Re: [h-cost] "Cutting for All!" [long]
I've had _Cutting for All_ since it was published, and have corresponded briefly with Kevin Seligman about it. My friend Robb Shep (R. L. Shep books on costuming) was also involved in the project, and has discussed it with me. Kevin Seligman had a large personal collection of works on costuming, most of which which he has since donated to the library at the LA County Museum of Arts. This bibliography is partly based on his collection, and partly on books sold by Robb Shep during the long period when Robb was a dealer in used costuming books (he has since sold that business to Fred Struthers, though Fred mostly sells new books these days). Robb said the bibliography is also based partly on Betty Williams' collection, which went to the University of Rhode Island after her death. Kevin Seligman's original plan was to have extensive annotations for every work. Robb saved many years of his own catalog listings and annotations, and he said he offered them to Kevin Seligman to use as needed. But Seligman's publisher did not want to invest in a book that long, therefore very expensive to print, and which after all would have a limited specialist audience; and so the publisher insisted that Seligman cut way down on the annotations. I too wish Keven Seligman would update _Cutting for All_. A year or so ago I bought a book from him that the LA Museum had not wanted because it was a duplicate of one they already had. At that time I asked him if he had any plans to update _Cutting for All_ soon, and he said no. Note, for an updated edition to be published, he would have to sell his publisher on the idea. As this edition is still in print, they will want to sell out their print run first, even if they plan a new edition at some point in the future. However, it still might happen someday and I certainly hope it does. But note that the listings are mostly of antique sources, and they are not going to get any more outdated than they are already. I think it is a very useful bibliography. There are many fewer early sources listed, quite simply because many fewer early sources were published. It is in the second half of the 19th century that an explosion in publishing books and magazines, on pattern cutting as well as many other subjects, took place. Also, in the 19th century there was a fever for inventing scientific improvements, and again, this affected pattern cutting as well as many other things. Although I would like more annotations to describe what is in a book before I buy it somewhere on the used market, I think it would have been completely out of place for Seligman to evaluate the sources for "veracity" and "usefulness." The bibliography is intended, as far as I can tell, to be used by everyone with any interest in historic garment-pattern cutting for any purpose whatever, or even only in books on the subject. (Used-book dealers often refer to "Seligman," for example.) Sources useful to some people will necessarily be useless to many others. It's a list, not a review media. As for "veracity," most of the sources listed are old, not modern works. While it is certainly true that the authors of original sources can make mistakes, be misled, be biased, lie, etc. (being just as human as modern authors), I'm not sure how you'd apply the concept of "veracity" to a list of technical works on garment cutting and sewing, which is what this bibliography is. Certainly, the 19th-century style of titling books on any subject is bombastic (my favorite book title in this bibliography is _The Archetypical Consummation_), but I just take that for granted. I don't think the intention was ever to list every library that has a copy of every book, which is another thing that would greatly lengthen _Cutting for All_. You need to do a library search on a book if it interests you. I don't know why Seligman listed any libraries at all. At any rate, I've gotten a great deal of use out of _Cutting for All_ in building my own collection. Fran Lavolta Press Books of Historic Patterns http://www.lavoltapress.com Suzanne wrote: My final observation is that there is no attempt to evaluate any of these sources. They are all presented without comment as to their veracity and/or usefulness. He did borrow annotations from other bibliographies but these are indicated by letter codes that are explained in the Introduction. Questions? Suzanne ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] "Cutting for All!" [long]
Quoting Suzanne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > There've been some great book recommendations on the list lately -- What a great posting, thank you, -C. This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] "Cutting for All!" [long]
