, too. Not a bad little book.
Good clear and large pictures for those of us with a visual nature and the
patterns aren't too hard to figure out and scale up. I also like the idea of
showing the various sleeve styles and trim patterns for the styles.
Definitely not an Art/ Sci reference but handy none the less.

Tina
aka Tudor Barbie

On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 1:22 PM, Chiara Francesca <
chiara.francesca at gmail.com> wrote:

The only book that comes to mind with _light blue cover_ and had all the
patterns drawn out and scaled is:
Patterns for Theatrical Costumes: Garments, Trims, and Accessories from
Ancient Egypt to 1915

http://www.amazon.com/Patterns-Theatrical-Costumes-Garments-Accessories/dp/0896761258/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229627566&sr=1-1

It is my standard book for new comers to get started, a primer if you will.
From this book they can do further research using the bibliog. at the back
referencing other books and paintings that inspired the patterns.

Chiara Francesca

From: "Nancy" <nweders at mail.utexas.edu>
Date: April 8, 2009 9:26:40 AM CDT
To: <bryn-gwlad at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Bryn-gwlad] new book for those Tudor gentlemen

Highly recommend this book which is done by the people who brought you The Tudor Tailor.  Seriously great research.
 
Clare St. John
 
THE KING’S SERVANTS: Men’s dress at the accession of Henry VIII Caroline Johnson (editors: Jane Malcolm-Davies & Ninya Mikhaila)   FAT GOOSE PRESS is pleased to announce the publication of a new book offering a detailed insight into  clothing at the beginning of the 16th century. The King’s Servants provides a vivid picture of Henry’s early  court using evidence from royal warrants and account books in The National Archive. Caroline Johnson’s  transcriptions and translations of more than two hundred hand-written pages of the original 16th century Latin  and English documents have revealed a wealth of fascinating facts about expenditure on garments for servants  at the Tudor court. The typical clothes worn by middling men during the decades between the battles of  Bosworth (1485) and Flodden (1513) are described and reconstructed in this beautifully illustrated book.    Previously unpublished documents, including bundles of orders for clothes, and parchment books recording  payments to such people as mercers, drapers, tailors, cordwainers and silkwomen, are carefully analysed to  provide details of the usual allocation of dress to different ranks of servants at the royal court. The book focuses  on the middle-ranking men who were clerks, messengers and huntsmen. There is also information on trends  in men’s fashion at the turn of the century as the documents investigated demonstrate Henry VII’s expenditure  as well as his son’s. A noteworthy inclusion is an early livery issued to Henry VII’s newly-founded Yeomen of  the Guard, who were resplendent in green and white damask coats embellished with lavish gold embroidery.    The book offers a survey of relevant pictorial sources such as effigies, brasses and stained glass plus rare  glimpses of archaeological artefacts from the late 15th and early 16th century. These, together with the archival  information, have provided sufficient evidence for reconstructions of the typical royal servant’s every day  wardrobe to be made and these are illustrated in high-quality colour photographs. The book also features  comprehensive patterns for a man’s complete costume during the early Tudor period. These were devised by  Ninya Mikhaila with other experienced costumiers, including Sarah Thursfield (The Medieval Tailor’s  Assistant) and Jane Huggett (Clothes of the Common Woman, 1480-1580).  

 The book features:    • 48 pages with colour illustrations throughout  • Detailed line drawings and diagrams by Michael Perry  • Sumptuous full-colour photographs by Henrietta Clare  • Patterns for shirts, doublet, hose, coats and hat with advice on appropriate fabrics       and comprehensive making instructions   To pre-order an advance copy of The King’s Servants (usual price £15 plus postage and packing) at a special price of:   £14 (UK and Europe) including postage and packing or £16 (rest of the world) including postage and packing   Please visit The Tudor Tailor’s website at www.tudortailor.com   Payments by Paypal or UK cheque are accepted.   The official release of The King’s Servants is planned for June 2009. If you have already pre-ordered from our website in the last few days, please accept our apologies for this email. Thank you for ordering the new book!   

From: "Nancy" <nweders at mail.utexas.edu>
Date: April 8, 2009 9:34:49 AM CDT
To: <bryn-gwlad at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Bryn-gwlad] web site

I forgot to include their web site.  Although they are in England, they accept PayPal so it’s quite easy to get things from them.  Check out their patterns as well. 
http://www.tudortailor.com/index.htm
 
Clare

From: countessdulcia at gmail.com
Subject: Re: {TheTriskeleTavern} Tudor Patterns
Date: December 14, 2011 7:35:22 AM CST
To: the-triskele-tavern at googlegroups.com

<<< And I just got Norris's "Tudor Costume and Fashion" which is a Dover Book. I'm reading up on Tudor myself--Anyone know how good a resource this is?  >>>
You need to be very careful with all of Herbert Norris' costume books.  In spite of the modern publication dates in the front of the books and listed on websites like Amazon.com, Herbert Norris was a late 19th and early 20th century costume designer who died in 1950. He designed historically inspired theater costumes and stage sets for plays, films, and pageants.  He worked in an era when archaeologists simply were not interested in clothing remains and deposits.  

