R. Turner Wilcox (1888–1970)

An excellent overview of general clothing styles throughout history. A reenactor or serious scholar of a particular region and era would want a more specialized work, but this book, between the many drawings and the written information, gives a decent starting point.

This breaks down costume styles by country and period a bit and gives sketches of the costume, some explanation, and a look at accessories, headgear and sometimes embellishment patterns. It is a good general overview of styles and periods, but for details and good research you need material closer to the source. This is definitely a survey work and meant as such. It is too broad a subject to give good detail. For what it does it is worth having in your library as a quick look at many areas. show more Small Bibliography and index. LC No. 58-12732 show less

Interesting, but light on the references and historical backup.

Yet another pretty terrible, but a reference we grew up with when there were far fewer resources out there.