Vintage Pix | Bookstore - Costume and Fashion

	Dressed for the Photographer: Ordinary Americans and Fashion, 1840-1900 by Joan Severa This book is well worth the cost, especially for people like me who have a hard time understanding clothing by looking at fashion plates. There are 272 photographs, organized chronologically with detailed descriptions of the clothing shown, including fabric types. Severa also discusses the trends for women's and men's clothing in each decade and covers a range of social and ethnic groups.
No image available (out-of-print)	Men and Women: Dressing the Part edited by Claudia Brush Kidwell and Valerie Steele I really love this book. It's a companion book of essays to "Men and Women: A History of Costume, Gender, and Power," an exhibition that ran at the National Museum of American History (Smithsonian Institution) from 1989 into the early 1990s. The essays cover everything from how the "ideal" human shape has changed over time to why the color pink is associated with girls' clothes and blue with boys'.
	Men & Women: A History of Costume, Gender, & Power by Barbara Clark Smith and Kathy Peiss I don't actually have a copy of this, but I seem to remember that this smaller booklet follows the exhibition's labels and images more closely. So if you can't find a copy of Kidwell and Steele's book, you can at least buy this!
	American Victorian Costume in Early Photographs by Priscilla Harris Dalrymple This is a nice inexpensive (for the amount of images) collection of photographs of ordinary Americans. A good beginning reference if you can't afford the Severa book above.
	Victorian & Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey by Alison Gernsheim This focusses more on British costume among the upper crust (i.e. the high fashion of royalty and the theatre set).
	Who Wore What?: Women's Wear 1861-1865 by Juanita Leisch Written as a resource for Civil War reenactors, this book examines components of women's costume, including parts of the dress, hairstyles, jewelry, etc., with lots of period photographs to illustrate.
	Fashions & Costumes from Godey's Lady's Book: Eight Plates in Full Color edited by Stella Blum This covers 1837-1869, a period for which I have few photographs, but I had to buy it to have a complete span of Dover books! I must admit that I have a hard time making the jump from fashion illustrations to the actual clothing worn by people in the photographs I collect, but I suppose every costume library must have references going back to the sources of inspiration that ordinary women might turn to when clothing themselves.
	Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazar: 1867-1898 edited by Stella Blum One thousand illustrations (b&w) and detailed descriptions reprinted from the magazine with Blum's text about the changes in the ideal woman's shape. I am far from the point where I can identify the fashion trends from year to year, but this is a good reference to help me on my way.
	Everyday Fashions, 1909-1920, as Pictured in Sears Catalogs edited by JoAnne Olian What can I say? The book contains a selection of fashion illustrations for women, men, and children, including special sections on hats, shoes, and other accessories.
	Everyday Fashions of the Twenties as Pictured in Sears & Other Catalogs edited by Stella Blum Much the same as above, but this volume includes some use of advertising photography, including film star Clara Bow modelling her own line of hats.
	Fashions of the Roaring '20s by Ellie Laubner I really like this book and finally bought my own copy after borrowing it several times from a friend. Unlike many books on vintage clothing I have seen, Laubner uses plenty of historical photographs and advertisements along with tasteful color photos of the actual costumes and accessories displayed either on dress forms or against plain backgrounds. The book is also well-organized, with special chapters on hair styles and hats, shoes, jewelry, etc. (Schiffer publications have excellent photographs.)
	Vintage Clothing 1880-1980: Identification & Value Guide by Maryanne Dolan After buying some old dresses at an auction, I finally broke down and bought a clothing collector's price guide. I've avoided this before because I can't stand the tacky photos of the authors and their friends posing in the vintage clothing that seem to illustrate all the guides I've seen. This one makes up for that by having a good selection of historical photos and advertisements as well.
	Let There Be Clothes: 40,000 Years of Fashion from Cro-Magnon to Lacroix by Lynn Schnurnberger The back cover blurb describes this as "A Century-By-Century Romp Through Civilization's Wardrobe, Manners, and Trends," and that's a fairly accurate assessment. It is definitely a romp, not a serious study, and can be rather annoying in its overenthusiastic layout design, but where else would you find a picture of Princess Leia in a discussion of the 1830s hairstyle "spaniel's ears" or silly puns like "Of Corset Matters"?
No image available (out of print)	Common Threads: A Parade of American Clothing by Lee Hall (link to Amazon.com benefits the Republic of Pemberley) An overview of clothing in America from Native Americans at the time of English settlement to rock star fashions of the 1980s, the book has a good collection of drawings and photographs. Hall also discusses major trends in American costume, such as mass manufacture, sports and youth cultures, the western frontier, and the Roaring Twenties. I think it was overpriced at its original price of $50, but I got it for half that on a publisher's remainder sale somewhere.
No image available (out of print)	Stereotypes: Ethnic Photographs of the Nineteenth Century: A Book of Postcards This is an interesting collection of thirty photographs taken in the 1860s and 1870s to illustrate various "types" of ethnic costumes from that of an Indian child bride to Welsh women in their traditional hats and shawls. Pomegranate Artbooks published these as a book of postcards that you can tear out and send.

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