Karen Bowman (1)

This book provides a brief (and extremely selective) historical review of the stranger (as well as outrageous, ridiculous and hazardous) fashions of European (mostly British) clothing (mostly women's) from Roman times to post WW2 era. The book is short, entertaining, amusingly written, with illustrations, but does have a few errors. The book also lacks a cohesive narrative, left our some of the more outrageous European (and "rest of the world") fashions and could have done with better diagrams to illustrate some of the more obscure fashions. The book also completely fails to mention underwear, other than the corset. In short, amusing for an afternoon lark when the brain isn't functioning well enough to pay attention to anything serious and you want to giggle at some of the silly things people wore in the name of fashion.… (altro)

This is a hilarious account of fashion trends throughout history. It is well researched and the illustrations were wonderful, although they aren't as easy to see on an original kindle. My concern was that fashion trends like corsets were thrust on women by men's desires, but I soon found out that even the most outrageous, uncomfortable and dangerous fashion trends were established and indeed embraced by women worldwide. I also found out that some of men's fashion choices were equally bizarre and unheard of.… (altro)