Dressing the Past [Paperback]

Minoan ladies, Scythian warriors, Roman and Sarmatian merchants, prehistoric weavers, gold sheet figures, Vikings, Medieval saints and sinners, Renaissance noblemen, Danish peasants, dressmakers and Hollywood stars appear in the pages of this anthology. This is not necessarily how they dressed in the past, but how the authors of this book think they dressed in the past, and why they think so. No reader of this book will ever look at a reconstructed costume in a museum or at a historical festival, or watch a film with a historic theme again without a heightened awareness of how, why, and from what sources, the costumes were reconstructed. The seventeen contributors come from a variety of disciplines: archaeologists, historians, curators with ethnological and anthropological backgrounds, designers, a weaver, a conservator and a scholar of fashion in cinema, are all specialists interested in ancient or historical dress who wish to share their knowledge and expertise with students, hobby enthusiasts and the general reader. The anthology is also recommended for use in teaching students at design schools.

Introduction by the Editors
Haute Couture in the Bronze Age: A History of Minoan Female Costumes from Thera (Marie-Louise B Nosch)
You are What You Wear: Scythian Costume as Identity (Margarita Gleba)
"On the Borders of East and West": A Reconstruction of Roman Provincial and Barbarian Dress in the Hungarian National Museum (Ilona Hendzsel, Eszter Istvánovits, Valéria Kulcsár, Dorottya Ligeti, Andrea Óvari and Judit Pásztòkai-Sze?ke)
A Weaver's Voice: Making Reconstructions of Danish Iron Age Textiles (Anna Nørgaard)
Iconography and Costume from the Late Iron Age in Scandinavia (Ulla Mannering)
Tools, Textile Production and Society in Viking Age Birka (Eva B Andersson)
Spotlight on Medieval Scandinavian Dress: Sources and Interpretations (Kathrine Vestergaard Pedersen)
Tailored Criticism: The Use of Renaissance and Baroque Garments as Sources of Information (Cecilia Aneer)
Costume in a Museological Context: Dealing with Costume and Dress from Modern Danish History (Tove Engelhardt Mathiassen and Helle Leilund)
Cut, Stitch and Fabrics: Female Dress in the Past 200 Years (Maj Ringgaard)
Ancient Female Costume from Silent Cinema to Hollywood Glamour (Annette Borrell)
Timeline (Agnete Wisti Lassen)

"An excellent resource... an enjoyable and useful starting point to understanding dress in the past with sufficient scope to open up the subject in a broad and thoughtful manner."
Cambridge Archaeological Journal
Cambridge Archaeological Journal

"The natural market for this collection is the one it was created for: students of costume history and design, beginning their exposure to historic scholarship and as interested in the process as the finished product... a model for the presentation of focused, technical information to a general readership, combining scholarly rigor and careful methodology with an approachable style and respect for the nontechnical reader."
Medieval Clothing & Textiles
Medieval Clothing & Textiles

"One of the first books to look in detail at reconstructing the clothing of the past and is a good introduction to this vast and very varied topic."
Costume
Costume