Professor Gale R. Owen-CrockerDress in Anglo-Saxon England

This is a carefully researched and very readable work by Gale R. Owen-Crocker with many helpful illustrations by Christine Wetherell and Rosalyn Smith. The Anglo-Saxon age is divided into three periods: Fifth and sixth centuries, seventh to ninth centuries and tenth and eleventh centuries. Each section has two chapters: one dealing with women's costume and the other with men's. Besides these six chapters there are chapters on the historical framework, textiles and textile production and the significance of dress. There are two appendices: one concerning English garment names and the other containing a possible cutting plan for an eleventh century gown. There's a long bibliography and a helpful index.Here we have a fascinating parallel between designing and making a beautiful dress and researching, designing and compiling a beautiful book. This work demonstrates how best to present and describe a subject in a readily assimilated fashion. Ms Owen-Crocker has achieved the perfect example of how historians should communicate their knowledge. All too often history is taught after the fashion of a cat jumping around on a hot griddle. If Ms Owen-Crocker has a cat it would be sitting there purring away with pleasure at the methodical way in which its mistress works. When reading what she has to tell us it's as if the men and women are moving around in the room with us in a carefully choreographed demonstration of the different styles of clothing as they developed through the centuries.Of course, in Anglo-Saxon times they didn't have buttons, button holes and safety pins, which meant that brooches were one of the important ways in which garments were held together. However, they were adept at weaving and could make some very serviceable cloth. Trousers were worn by some men, but they were mostly worn under a kilt-like top garment and, of course, they didn't have either zip flies or buttoned ones. On page 79 there's a drawing of a girl wearing what looks very like a trouser suit. The book also contains some very helpful colour illustrations. All kinds of shoes and headgear are described and there's also lots of information about the jewellery that was worn. Undergarments are also described, but no one wore either underpants or knickers in those days.Waist girdles were important for a variety of reasons including supports for hanging purses, tools, swords etc. Pockets had not been invented in those days. This is why there were cut-purses instead of pickpockets. The thief would lurk in a crowd and deftly cut the purse from the waist of his unsuspecting victim. This work contains drawings of these ancient purses. However, despite these differences, the dress worn by the Anglo-Saxons over a period of around 700 years was remarkably similar to some of the garments, shoes, headgear and jewellery worn by modern Europeans. This is a carefully researched, immaculately written work, a joy to read and the kind of work that lends itself to being dipped any time into for required information. This excellent author shows us the best way to research, select, compile and present history in the best possible fashion and in the most readily assimilated style. Buy and enjoy.

Gale Owen-Crocker's Dress in Anglo-Saxon England is extensively researched and carefully argued, making the most of archaeological, literary and iconographic evidence to construct a picture which represents the best of our knowledge.A good example of Owen-Crocker's argument is the way she probes Aldhelm's descriptions. The standard translation, by Michael Lapidge, serves the general reader well, but this book reviews the exact choice of words, which, combined with other evidence, leads to a different set of conclusions.This is essentially an archaeological book rather than a gazetteer of Anglo-Saxon fashion. Those looking for the equivalent of an Osprey guide will find it over-detailed in terms of its analysis of evidence and its arguments about how it reaches its conclusions. However, since the field continues to evolve, the book in its current format is infinitely more useful for declaring all its premises.

An academic text with loads of references to archeological digs. The only book you'll ever need about costume from the Early Historic Period. Aimed at undergraduates but serious re-enactors will find this useful. As I re-enact at a museum where authenticity is really tight (West Stow) it's really useful. An incredible amount has been written about brooch clasps!

Having read the original version I decided to treat myself to this revised and improved version. It is worth every penny. Gale Owen-Crocker's scholarship is matched by her very readable style. This is a comprehensive review of current knowledge which is welcome to everyone from scholars to re-enactors to the more general reader. It covers everything that was worn, with clear explanations of why theories are postulated, what is actually known from extant materials and what is conjecture. I strongly recommend buying this if you have any interest in the era.

Really interesting read, gives background and some drawings of the dress of the times. Would have liked some topics to go into more detail but textiles disappear over time.