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THE Antique & Vintage Clothing Book List!

Discussion in 'PUBLIC Information Center - Welcome to the Forums' started by crinolinegirl, Aug 21, 2009.

  1. crinolinegirl

    crinolinegirl Alumni

    I've compiled a list of books from my book collection to share with you guys as they have helped me LOADS in dating an identifying the antique and vintage clothing items that I come across.

    It's by no means a comphrensive list and does not cover all the books currently out there on vintage but should help those new and experienced vintager's pointed in the right direction when it comes to reading material.

    Some of the books on my list are antique or out of print, so you'll have to try and find some on Ebay, Amazon or Abe Books. I did not include any ISBN numbers but you can find them on these sites by the titles.

    Some of the titles, I've cross listed in different categories as they broached different subjects.

    Some books are better than others when it comes to info but there is always something to be gleaned from them and I would take the prices listed in some of the price guides with a grain of salt as some, are well, "optimistic". :D

    Have fun browsing the list and please feel free to add your fav books on our favorite subject. :)

    I warn you though, that this list may cause you to go out and spend lots of money ;)

    Enjoy!

    Lei
     
    Deevintage and TAMARA LYNN MYERS like this.
  2. crinolinegirl

    crinolinegirl Alumni

    ***19TH CENTURY AND EDWARDIAN COSTUME:***

    1886 Bloomingdale's Illustrated Catalog (Dover reprint)

    1897 Sears Roebuck Catalog (reprint)

    1901 Eaton's Catalog (reprint)

    1908 Sears Roebuck Catalog (reprint)

    Madaleine Brant:
    -The Etquette of Dress

    K.B. Brett;
    -Women's Costume in Early Ontario
    -Women's Costume in Ontario, 1867- 1907 (Royal Ontario Museum books)

    Penelope Byrde:
    -Jane Austen Fashion

    Nancy Villa Bryk:
    -American Dress Pattern Catalogs, 1873-1909: Four Complete Reprints

    Virginia A.S. Careless:
    -Responding to Fashion, The Clothing of the O'Reilly Family (One of my FAV books about the Vancouver museum acquisition of the O'Reilly family's clothing
    along with photos of the family in the clothes, etc.)

    Eileen Collard:
    -Clothing in English Canada Circa 1867- 1907

    C. Willett Cunnington:
    -English Women's Clothing in the Nineteenth Century
    -The History of Underclothes
    -The Perfect Lady (A rare book showing clothing from the author's own collection on live models)

    Priscilla Harris Dalrymple:
    -American Victorian Costume in Early Photographs

    Alison Gernsheim:
    -Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey

    Madeleine Ginsburg:
    -Victorian Dress in Photographs

    Kristina Harris:
    -The Child in Fashion: 1750-1920
    -Victorian & Edwardian Fashions for Women, 1840-1919
    -Victorian Fashion in America: 264 Vintage Photographs

    Talbot Hughes:
    -Old English Costumes, A sequence of fashions through the 18th and 19th centuries. (A VERY rare book from the 1910's showing clothing from the V&A when it
    first opened it's costume gallery on real people. Edwardians in antique clothing, how wonderful!!!)

    O. Henry Mace:
    -Collector's Guide to Early Photographs (How to date antique photos by clothing, etc)

    Doris Langley Moore:
    -THE WOMAN IN FASHION (Fabulous book written in 1949, showing clothing dating from 1800 up to 1920 from her own
    collection shown on her celebrity friends!)

    JoAnne Olian:
    -Victorian and Edwardian Fashions from "La Mode Illustree"

    Jacqueline Beaudoin- Ross
    -Form and Fashion, Nineteenth Century Montreal Dress (McCord Museum book)

    Linda Setnik:
    -Victorian Costume for Ladies

    Catherine Smith and Cynthia Grieg:
    -Women in Pants (Fascinating history of women in the 19th century who wore trousers and why. Loaded with antique photos!)

