18th Century Fashion

Updated September 14, 2025
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18th-century fashion in detail
North, Susan
Paper Book
This beautifully illustrated book reveals sharp pleats, high collars, gleaming pastes, colorful beads, elaborate buttons, and intricate lacework that make up some of the garments in the Victoria and Albert Museum's extensive fashion collection. With an authoritative text, exquisite color...
Authentic Victorian fashion patterns : a complete lady's wardrobe
Harris, Kristina.
Paper Book
Imported custom-made clothes were usually beyond the financial reach of the average middle-class American woman of a century ago; and store-bought garments were often of inferior quality. This left many women with the options of making their own clothes or hiring a seamstress. While a number...
Ballets russes : the art of costume
Bell, Robert
Paper Book
The Ballets Russes has engaged people for 100 years, ever sinceRussian-born Sergei Diaghilev created this dynamic avant-garde company.Diaghilev brought together some of the most important visual artists ofthe 20th century to work as costume and stage designers and workwith composers,...
Corsets : historic patterns and techniques
Salen, Jill.
Paper Book
Progressing through almost two centuries of corset-making, this fascinating collection showcases an astonishing range of period pieces, from the 1750 whale-boned corsets, through the invention of the sewing machine and mass-produced corsets of the 1850s to the makeshift corsets of World War I.<...
Corsets and crinolines
Waugh, Norah
Paper Book
In this classic book, Norah Waugh explores the changing shapes of women's dress from the 1500s to the 1920s. Simple laced bodices became corsets of cane, whalebone and steel, while padding at shoulders and hips gave way to the structures of farthingales, hoops and bustles. Corsets and...
Dangerous liaisons : fashion and furniture in the eighteenth century
Koda, Harold.
Paper Book
During the reigns of Louis XV (1723-74) and Louis XVI (1774-92), fashion and furniture were not simply meant to be beautiful but were also intended to arouse, attract, and seduce.  Published in response to the critically acclaimed and hugely popular exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum in...
Fashion from the 18th to the 20th century : the Kyoto Costume Institute : Fashion from the eighteenth to the twentieth century
Paper Book
Three centuries of women's clothing Founded in 1978, the Kyoto Costume Institute holds one of the world's most extensive clothing collections and has curated many exhibitions worldwide. Showcasing highlights from the Institute's archives of skilled photographs depicting the clothing expertly...
Seventeenth and eighteenth-century fashion in detail
Hart, Avril.
Paper Book
Now available from Abrams, this popular book offers a rare, close-up look at the exquisite, labor-intensive details seen in fine historical clothing. Perfect decorative seams, minute stitching, knife-sharp pleats, and voluptuous drapery-all are here, alongside more unusual techniques such as...
Fashion in European art : dress and identity, politics and the body, 1775-1925
Young, Justine de
Ebook
Fashion reveals not only who we are, but whom we aspire to be. From 1775 to 1925, artists in Europe were especially attuned to the gaps between appearance and reality, participating in and often critiquing the making of the self and the image. Reading their portrayals of modern life with an eye...
Fashioning fashion : European dress in detail, 1700-1915
Takeda, Sharon
Paper Book
Luxurious textiles, exacting tailoring, and lush trimmings abound in this glorious volume that celebrates the evolution of European dress through two centuries. Fashion is in the details. The textiles, tailoring, and trimmings all work together in the creation of the finest pieces. Drawing on...
A Handbook of costume drawing : A Guide to drawing the period figure for costume design students
Baker, Georgia O'Daniel.
Paper Book
Illustrates and describes the dominant male and female costume silhouettes for major historical periods ranging from Egyptian dynasties through the 1960s. Important details, including head and footwear, hair styles, shoulder shapes, waist, hem and necklines, are detailed to maximize...
Patterns of fashion 1 : Englishwomen's dresses & their construction c.1660-1860
Arnold, Janet.
Paper Book
The first of four volumes of Patterns of Fashions written and illustrated by Janet Arnold that together form an indispensable core collection for any costume designer, for theatre film or reenactments.Patterns of Fashion 1 focuses on Englishwomen's dresses and their construction form 1660 up to 1860...
Period costume for stage & screen : patterns for women's dress 1500-1800 : Period costume for stage and screen
Hunnisett, Jean.
Paper Book
Period costume for stage & screen. Patterns for women's dress, 1500-1800
Hunnisett, Jean.
Paper Book
Stays and corsets : historical patterns translated for the modern body
Barrington, Mandy
Paper Book
Stays and Corsets: Historical Patterns Translated for the Modern Body goes a step beyond traditional historical costuming texts by not only providing you with historical pattern diagrams and information, but by showing you how to adapt these patterns to the contemporary body shape. Using her...
Stays and corsets : historical patterns translated for the modern body / Volume 2
Barrington, Mandy
Paper Book
In this second volume of Stays and Corsets, Mandy Barrington continues to create historical patterns for a modern body shape. This book contains all new corset patterns with a range of silhouettes that span over 300 years, from the late 16th century to the early 20th century. The corset...
Victorian fashions and costumes from Harper's Bazaar 1867-1898 : Harper's Bazaar
Blum, Stella.
Paper Book
Day costumes, evening wear, sports clothes, shoes, hats, other accessories in over 1,000 detailed engravings. Very thorough identification of styles, materials, colors by editor. "An endlessly entertaining book." -- "Theatre Design and Technology,"

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