Fashion: A Timeline in Photographs: 1850 to Today
Product ID: 19631953
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FASHION: A Timeline in Photographs is a definitive and beautifully illustrated visual history of fashion from one of America’s premiere fashion historians, Caroline Rennolds Milbank. This unrivaled and exceptional fashion resource is an immersive 150-year visual odyssey which tracks year-by-year, decade-by-decade, the ever-changing fashion landscape from 1850 to the present. With over 1400 photographs, almost all of which are rare—either never before published or rarely seen—we see fashion transform from the crinoline-supported billowing skirts and enormous ballooning sleeves of the late 19th century to the hemlines that fell along with the crashing stock market in 1929; through the shocking pants styles of the '30s and short A-line shifts of the '60s; through the designer-driven styles of the '80s, '90s, and today. In her introduction, Milbank explains the importance of photographs in that they “show what fashion illustrations cannot; what people actually wore, what exaggeration they adopted and the actual prevalence of style.” While the focus is not on specific designers, notable designers are included, such as Charles Frederick Worth, Chanel, Poiret, Charles James, Karl Lagerfeld, Halston, Ungaro, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Lanvin, Rudi Gernreich, Celine, Geoffrey Beene, John Galliano, Issey Miyake, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Prada, and Dior. As the decades progress, photographs of designer fashion predominate, and many notable personalities are included like Princess Pauline de Metternich, considered the chicest woman in Europe in the 1860s; members of Queen Victoria's family, including her impeccably dressed daughter-in-law, Alexandra, Princess of Wales; opera stars renowned for their wardrobes, Christina Nillson, Adelina Patti; working women, athletes, dancers, actresses, courtesans, royal mistresses; feminists who chose to dress outside the fashion system like Civil War surgeon Dr. Mary Walker. Milbank states that “photographs show women courageous enough in their convictions to flout convention.” As the book travels primarily through North America and Europe, presenting multiple images for each year, Milbank keenly illustrates how a certain style of dressing was ubiquitous--the same silhouette worn not only in France and the U.S. but also in India and Hungary. Along with tracking every major change in fashion, readers also see evolutions in hairstyles, jewelry, hat styles, outerwear, and footwear. The photographers range from the earliest well-known professionals like Disdéri, to charming amateur works as well as to the very beginning of street photography. Photographs of stylish women seen out and about span over 100 years, with recent examples from Mary Hilliard and Scott Schuman. FASHION: A Timeline in Photographs will be a welcome addition to the library of any fashion or costume designer as well as students of fashion, history, art history and photography, and is sure to become an instant classic! Review: INVALUABLE RESOURCE & PLEASURE ! - Quite informative in terms of pointing out style changes and at times, implications for women. I'm very pleased and would recommend to textile history enthusiasts as well as fashion and history readers. Provides good resource when attending shows, sales, and auctions. Review: Excellent and engaging! - Fabulous photos and well-written history. So enjoyed this stunning book and plan to gift it to several people for the holidays. I have several of Ms. Milbank's books...each one surpasses the next as my favorite!
| Best Sellers Rank | #1,521,475 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #480 in Popular Culture Antiques & Collectibles (Books) #777 in Fashion Photography (Books) #1,254 in Fashion History |
| Customer Reviews | 4.9 out of 5 stars 18 Reviews |
C**I
INVALUABLE RESOURCE & PLEASURE !
Quite informative in terms of pointing out style changes and at times, implications for women. I'm very pleased and would recommend to textile history enthusiasts as well as fashion and history readers. Provides good resource when attending shows, sales, and auctions.
S**A
Excellent and engaging!
Fabulous photos and well-written history. So enjoyed this stunning book and plan to gift it to several people for the holidays. I have several of Ms. Milbank's books...each one surpasses the next as my favorite!
J**E
Five Stars
Love this book! A great collection of fashion pics through the years. Great reference book.
M**C
Go-to Present for Women Who Appreciate Style, Whimsy, and History.
This has become my go-to present for women who appreciate style, whimsy, and history. Just yesterday, a hard-to-please recipient sent a thank you text that read, “U got me the perfect birthday gift. Love u tons!” Fashion: A Timeline in Photographs by Caroline Milbank is simply a dazzling book, and you don’t have to be a fashionista to appreciate the hundreds of carefully researched archival photographs and witty, bite-sized descriptions by this big deal fashion historian and curator. Each year since 1850 is told with photos starting with rare images that I have never seen before. Other examples include an 1895 account of the bicycle’s enormous effect on women’s mobility and a magazine noting that “GREAT care should be exercised in the choice of a bicycle suit…must be neat and trim”; a 1910 survey of hats; a LOL 1920s section about the rise of androgyny; see the 1930s sports clothes on page 161; and of course the 1960s described with titles such as “freewheeling” and “bare minimum” followed by the familiar looking shoulder pads of the 1980s, right up to the most current styles. Detailed footnotes are included at the end of the book for the fashion academics, plus a foreword by the esteemed Harold Koda, head of the Met’s Costume Institute. For a photo preview, I found the author on Instagram.
A**R
As compelling from an anthropological and historical standpoint as it is beautiful, you will understand your mother and grandmot
If you purchase one fashion book this holiday season - or indeed this decade - let it be Fashion: A Timeline in Photographs. Milbank captures the essence of each year beginning in 1850, with a collection of images that each has something specific and illuminating to tell us about that particular moment in time. Her fresh observations about the evolution of the silhouette, accessories, innovations in textiles and technology, and what that all means for the changing role of women as expressed in the fashion of the time keep the reader flipping back to the rich trove of footnotes over and over again for more details. In fact, my only suggestion to her editor would have been to incorporate more of that information in the text for each year. As compelling from an anthropological and historical standpoint as it is beautiful, you will understand your mother and grandmother and therefore yourself, better after reading this book. Don’t delay!
T**M
A Gift
Given as a gift and I was told it was very interesting.
B**H
Must-have for anyone interested in fashion and social history!
Once in a rare while a new book comes along that makes an unusually important and stunning contribution to the study of fashion and social history. And this one will knock your socks off. Beautifully produced and researched, full of fascinating, never-before-seen images, almost 1,500 of them. Amazing in that it contains so many images for every single year from 1850 to the present, really giving the reader an incredible guide to how silhouettes and fashions have changed over the last century and a half.
M**S
Fascinating and brilliant...
An AMAZING accomplishment and an invaluable reference book documenting fashion from the onset of photography through 2015. Informative captions, creative design, and thousands of photographs.
S**I
Value for money
High quality paper with great pictures & historical info
Y**S
quel beau livre
quel beau livre de référence sur la mode d autre foi ....je suis pas déçu
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