There've been some great book recommendations on the list lately -- and that reminds me that I never sent my review of "Cutting for All! : the sartorial arts, related crafts, and the commercial paper pattern; a bibliographic reference guide for designers, technicians, and historians" by Kevin L. Seligman. As we suspected, it's an annotated bibliography. As with all such products, its usefulness decreases with time. And this was published in 1996 -- before a lot of us had internet access. There are other ways to acquire this information now. That's not to say that this is a bad book, just that it's not an essential purchase for a home library. It's worth a look if you can find it in your library or get it on Inter-Library Loan. The first chapter, on the "History of the development of the publication of books, professional journals, and the emergence of the paper pattern industry" is 46 pages long, profusely illustrated, and quite interesting. The author tells us that the "earliest surviving work on cutting" was published in 1580 in Spain; that the first French work is dated 1671, the first English work appeared in 1789 and the first in America in 1809. So most of the chapter deals with the 19th century, with just a page or two on the 20th century. The second chapter is "Chronological listings" and has exactly 3 publications listed for 1500-1599, one of which is Alcega in the original and one of which is the English translation published in 1979... oh well. There are 3 Spanish publications and one French listed for 1600-1699. There are a whopping eleven listings for 1700-1799 but 2 of them are 20th century articles about extant garments. For the 19th century, he subdivides by decade with just a page or two at first then it really takes off by 1880. The chapter ends with 1989 (another drawback to bibliographies is that they are often slightly out of date by the time they see print!). Aside from the exceptions noted above, the listings in each chronological section are contemporary works *not* historical treatments that happened to be published in a particular decade. Works by Janet Arnold, Dorothy Burnham, Jean Hunnisett, Blanche Payne, et al., appear in the "Costume and dance" chapter later in the book. Other chapters list "Professional journals" (American and English) published for the professional tailor and dressmaker; "Journal articles" (American, English, Other) from costume related professional journals that feature pattern drafts as part of the article; and various subjects such as "Folk and national dress", "Millinery" and "Commercial pattern companies, periodicals, and catalogs". The indexes are extensive. Each entry is brief, with only a sentence or two to describe the work; sometimes he lists a specific library that has the work (the U.S. Library of Congress, Harvard, The British Library, the New York Public Library, etc.); non- English language materials are noted but there's very little coverage of non-English language journals (I was surprised that I could only find one of Janet Arnold's Waffen-und Kostumkunde articles). The indexes are extensive -- about 40 pages worth. I would have liked to see some cross-references (in the chronological listing for 1944, I found "Short-cuts to sewing success" by the DuBarry Patttern Company; in the chapter on pattern companies, I found that DuBarry Patterns were manufactured by Simplicity as the house brand for Woolworth's from 1934 to 1946 and no mention of their other publication) but that's probably because I'm lazy. ;-) My final observation is that there is no attempt to evaluate any of these sources. They are all presented without comment as to their veracity and/or usefulness. He did borrow annotations from other bibliographies but these are indicated by letter codes that are explained in the Introduction. Questions? Suzanne On Oct 17, 2007, at 4:44 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Does anyone know anything about this book? http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809320061/thecostumersmani Zuzana ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] Re: h-costume Digest, Vol 6, Issue 523
On Tuesday 06 November 2007, Beth and Bob Matney wrote: > I believe that I was the one who posted the original announcement and > the titles of 5 of the 40 papers.] You may have been. I thought I'd remembered seeing a contents list for NESAT IX, but when I looked, couldn't find it. (I did find the program schedule for the NESAT X conference, which will be in Denmark in May 2008--nifty topics there too.) > The amazing thing was that I > ordered on 23 Oct and it arrived 5 Nov... in rural Arkansas (USA)! That's great. Congratulations. I'm planning to wait a few months until David Brown cuts their price (they will, eventually). > > Congrats on scoring NESAT 2! Thanks. It shows up darn seldom on the used book sites--the last time I saw a copy was a good three or four years ago. Now the only one I need is NESAT 1--which I have never seen in a book search. I think you were the one who said that there were very few copies printed, and it may be that only the participants got copies. :-( -- Cathy Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."-- Mark Twain ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] the journal of the Costume Society
