Edwards - How to read a dress : a guide to changing fashion from the 16th to the 20th century

Dedication

For my husband, Aaron, and the little shadows in our lives

Table of Contents

Preface

The story of the evolution of dress is not as readily accessible as might first be imagined. Books and articles often choose to focus on narrower areas of interest such as a particular era or style, and some function as a wider sociopolitical analysis of how dress adapted and molded to fit contemporary demands. Extraordinary museum collections worldwide are a first and highly precious resource for many researchers and enthusiasts, but most face various inevitable limitations. Chief of these are space, resources, funding, and, more specifically, the necessity (because of loans or conservation requirements) to have a significant number of garments out of the display cases at any one time. Because of this, it can be impossible for visitors to witness a continuous, chronological flow of styles, changing before their eyes in fundamental shape and small details, to produce a comprehensive vision ofquite literallythe evolution of clothes. That is the express intention of this work, which aims to take the reader on a sartorial journey through womens fashion in the Western world, explored in blocks of a few years each and spanning the years 1550 to 1970. The scarce availability of extant (surviving) garments prior to 1550 means that this date has been chosen as a starting point, but there are many publications that consider dress in detail before this point. Books such as Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Daviess The Tudor Tailor offer expert reconstructions of earlier garments and a strong background to Tudor dress leading up to the era covered in the first chapter of this book. Janet Arnolds acclaimed Patterns of Fashion series starts with a look at The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women c.15601620, providing coverage of the sixteenth century through an exploration of extant garments; it is a highly recommended source of further reading.

Examples from works of art and, primarily, extant collections from some of the best (and lesser-known) museums across the world teach the reader how to anticipate and read the details of dress, thereby developing a trained eye and enhancing their enjoyment. In a few instances, painted representations have been included, but this only occurs where it has been impossible to find full examples, a particular struggle for sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century garments because only small fragments often remain. Paintings can also cause some confusion when it comes to using them as reliable historical indicators, and readers should be aware of their limitations as well as great benefits. One of the reasons why portraits can be unreliable evidence is seen in the following examples. First, consider Peter Lelys Portrait of Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth from c.1671 to 1674. The Duchess is wearing what came to be known as fashionable undress: light, flimsy garments for at home wear that, due to their suggestion of leisure, were a popular portrait costume of choice for the upper echelons of society. This fabric was pinned into shape and, while hairstyle and other accessories can be helpful confirmation of a broad time period, the actual undress itself remained similar right into the eighteenth century. Mrs. John Pigotts dress in the neighboring image is more shaped to the body in the manner of a usual gown but its wide, low dcolletage and unstructured sleeves set it apart as a piece of undress.