    J.A.E Wood:
    How to Make a Dress (1897) (An original rare book on how to make a leg 'O mutton sleeve dress).
     
    pink pineapple likes this.
  3. crinolinegirl

    crinolinegirl Alumni

    ***20TH CENTURY VINTAGE FASHION:***

    Roseann Ettinger:
    -50's Popular Fashions: For Men, Women, Boys and Girls

    Ellie Laubner:
    -Collectible Fashions of the Turbulent 1930's
    -Fashions of the Roaring '20s, with values

    Caroline Rennolds Milbank:
    -New York Fashion: The Evolution of American Style

    John Peacock:
    -The Complete Fashion Sourcebook

    Jonathan Walford:
    -Forties Fashion: From Siren Suits to the New Look
    -Ready to Tear: Paper Fashions of the 60s

    Christa Weil:
    -It's Vintage Darling, How to be a clothes connoisseur


    Sears Catalog book range;
    -Everyday Fashions, 1909-1920, As Pictured in Sears Catalogs (JoAnne Olian)
    -Everyday Fashions of the Twenties as Pictured in Sears and Other Catalogs (Stella Blum)
    -Everyday Fashions of the Thirties as Pictured in Sears Catalogs (Stella Blum)
    -Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Early 1930s (Tina Skinner and Tammy Ward)
    -Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Mid 1930s (Tammy Ward)
    -Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Late 1930 (Tammy Ward and Tina Skinner)
    -Everyday Fashions of the Forties as Pictured in Sears Catalogs (JoAnne Olian)
    -Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Early 1940s (Tina Skinner and Jenna Palecko Schuck)
    -Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Mid 1940s (Tina Skinner)
    -Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Late 1940's (Tina Skinner and Lindy McCord)
    -Everyday Fashions of the Fifties As Pictured in Sears Catalogs
    (JoAnne Olian)
    -Fashionable Clothing: From the Sears Catalogs, Early 1950s (Desire Smith)
    -Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Mid 1950s (Tina Skinner)
    -Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Late 1950s (Joy Shih)
    -Everyday Fashions of the Sixties As Pictured in Sears Catalogs (JoAnne Olian, Sears Roebuck and Company)
    -Fashinonable Clothing From the Sears Catalogs Early 1960s
    (Tina Skinner)
    -Fashionable Clothing: From the Sears Catalogs - Mid 1960s (Joy Shih)
    -Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Late 1960s (Desire Smith)
    -Fashionable Clothing: From the Sears Catalogs - Early 1970s (Desire Smith)
    -Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Mid-1970s (Tina Skinner)
    -Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs : Late '70s (Tina Skinner)
    -Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs : Early 1980s
    (Tina Skinner)
    -Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Mid-1980s
    (Tina Skinner)
     
  4. crinolinegirl

    crinolinegirl Alumni

    ***ANTIQUE AND VINTAGE CLOTHING PRICE GUIDES:***

    LaRee Johnson Bruton:
    -Ladies' Vintage Accessories

    Maryanne Dolan:
    -Vintage Clothing 1880-1980: Identification and Value Guide

    Carol Harris:
    -Miller's Collecting Fashion & Accessories

    Kristina Harris:
    -Collector's Guide to Vintage Fashions: Identification and Values

    Diane Snyder-Haug:
    -Antique & Vintage Clothing: A Guide to Dating & Valuation of Women's Clothing 1850 to 1940

    Rosemary Hawthorne:
    -The Costume Collector's Companion 1890- 1990

    Kyle Husfloen:
    -Antique Trader Vintage Clothing Price Guide

    Susan Langley:
    -Vintage Hats & Bonnets 1770-1970: Identification & Values

    Ellie Laubner:
    -Collectible Fashions of the Turbulent 1930's
    -Fashions of the Roaring '20s, with values
     
  5. crinolinegirl

    crinolinegirl Alumni

    ***GENERAL HISTORY OF COSTUME AND FASHION OVER THE CENTURIES:***

    Nigel Arch and Joanna Marschner:
    Splendour At Court (A lovely book showing what was worn at court over the centuries)

    Jane Ashelford:
    -The Art of Dress: Clothes and Society 1500-1914 (National Trust museum book)

    Karen Baclawski:
    -The Guide to Historic Costume (Chock full of photos and reference numbers to clothing and accessories held in UK museums)

    Talbot Hughes:
    -Old English Costumes, A sequence of fashions through the 18th and 19th centuries. (A VERY rare book from the 1910's showing clothing from the V&A when it
    first opened it's costume gallery on real people. Edwardians in antique clothing, how wonderful!!!)

