The Complete Fashion Sourcebook

John Peacock

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This handbook for costume studies shows the changes in fashion development from the 1920s to the 1980s, with drawings to provide an overview of the fashion silhouette for each year, bibliographical references and designers’ curriculum vitae. An indispensable reference book.

Review

This handbook on costume by the costume expert, John Peacock, illustrates the changes in the development of fashion during the 20th century - from the 1920s until the 1980s - in some detail. The subdivision into seven chronological sections is aligned with the relevant decades, and each section differentiates between everyday fashion, eveningwear, sportswear and leisurewear, lingerie & underwear, housedresses, wedding fashion and accessories, both for women and for men.
This volume also contains drawings that provide overviews of the developments of the fashion silhouette for each year (!), information on the designers themselves and bibliographic references for each decade. The latter do not only include books, but also magazines and catalogues.
This reference work is a must for anyone, who, either wants or needs to gain an accurate understanding of certain chronological periods of the past century. Peacock’s handbooks are equally popular among theatre costume designers, fashion historians, fashion students and fashion enthusiasts. It is a publication for clothing designers, who need to know about the function of collars and hat shapes, for example. The book is tailored to a British audience, but it also incorporates examples from the fashion centres Paris and Milan.

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