What People Wore: 1,800 Illustrations from Ancient Times to the Early Twentieth Century (Dover Fashion and Costumes)

Pretty good condition but a bit wornSize is pretty good and i love the interesting silhouette of each time period and design

I have been looking for this costume book forever. I used to check it out when I was in high school every few weeks. It has so many drawings from so many times. My only caution is for parents: there are a few women's costumes that, though I believe are accurate, are also bare chested. Other than that, after years of looking I am thrilled to have my best costuming friend back in my life. The wide period range has been fabulous for costuming!

Not what I thought, based on cover and did not have inside views. Bought it anyway since Dover books are usually clean line art. CONS: These are sketchy, dotty small (for the most part) ink drawings done by one artist from paintings. Not useful at all by my husband who incorporates line art into his paintings. Not useful to me as a fashion reference either. PROS: This is one illustrator's tour de force as he spend days, weeks, months sketching from reference material. Truly not worth the money.

Great reference for costumer or sketches of period clothing. I checked it out from the library and loved it and had to buy myself a copy to keep.

Very Good! Pro Examiner.

I really don't believe the good reviews on this book. When I received the book, I thought it couldn't be true. There are lots of pictures, actually only pictures, yes, but they're drawn in such a way that even if they were all accurate re-drawings from primary sources, you cannot figure out how the garment looked. The drawings look like a very poorly done line drawings, with nothing clear - lots of lines that give a flat picture with no details. Besides, as the book covers such a large era, it gives only few pictures for each period and the pictures given are often not very typical for that time. Even Peacock is better than this. In the back, however, is a list of sources the pictures were re-drawn from, so you could actually go and check the accuracy. I do not recommend this book to anyone unless someone who has absolutely no clue about costume history and does not care about watching at nice pictures and seeing details.

This book focuses almost completely on European styles, with an exception for ancient Egypt. I was really hoping to use this for some 15th-century Incan / Mesoamerican reference, but this book doesn't even include anything close.

In fashion, it is best to understand the history behind the concept of clothing. Where did such items originate, where do they have a place in today's fashion time line?Where one should understand the names of designer and what lead them to fame, one should also understand the history behind the clothing, in both MALE & FEMALE gender. Otherwise you end up with those cast off mock ups of mass produced clothing that end up on the racks in generic stores that when you see them, you think - "What WERE they THINKING when they made this?"I bought this book as reference and resources that when I felt in the need to dive deeper into history at my own pace, this would give me insight to what others wore and when.Whether you use this from the fashion respect, or whether you need to have a visual to write your next novel. It matters not.My book now holds homage to the art of fashion in my study with my others. Well worth the price and the time to research it.

Great book, great illustrations, shame they are all in black and white. Major historical events / condensed timeline ends every chapter. Worth reading, good for fashion history students