    Keith Jopp:
    -Corah of Leicester 1815- 1965 (The history of the famous knitwear company here in Leicestershire)

    Carl Kohler:
    -A History of Costume

    James Laver:
    -Costume and Fashion: A Concise History

    National Geographic, Swimsuits, 100 Years of Pictures.

    Mary Brooks Picken:
    -A Dictionary of Costume and Fashion

    Lynn Schnurnberger:
    -Let There Be Clothes

    The Kyoto Costume Institute:
    -Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Century

    Shelley Tobin, Sarah Pepper, Maragaret Willes:
    -Marriage a la Mode, Three Centuries of Wedding Dress (National Trust book)

    L.Rowland- Warne:
    -Costume (Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Guides)
     
  6. crinolinegirl

    crinolinegirl Alumni

    ***HATS, SHOES, JEWELLERY AND ACCESSORIES:***

    LaRee Johnson Bruton:
    -Ladies' Vintage Accessories

    Valerie Cumming:
    -The Visual History of Costume Accessories

    Kate Dooner:
    -Century of Handbags : The Modern Handbag for Antique Lovers

    Roseann Ettinger:
    -Handbags

    Carol Belanger Grafton:
    -Shoes, Hats and Fashion Accessories: A Pictorial Archive, 1850-1940

    Penny Proddow, Marion Fasel, Debra Healy:
    -Hollywood Jewels : Movies - Jewelry - Stars

    Susan Langley:
    -Vintage Hats & Bonnets 1770-1970: Identification & Values

    Althea MacKenzie:
    -Hats and Bonnets: From Snowshill, One of the World's Leading Collections of Costume and Accessories of the 18th and 19th Centuries
    -Shoes and Slippers: From Snowshill, One of the World's Leading Collections of Costume and Accessories of the 18th and 19th Centuries

    Alan and Gillian Meredith:
    -Buckles
    -Buttons

    Jonathan Walford:
    -The Seductive Shoe (THE BEST book on shoes from our very own VFG'er!)
     
  7. crinolinegirl

    crinolinegirl Alumni

    ***CHILDREN'S ANTIQUE & VINTAGE CLOTHING:***

    Elizabeth Ewing:
    -History of Children's Costume

    Kristina Harris:
    -The Child in Fashion: 1750-1920

    Anna MacPhail:
    -The Well-Dressed Child: Children's Clothing, 1820-1940
     
  8. crinolinegirl

    crinolinegirl Alumni

    ***LINGERIE:***


    Bonnie Holt Ambrose:
    -The Little Corset Book: A Workbook on Period Underwear

    Michael Colmer:
    -Whalebone to See-Through, A History of Body Packaging

    C. Willett Cunnington:
    -The History of Underclothes

    Elizabeth Ewing:
    -Dress and Undress: a History of Women's Underwear

    Peter Farrer:
    -Tight Lacing, A Bibliography of articles and letters concerning stays and corsets for men and women. Part 1, 1828- 1880.

    Beatrice Fontanel:
    -Support and Seduction: The History of Corsets and Bras

    Rosemary Hawthorne:
    -Bras: A Private View
    -Knickers: An Intimate Apprasial
    -Stockings and Suspenders

    David Kunzle:
    -Fashion & Fetishism: Corsets, Tight-Lacing and Other Forms of Body-Sculpture (contains adult material but interesting history!)

    Tanya Marcuse:
    -Armor and Undergarments

    Gilles Neret:
    -1000 Dessous (A wonderful pictorial history of underwear right up to the 1980's but does contain pornographic images due to the nature
    of undwear and undressing!)

    Jill Salen:
    -Corsets: Historical Patterns & Techniques

    R. L. Shep:
    -Corsets: A Visual History

    Valerie Steele:
    -The Corset: A Cultural History

    Shelley Tobin:
    -Inside Out, A Brief History of Underwear (National Trust book)

    Philip Warren:
    -Foundations of Fashion, The Symington Corsetry Collection 1860- 1990 (Leicestershire Museum book)

    Norah Waugh:
    -Corsets and Crinolines
     
  9. crinolinegirl

    crinolinegirl Alumni

    ***COSTUME CONSTRUCTION:***

    Bonnie Holt Ambrose:
    -The Little Bodice Book: A Workbook on Period Bodices
    -The Little Corset Book: A Workbook on Period Underwear

