Carol Belanger GraftonShoes, Hats and Fashion Accessories: A Pictorial Archive, 1850-1940 (Dover Pictorial Archive)

A lot of fun to read with friends

This book has sooo much inspiration in it. Wonderful collection of antique drawings. Anyone who is into historical costume making neeeeeds to buy this!

I bought this book to help me date old family photos from the 1800's through early 1900's (hats are great for dating photos). The pages are dated with the fashion years, so it was very helpful that way. I only wish someone had labeled the items with the style names. Still, a fascinating and educational journey into vintage fashion, and a helpful resource for genealogists and people curious about those old pictures in the trunk in the attic.

I was expecting some context to go along with the illustrations... But no, it's just a fancy version of a magazine collage. No labels. No scaling. No information.What magazine did this clip come from? It's that a collar,a bracelet, or a belt? Is there a difference in use/occasion/function between these 20 pairs of shoes for this year? Why is there a single picture of a man wearing a hat when everything else in the book is women's shoes, hats, and accessories?Nothing. Just some slightly confusing line drawings tossed haphazardly onto a few pages.

This book is exactly what it claims to be - a pictorial archive. For descriptions or details, Dover has a wide selection of books that will be of immense help with materials, construction, and history. For those who already have a working knowledge of the century in fashion, this book is a candy store of visual tidbits.Just a note: very few fashion illustrations of the nineteenth century were colored; hand-coloring was a labor-intensive process reserved for high-end publications with limited runs. Check my Listmania list for some books with color illustrations.

Spectacular reference for period accoutrements

I have bought a lot of Dover over the years and it never disappoints.

There is a great need for reference material of the past. particularly the 1900`s through 50`s. This publication had some good illustrations but there were no references as to source, just a time period and thus only of general backgroud reference. . I also found that many of the images were common available images elsewhere. The low price made the purchase an acceptable member of my reference library even if it be only for tracking down better information from other more detailed resources of the images that were shown. Phillip Nutt

Really good book even if it is only black and white. The variety of pictures will be extremely useful as reference material.

Would have liked this book in colour or partial colour as some of the detail I think is not quite clear enough. I am looking at it from the point of view of recommending this book to my students for research purposed.

Excellent book

Fonte di ispirazione per molti tatuaggi tradizionale. Ottimi dettagli e un sacco di immagini da poter utilizzare, un bello spunto per chi vuole disegnare.

immagini belle, varie ed accurate. consigliato a chi disegna, chi inventa cose creative ed a chi ama sognare. lo ricomprerei.