Historical Costuming Book Recommendations- Beginner to Advanced

Book recommendations for historical costumers from beginners to advanced. Comment down below about your favorite costuming books.

Beginner-
Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Century, Taschen- (there are many listings and versions of this book- They are all the same so get whatever is cheapest)
Vogue Sewing Book or Readers Digest Complete Guide to Sewing

Books Every Costumer should have (at some point)
Bradfield, Nancy; Costume in Detail
Waugh, Nora; Cut of Women's Clothes; Corsets and Crinolines
Arnold, Janet; Patterns of Fashion 1-5
Hunnisett, Jean: Costumes for the Stage and Screen
Shaeffer, Clarie B.; Couture Sewing Techniques, 1994 (or updated version), Taunton Press

My Personal Favorites
Revolution in Fashion 1715-1815, 1989, Abbeville Press
V&A Fashion in Detail Series
Salen, Jill; Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques, 2008, Costume and Fashion Press
Palmer, Alexandra; Christian Dior: History and Modernity 1947-1957, 2018, Royal Ontario Museum

Instagram: @costumeandconservation
TikTok: @costumeandconservation

[KaloCheyna]

A big note about the Patterns of Fashion books for those who don't know: The School Of Historical Dress is republishing the books *with colour pictures* over the next year and a bit.

[habituscraeftig]

"Seventeenth Century Women's Dress Patterns" (a two-book series) has *everything* that Waugh and Arnold are, but with step-by-step construction and beautiful x-rays of the garments, so you can see the internal layers. It makes me grateful that I am fond of the period. Absolute gold standard, for an intermediate book. I wish there were more books like this.

And for the 16th century, the Tudor Tailor is top-notch! They include so much social and economic context for everything, including percentages for how likely garments were to be made of what textiles, &c.

[CarrieLCreative]

The captions are great! Robe a la francais became rubella francais and Janet Arnold became janitor....😂

[paganodesignworks]

Thanks so much! Nice selection of ways to spend money! I stalk thrift stores, but never find books on my list.

[melsmith]

I very much appreciate the book list and wrote them all down, thanks so much!

[shelleymonson]

The V&A Fashion in Detail series also includes one on underwear, which I think you’d like! ($39.95 on Amazon.). If people are interested in 18thc costuming, two books I have found very useful are Costume Close-Up by Linda Baumgarten from Colonial Williamsburg ($25 on Amazon), and Everyday Dress of Rural America by Merideth Wright ($12.43 on Amazon). The latter particularly good if you are doing a lower-class presentation; books on lower-class costume are hard to find.

[amitafimhuolla]

Hey Margaret!
I'm so glad I found your channel as I love historical fashion and especially because I myself am soon starting my first internship in textile conservation!
I find your videos really interesting a hope that you keep uploading!!

[emilie]

I just found your channel thanks to this video and I immediately subscribed. Your content is really interesting, and useful ! I can't wait to see more of it !

[HelloVintage]

This is great! Thank you for breaking these down into such useful categories.

[starsun]

I love the way you present your videos, something about it keep me watching...
I also looove your sweater. (I love poofy knitted sweaters in general tbh.)
Thirdly, thank you for the breakdown! I'm just starting to sew historically and this was very useful for what I should have on my radar for what I can afford.
I need to start making a goal list...

[wadenyoost]

Excellent informative video. You are quite knowledgeable but also pleasant and personable to watch. Thank you for this. Keep up the great work.

[kathyroseking]

I appreciated and really liked this video. Thank you for sharing your collection.

[seaboemuffinchucker]

Since you like museum books, may I recommend you look for Lions of Fashion, which is Scandinavian men's fashion. I was also interested to realize I have most of the books you recommended (I have all of Jean Hunnisett; you're too young to remember, but she ran the BBC's costume shop for years; she didn't design the costumes, she built them).

[messenger]

Mu issue is finding books on men's garmets from the late 19th century.

[zechariahsanders]

This is an informative video, but if you ever get a chance, remastering it probably wouldn't hurt. The music at the start was so loud it hurt, and when you started talking you were so quiet I had to increase my speaker volume almost to max. Not an issue with the information provided, just sound mixing issues, otherwise great vid!!

[Diniecita]

What would you recommend for the transitional period between Georgian and regency? I LOVE that look after/before either major style.