best books...on vintage clothing and accessorries..

cooltriker

cooltriker

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since i have re-discovered my vintage passion.......

i am eager to learn ...more.. and find out info...etc......

i have bought some books recently....... some have been good...and some ...well have .just been pure......basic.... even by a new person standard......

so i was hopeing that maybe..... you could share your.....info.. on books.....

what they were called.... what did they cover..... and honestly did you find them a great source of information.....

whether they are about shoes....( cant wait for johnathan's book in march )

designers.......accessories.... certain era's in fashion etc....



i have one book...that i bought recently on abebooks.....its called the norvic century.......and its about the company that became howlett and white..... and the norvic group.... which is now lotus shoes..... but the book was written up to the second world war......

i bought the book after i had the shoes from the auction...so i could have a bit of background info on the companies.....

which i found really interesting.......and now i have finished reading.... so i am on the look out now for another interesting...fact finding book on vintage clothing and accessories....
 
just found a great new SHOE history book...but must go and find the details, just be a mo!!!
 
Vintage Hats and Bonnets by Langley
Ladies Vintage Accessories by Burton
The "everyday fashions from the pages of Sears" series is good for those common items

Oh, and old magazines like Life or Look are good, just for ad images of clothing and pictures of people in their daily wardrobes
 
Do NOT buy - Valuable Vintage by Elizabeth Mason. A waste of money and a treasure-trove of misinformation!

There are lots of really great books. I'll post my short list later.
 
I'll add the John Peacock books to Lizzies list of waste of money books.

There was a hat book Jonathan mentioned as being bunk, too, Norma Shephard's 1000 Hats.

It's just as important to know what NOT to buy!
 
Oh, yes, Deborah....those old sewing books can come in handy for defining cuts and shapes (ie: princess, dollman, shift). I've heard the Vogue sewing book is quite good.
 
i have a load of sitchcraft magazines.... going back to late 40's early 50's.....right up to the early 70's . bought them in an auction for a £1...along with some cartoon books which i sold on ebay.......

so if anyone wants to borrow some of a specific year or era... i will gladly lend them to you.....
 
I have to admit I get most of my costume knowledge from original period magazines: L'Officiel, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar for example are great for understanding what the nth degree of high fashion is -- then all you need are the mail order catalogues to understand what the everyday low end of fashion was that was available. Between the two you get a really good understanding of fashion in reality.

I also find that museum catalogues are fantastic because they often have the best examples of extant clothing available, although they tend to go too edgy for post 1970 clothes in most cases -- showing only the extreme fashions of haute couture that was often purchased from or donated by the desisgner and never actually ever worn, which in my books makes it costume, not fashion.
 
Am with you on the Vogue etc. Jonathan. My favourite book to browse through when I am bored is In Vogue (pub about 1979?) - Six Decades of Fashion by Georgina Howell.

Lots of gorgeous prints from each year of the magazine with little runway reports etc. and lovely high fashion 20c stuff! It's not comprehensive but certainly useful in letting you know what Vogue thought was 'hot' that particular year.
 
Speaking of mail order catalogs - many of the very early Sears catalogs are now published as bound books. I think its "everyday fashions of the (decade) as seen in the Sears catalog. Most Libraries at least have the earlier decades.
 
[/i]I'm another vintage fashion magazine lover! I never pass them up when I find them.

Okay - book list:

New York Fashion Caroline Rennolds Milbank - This book is probably the best over-all book for US Designer fashion. Lot of pictures, and lots of information.

The Cutting Edge Amy de la Haye - British Fashion, 1947-97. Very good, and probably of more use to a UK reader than the Milbank book.

The St. James Fashion Encyclopedia Richard Martin, ed. As the name implies, this is an encyclopedia of designers. It starts in 1945.

Fashion The Kyoto Costume Institute. Incredible photos.

Who's Who in Fashion Stegemeyer, Anne, Fairchild Publications. There have been quite a few editions of this book, dating back to 1980. All are valuable.

California Casual and California Couture Maureen Reilly. Great books with information I've found nowhere else, but no index makes them hard to use

The Collector's Book of Fashion Frances Kennett. An oldie but goodie. This is really the only good book I have ever seen on collecting fashion, as opposed to fashion history.

Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Fashion Georgina O'Hara Callan. A good, basic reference.

A bit more specialized:

Radical Rags Joel Lobenthal. The best book I know of on 60s fashion.

Claire McCardell: Redefining Modernism Kohle Yohannan and Nancy Nolf.

Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House YearsHamish Bowles. I love this book. It has photograph of the garments in the JFK Library collection, paired with period photos of Mrs. Kennedy wearing the garment. AND details of who and how the dress was made.
 
thanks fuzzylizzie for the list of books and your thoughts on them.....

will be checking a few of them out...

i have come across this book on play.com

antique trader.......vintage clothing price guide.......by

kyle husfloen........


its says... 1.200 detailed colour photos.....

price and identification on over 2.500 items.....

i think it was published this year.......

has anyone got this... or seen this book......? ..

what do you think....? is it a good ref.. book for general vintage wear.... etc...

as i have said in other posts.....i need to find out price guides for certain items.....as i must admit i do not pay alot for stuff......
 
I have the Antique Trader Vintage Clothing Price Guide, found it as a discount book stall at a antique fair so check around before paying full price as it has been out long enough now to filter down to the bargain book sellers.

I do like reading it but I would take the prices in it with a grain of salt (as you should with most price guides anyways) but this one isn't nearly as bad as some I've seen. Somethings, I feel are VERY undervalued in the book, like Regency gowns and corsets while others like white cotton Edwardian lingerie gowns are rediculously high BUT the author does make the point in the book that prices will reflect different regions as some things are more desirable/rare in certain areas than others.
Also too, there are a few misdated antique things (not by a few years but by decades) but the vintage clothing looks to be correct in the dating. Maybe the author doesn't have much experience with antique things.

By all means buy it as it is an enjoyable read, I like looking at it and it does give a good approximate prices of what things tend to go for and gives a good wide range of eras to look at but don't rely on it to be the only thing that guides you when pricing.

DO NOT buy any Mary Ann Dolan books, the pictures are grainy, blurry black and white and is full of misdated, ill presented and bizarre pricings of things. If you find one cheap at a used book shop (under $5) buy it for the entertainment factor but just ignore what she says in the book.

The Kyoto Costume Institute books are EXCELLENT refernce books!

Lei
 
hi.... thanks lei......the antique trader fashion price guide book.... will prob.. be on my want list then.........

as you say take the prices with a pinch of salt......i think the best way i am going to get a better guide for pricing is to go to some vintage fairs etc.......
 
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