    Janet Arnold:
    -Patterns of Fashion 1: 1660-1860
    -Patterns of Fashion 2: Englishwomen's Dresses and Their Construction C.1860-1940

    Norah Waugh:
    -Corsets and Crinolines
     
  10. crinolinegirl

    crinolinegirl Alumni

    ***MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS:***

    Jane Ashelford:
    -The Art of Dress: Clothes and Society 1500-1914 (National Trust museum book)

    K.B. Brett;
    -Women's Costume in Early Ontario
    -Women's Costume in Ontario, 1867- 1907 (Royal Ontario Museum books)

    Virginia A.S. Careless:
    -Responding to Fashion, The Clothing of the O'Reilly Family (One of my FAV books about the Vancouver museum acquisition of the O'Reilly family's clothing
    along with photos of the family in the clothes, etc.)

    Jacqueline Beaudoin- Ross
    -Form and Fashion, Nineteenth Century Montreal Dress (McCord Museum book)

    The Kyoto Costume Institute:
    -Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Century

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
    -Man and The Horse (History of riding wear of the ages)

    The Museum of Costume, Assembly rooms, Bath
    -Authorised Guide

    Shelley Tobin:
    -Inside Out, A Brief History of Underwear (National Trust book)

    Shelley Tobin, Sarah Pepper, Maragaret Willes:
    -Marriage a la Mode, Three Centuries of Wedding Dress (National Trust book)

    Philip Warren:
    -Foundations of Fashion, The Symington Corsetry Collection 1860- 1990 (Leicestershire Museum book)
     
  11. crinolinegirl

    crinolinegirl Alumni

    ***RIDING & SIDE SADDLE HABITS:***

    Theo. Stephenson Browne:
    -In The Riding School, Chats with Esmerelda (1890)

    Eva Christy;
    -Modern Side Saddle Riding (1907)

    Evelyne de Faucompret:
    -La Selle et le Costume de l'Amazone a Travers Les Ages.
    (Side saddle costume and saddles across the ages)

    Mrs. Hayes:
    -The Horsewoman (1893)

    C. De Hurst:
    -How Women Should Ride (1892) (one of the most chauvenistic books on riding I have ever read but a good chapter on
    riding habits!)

    Elizabeth Karr:
    -The American Horsewoman (1884)

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
    -Man and The Horse (History of riding wear of the ages)
     
  12. Midge

    Midge Super Moderator Staff Member

    :adore: Wow, what a great list!!! Makes me want to go and spend a lot of :money: ... I love fashion history books (even just to look at).

    I'd just like to add - the book by the Kyoto Fashion Industry is fabulous - I can only recommend it! Taschen has published it in several editions, and I now have their 25th anniversary edition, two huuuuge, heavy books, but well worth the price. I love the way they present the clothes. Wonderful mannequins, and beautifully done up with all the right accessories.

    Karin
     
  13. inkedpalm

    inkedpalm Registered Guest

    Thank you! What a great compilation of research books.
     
  14. nostalgic*collections

    nostalgic*collections Registered Guest

    You are amazing! Thank you... Thank you... Thank you... :adore: :adore: :adore: :adore: :adore: :adore:
     
  15. denisebrain

    denisebrain VFG Vice President Staff Member VFG Past President

    Printing out right now... thank you Lei!!
     
  16. crinolinegirl

    crinolinegirl Alumni

    Thanks guys:wub: , I'll keep updating it as people send me their own book suggestions and I buy more books too! :D

    Lei
     
  17. poppysvintageclothing

    poppysvintageclothing VFG Board Member Staff Member VFG Past President

    Great List, Lei...thank you for taking the time to submit it. It should help our friends out on the public side!
     
  18. crinolinegirl

    crinolinegirl Alumni

    LOL, it helped me out as I forgot which books I had too! :D

    Lei
     
  19. A fantastic list!
    I have other books that I can't live without and I will list a few later.
    I do want to mention that some antique malls/co ops offer these books for sale.
     
  20. Linn

    Linn Super Moderator Staff Member VFG Past President

    I just added a few books on a new thread but do want to thank you, Lei for this great list. One of the ones I added is: "New York Fashion: The Evolution of American Style" by Caroline Rennolds Milbank.

    Linn
     

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