The Cut of Women’s Clothes: 1600 – 1930.
By Norah Waugh
Norah Waugh’s books were heavily used when I was at Art School. Along with Janet Arnold, she was considered a Master (Mistress?) of research into historical costume construction.
Before Norah and Janet, costume makers used guess work and artistic license. Take a look at historical films from the 1940′s, 18th century gowns with bullet bra type bodices.
The Cut of Women’s Clothes consists of quotations from contemprary sources such as personal letters, diaries, Ladies’ periodicals and dressmakers records describing the fashion and style of each era. Accompanying the text are numerous fashion plates and painstakingly researched and reproduced patterns of actual surviving pieces of clothing.
The patterns are what makes this book indispensable adn where Waugh’s talent truely lies.
The bibliography and list of costume collections will also provide useful for researchers in this field, however, this book was first published over 60 years ago so collections may have moved and books gone out of print.
http://astore.amazon.co.uk/costumier-21/detail/0571085946
