Guest Author - Norma Shephard

“Vintage Fashion, collecting and wearing designer classics,” is a handy reference for the costumer, collector, and vintage fashion enthusiast with an interest in 20th century styles for women. This book has been on my shelf since 2006 and I have no plans to eliminate it from my library. I refer to it often, as it provides a detailed examination of garment structure, color, textile, embellishment, and inspiration. Whether I am researching a new acquisition—a vintage fashion treasure brought home from a shopping expedition—or setting up the sewing machine to recreate a period costume, I like to consult this work, particularly for its textile illustrations.

Vintage fashions, iconic of each fashion decade, are presented in chronological order documenting the evolutions in silhouette, color, graphic design, and accessorization that defined women’s wear from the Belle Epoque to the 1980s. A glossary of fashion terms and designers assists those new to costume collecting, and a shopping guide directs enthusiasts to a selection of international boutiques, fashion museums, costume societies and guilds.

Four writers —Kate Mulvey, Emma Baxter-Wright, Karen Clarkson, and Sarah Kennedy—explore the fashion classics, and rarities of the past century, providing the reader with understanding of the social factors and cultural elements that influenced costume design from the close of the Victorian era, through the dress reform movement, the flapper age, war time restrictions, the New Look, the Utility fashions of war time, post war luxury, space age designs, to glam, and disco and punk.

Each segment is dedicated to a particular decade, providing an overview of that historic period along with a discussion of design influences, textiles, silhouettes, and ornamentation appropriate to the various garments. Over 250 beautifully shot, full color photographs enable readers to enjoy museum quality examples of fine vintage costumes they might never see firsthand. Sidebars revealing information such as signature period elements provide a quick reference for costumers and collectors to identify found treasures or authentically recreate favorite pieces.

The book pays homage to the great fashion and textile designers of the twentieth century explains Zandra Rhodes, who has written the foreword to this book. Rhodes uses endearing terms to describe the vintage costume artifacts it contains. She invites readers to learn from the past, “taking what we like from fashions that have gone before” or wear clothes in “different ways than they were intended.” She expresses the hope that many of these “twentieth-century “survivors” will be “magically framed” and preserved for posterity. A noble wish indeed.