Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0789455862, Hardcover)

Here is an original and exciting look at the colorful history of clothes and fashion. Superb, full-color photographs of original clothes, accessories and ornaments worn by real-life men, women and children offer a unique and revealing "eyewitness" view of the history of costume. See brooches and hairpins worn by Roman women, the opulence of Renaissance clothes and jewels, 17th-century fans, gloves, and bags, a hippie father and son, Queen Victoria's stockings, and a Viking shoe. Learn what false fat bellies were stuffed with, how Romans folded their togas, how the discovery of the New World changed European costume, and when the starch was first used to stiffen fabric. Discover how textiles have affected fashion, when men wore stockings, what a farthingale was used for, what the first bathing suits looked like, why women used to wear corsets, and much, much more.