On Friday 22 February 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In a message dated 2/22/2008 9:06:53 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > http://jessamynscloset.com/badbooks.html > > > > *************** > > She lists > > "Braun and Schneider. Historic Costume in Pictures" > > I'm sorry but I love this book. However, I also know it's from the 1840's. > [You can clearly see it in the silhouettes of the women's clothes...in any > period] This makes it kinda fun, especially when they do the Orient. And I > love the Nationalistic costumes...which are indeed costumes. I think it's > worth having. But no one in their right mind would consider it a > completely accurate history.
There are definitely reasons to have some of these "bad" books (as she said, Robin Netherton collects them as evidence of different types of misconceptions about the costume of earlier periods that have infected the accepted "knowledge" across the history of costume research). I don't detest Peacock, for example, because though he can't draw period silhouettes with great accuracy his timeline books give a useful general idea of types of change over time--particularly if you are already familiar with period styles from period art and other sources. The biggest generalization I would make about the "bad" books is that they should not be given as a first, second, or third book to beginners, because they tend to give people the wrong mindset and other kinds of wrong ideas about historic costume and costume research. I was fortunate in that the first costume history books I encountered were the ones written by the Cunningtons. They use redrawings, true, but they're reasonably faithful redrawings, usually with indications of what the original source is, and they are steeped in the idea that period art should be a first stop in attempting to learn about period costume. -- Cathy Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "You affect the world by what you browse."-- Tim Berners-Lee _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
