Carol Belanger GraftonVictorian Fashions: A Pictorial Archive, 965 Illustrations (Dover Pictorial Archive)

This book was just what I was looking for! I wanted some visual illustrations of Victorian fashion after having found plenty of books with some images, but lots more written detail about Victorian style, clothing trends, and changes as time passed to those trends. This book was perfect. It's literally just a book of images of Victorian clothing -- dresses. undergarments, shoes, fans... You name it, it's in this book. Now, the fashions are all female-oriented, which isn't explicitly spelled out in the blurb, and I'd love to see a male fashion version of the book, or an edition with both female and male fashions represented, but this is a great start on what I was looking for to widen my visual encyclopedia of Victorian fashion. The pages are simply all images -- gowns, shoes, etc, tucked into the pages as they fit. There are no dates, locations, or any categorization of the pictures, as that's not what this book is about. The images themselves are greyscale, but they're printed clearly and crisply and show detail with precision. I'm very happy to have found this book, and it'll definitely be a reference I'll use frequently for inspiration!

This is a fantastic collection of JUST illustrations, in wonderful detail and in Victorian pen/ink drawing style.This is a great resource for the following users:Any surface designers: these illustrations can be scanned in, recolored and used in a variety of surface and product designsWriters: a great visual reference to describe characters' clothing in gothic novels or short storiesFashion Design students: as reference, an idea source on design details or to practice sketchingScrapbookers/crafters: a variety of projects, my favorite being scanning in at high resolution, enlarging in any design software and doing a heat transfer on canvas to create Pottery barn/Anthropologie style pillowsCostume Designers; great reference for any theatrical production of this period, with tons of ideas.Web designers: a huge collection of images for any websites that call for a vintage feel - boutiques, collectors, restaurants and events.I do wish that this book had a CD-Rom included, but its not really a big deal - I find that i do not even use the scanner to import the images most of the time, but snap a picture with my phone and upload it.This book as exactly as the title describes: illustrations. I think that some of the 1 and 2 star reviews on this item are unfair with complains about the lack of descriptions or exact historical references.It is JUST illustrations, and anyone seeking a more informative resource should do more research about the item, rather than leave bad reviews.

Every student of 19th-century fashion needs to have six books from Dover Publications in his or her library:- Victorian Fashions and Costumes from 'Harper's Bazar', Stella Blum;- Victorian and Edwardian Fashions from La Mode Illustree, Joanne Olian;- Wedding Fashions 1860-1912, Joanne Olian;- Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey, Alison Gernsheim;- English Women's Clothing in the Nineteenth Century, C. Willett Cunnington;- and this book.Carol Grafton's book is really more of an assemblage of pictures for illustrators than anything else, but what pictures! Over 900 B&W drawings lovingly display every little detail of the elaborate costumes of the Victorian and early Edwardian eras from the mid-1850's to 1903. This book doesn't have much in the way of text so it's not as comprehensive a research resource as some of the others that I've mentioned, but as an auxiliary resource to the other books on the above list, it's perfect.

I would rank this book just behind Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazar, 1867-1898 (Dover Pictorial Archives) by Stella Blum and Full-Color Victorian Fashions : 1870-1893 by JoAnne Olian. If you have to be selected go with the first two before this one, but I still highly recommend this to round out the collection. More than 900 very detailed crisp drawing from the marvelous people at Dover Publishing again. They bring you inexpensive books that are a wealth of information, writers of period romance just cannot live without.

Great book, great delivery. Thanks for getting it here so fast. I am using it over and over as I build my collection of Victorian doll clothes. I would be going crazy if I had to do all the research myself. Thanks again.

If you are like me and you can create a outfit just by looking at a picture then this is the book for you, The pictures are clear and detailed, there are no actual pictures it is all illustrations what a wealth of ideas and variations

Great book for anyone interested in the Victorian Era. My 15 year old Grand Daughter is one of these people - she was thrilled with the gift and happily sketching the costumes.

I like the book but it is literally just a picture book. There are no explanatinos or catergories, the book only has the years on the bottom of the pages. But other wise fun to look at.