DRESS DESIGN.
Dress Design. By Talbot Hughes. Illustrated by the Author. (John Hogg. Is. Gd. net.)—This is a new volume of "The Artistic Crafts Series of Technical Handbooks," edited by Mr. W. R. Lethaby, who in a short general pre- face discusses " the blending of handwork and thought." Mr. Talbot Hughes treats his subject in a practical manner. "A special feature," he says, "has been made of supplying the maim or designer of dress with actual proportions and patterns, shaped from antique dreamt se far back as they could be obtained." Many of the costumes on which this book has been founded were collected by the author, exhibited at Messrs. Harrods, and then "presented to the Victoria and Albert Museum as a gift to the nation by the directors of that firm." Those interested in the designing of dress will therefore be able to refer for information to the actual costumes, as well as to the clear descriptions and excellent and numerous collotype and diagrammatic illus- trations inthia book. Prehistoric dress is shortly passed over, and there seems but little that can be fully described until after the tenth century. The author believes that " the purest beauty is found in the simple forms of dress and decoration from the twelth to the fifteenth centuries." He not only gives descriptions and pictures of complete dresses, both male and female, but also of such accessories as boots and shoes, headdresses, waistcoats, and even aprons. This inter- esting and useful little book takes us down to early Victorian times, and ends with a " detailed list of scaled patterns " and an index.
Previous page