Unless the clothing remains were both expensive and mostly preserved, textiles found in archaeological digs were boxed up for looking at later (which rarely happened) or simply disposed of.  The 1959 excavation of the so called "Queen Arnegunde" grave by archaeologists Michel Fleury and Albert France-Lanord marked and important turning point in the treatment of textile remains because it was one of the first excavations where the archaeologists did make some attempts to study the textiles and draw some conclusions from them.  Of course, since this kind of study was in its infancy and they weren't really focusing on the textiles, a lot of the conclusions they drew (and published) have later been found to be partially (and sometimes fully) incorrect.  They also boxed up the textiles "for further study".  The cardboard boxes full of completely decayed and destroyed textile samples were found in a pile in Michel Fleury's non-climate controlled office after his death in 2002.  The boxes hadn't been opened since they were stacked 40+ years before.  New textile experts have been trying to glean more information from the scraps, but that's a different discussion.  =)

Back to Norris... His work was for the theatre and movies and his goal was to produce outfits that people of the time visually identified with the period in mind, but also found attractive in to their modern sensibilities.  If you think about what that means, the most obvious thing is that all figures are redrawn to the ideal figures of the time.  Think about Elizabeth Taylor playing Cleopatra, or any other actress then or now.  They are more interested in being attractive and "sexy" than they are in really looking like they live in whatever period of history, and it shows in the costuming.  

He was also working for theatre construction techniques - how to replicate a look quickly and easily, NOT how it was actually done in period.  In general his diagrams are not only wasteful of fabric, they rarely really work to create a truly comfortable, long wearing, and properly fitting garment.  He also doesn't give enough pattern diagrams to help most beginners, and non-beginners should be beyond what he provides. Many times I have found his observations and suppositions about things to be not just incomplete but just plain wrong.  Then again, he wasn't worried about getting it "right", just how to make it look close enough.

He doesn't provide any photographs of original works of art - everything is redrawn  (which makes it secondary and tertiary sources at best), and if you put his re-drawings next to the originals you'll find that he not only changed the proportions of the figures (so that all the women look like they are wearing a Victorian or early 20th century corset and all the men are thin with broad shoulders and narrow waists!), but he changes many elements of the costumes and accessories as well.  He claims to base everything he says on period evidence, but he rarely provides the sources for that evidence.  He is also notorious for taking a few pieces of evidence that support his pet theories, ignoring other evidence, and drawing elaborate conclusions.  He is not clear about when and where his evidence stops and his suppositions begin though, so you have be careful.  I've heard it said that you just have to know where he is correct and then avoid using all the parts where he's not.  In my opinion, if you already know enough to know when he's correct and when he's not, you don't need his books, and if you don't know that much, you sure aren't gonna' figure it out by reading Norris.

On the other hand, Norris does have his uses.  I own the three books that apply to the SCA timeline (Ancient, Medieval, and Tudor).  I find that they are most useful when used as a tool for narrowing down when a particular fashion appeared, or for helping new people choose a period, by flipping through all the pictures.  On the other hand, I have a number of other books that are also really only useful for that as well (Racinet, Holkeboer, Hill & Bucknell, Braun & Schneider, etc... there are a lot of them!). What makes Norris more useful in that sense is that he spends time on the transitions from one fashion high point to the next, whereas most of the gloss sources only hit the fashion high points.  You can find the general period of something (as long as it's English, French or occasionally German or Spanish) and then know which of the better sources to look in, or the timeline of art you need to look at.

So...  glean what you can from it, but check EVERYTHING against good sources.

Just my opinions based on my experience,

Dulcia  

Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 16:18:14 +0000
From: "Groff, Garth G. (ggg9y)" <ggg9y at virginia.edu>
To: "Merry Rose (atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org)"
	<atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org>
Subject: [MR] New Book on 14th C. Clothing, Sort of

Noble friends, especially costume mavens:

Just processed at the UVA library: CHAUCER AND ARRAY, PATTERS OF COSTUME AND FABRIC RHETORIC IN THE CANTERBURY TALES, TROILUS AND CRISEYDE AND OTHER WORKS by Laura F. Hodges (ISBN 9781843843689; our call number PR1868 .P9 H63 2014). I admit to not knowing much about medieval clothing, or Chaucer for that matter, but this is a book that might of great interest to Scadian costumers, especially those interested in 14th and 15th century costume from England and France. I mention both centuries, and both countries, because some illustrations are from illuminated manuscripts drawn somewhat later than Chaucer's time, and come from both nations. One supposes that, as was often the case in biblical-themed works of the time, they model garments contemporary to the date of the artwork, and in the style  from the countries of the artists' origins. In sampling the text, I see that the author has gone into great detail explaining the various pieces of clothing worn by the literary characters. For example, Chaucer describes Thopa's hose "Of Brugges were his hosen broun." This leads the author into an interesting discussion of whether these were of Flemish wool or lesser quality unbleached Flemish linen known as "Holland brown." The book features a number of line drawings of various surviving garments similar to Chaucer's descriptions, with eight pages of glorious color plates from illuminations. This looks like a great book for lovers of Chaucer, or those interested learning the minute details of medieval clothing.

Lord Mungo Napier, The Archer of Mallard Lodge

<the end>

Edited by Mark S. Harris	clothing-books-msg	Page  of