Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands, 1325-1515 by Anne van Buren
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I can’t say I could explain the difference between a houpeland and a cotehardie, but now I roughly know what they are. This culmination of a lfe’s work is a truly amazing book, tracing the evolution of late medieval high fashion over two centuries. Van Buren systematically analyzed the clothing In every image she could firmly date for her period. The illustrations are beautiful and the text’s illuminations bring a new dimension to pictures that might sometimes seem repetitive. It’s also interesting to see how fads and trends played out centuries ago, with lapels widening and narrowing, hemlines rising and falling and hairstyles gyrating wildly. If you’re interested in pre-renaissance art and society, this hefty tome is worth the commitment.