Dear Penny and Sunny (and others), Costume is an academic journal and so more likely to be found in an academic library. You can ask your [college or public] library if they will do article requests via InterLibrary Loan. My library gets them electronically and sends the patron a link; it's up to the patron to Save the file or print it. You can see the contents of the volume (note that there is a typo -- vol. 41 is the 2007 issue) at http://www.costumesociety.org.uk/journal.html The IngentaConnect website -- the platform that makes Maney publications available electronically -- indicates that it is possible to buy articles with a credit card... I haven't looked into this but I suspect that it is very expensive. :-) You can also look up (or ask your librarian to look up) the journal in WorldCat and find out which library in your area has a subscription. Then make a trip over there and make your own copies! I searched for "Costume the journal of the Costume Society" (because "costume" is much too broad a term) and found that there are 4 libraries in my state that have subscriptions -- 3 of them are state- supported schools and so I have the privilege of using their periodical reading rooms. Also, some states have a State Library system that can do ILL for any state employee -- it's worth checking into, if you think you qualify. http://www.worldcat.org/ And for those of you who attend the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo in May: last year, Maney had a table in the vendor hall and they just happened to be selling copies of the latest issue for $40. I have my fingers crossed that they will be offering vol. 41 at the next Congress! Suzanne p.s. Penny, don't worry about RSS. It's just another way to get early notification of things that interest you. Your kids (or librarian) can probably explain it to you. :-) And vol. 42 of Costume won't be published 'til next summer so I think that website is suspicious. On Nov 6, 2007, at 1:01 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: "Penny Ladnier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sunny, I checked into this for a while last night. I was confused like you. I also do not understand RRS. I found Vol. #42 on a website for almost $75 USD. To become a UK Costume Society member from the U.S. is $50. This price includes the journal. I am interested in the journal's article about first communion/ confirmation dresses. Penny Ladnier, ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] Newcomer (sort of)
Welcome back!! Kimiko (aka Joane Silvertoppe) --- Frank A Thallas Jr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello the list! > > My name is Liadain, I used to belong here a couple > of years ago; I > primarily do blackwork and 16th-century, but am > pretty much interested in > everything else as well > > Your Very Good Health! > > Liadain __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
[h-cost] Costume & Fashion museums in Milan
You'd think they'd be easy to find. Milan & fashion, goes together rather like bread & butter, doesnt it, yet I can seem to locate one. There's a Silk Museum (Museo della Seta) in Como about an hr due N of Milan, but I know nothing about it. If you've been, can you give a quick review, please? We're leaving for Italy on a whim tomorrow. (DH has to work; I' have to go as a technical advisor. ) We'll be in Torino, Genoa too. If you can think of something worth a costumer's (or a castle junkie's) while, I'd go & report. I do know about the Egyptian Museum in Torino & all those lovely art galleries in Milan. There's even a new one in Genoa. Your kind suggestions most welcome! --cin Cynthia Barnes [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
[h-cost] Re: h-costume Digest, Vol 6, Issue 523
I believe that I was the one who posted the original announcement and the titles of 5 of the 40 papers. The amazing thing was that I ordered on 23 Oct and it arrived 5 Nov... in rural Arkansas (USA)! Congrats on scoring NESAT 2! Beth At 01:02 PM 11/6/2007, you wrote: Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2007 22:55:32 -0400 From: Catherine Olanich Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [h-cost] NESAT 9 To: Historical Costume <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" On Monday 05 November 2007, Beth and Bob Matney wrote: > My copy of NESAT 9 just arrived. It has a long list of very > interesting articles over a wide geographical area and time period > (if there is interest, I will try to list the contents over the next few > days). Someone actually posted a substantial portion of the table of contents, not too many days ago. I plan to buy it, but probably not for a few months at least, since I just succeeded in finding--and buying--a copy of NESAT 2--something that rarely turns up on the used book market. -- Cathy Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
