The broad outlines of the history of fashion that make both these volumes so important are particularized in astonishing detail by the illustrations, re-creations or photographs of individual items of clothing, of decoration, of jewelry, shoes, underwear, what have you... from every decade of the three centuries. The quality of the depictions are matched by the intensity and detail of the accompanying captions, descriptions and mini-essays that accompany almost every single picture or photo-spread. I believe that, were you to read and digest all of the information in these two books, you would have become something of an expert in the field yourself.
Akiko Fukai, the chief curator of The Kyoto Costume Institute, writes in her forward to these books “Part of the recognition the KCI has received stems from its policy of displaying articles of clothing in a manner that is both academically accurate and true to life. In other words, the KCI presents clothing not just as historical artifacts, but also as vital elements of fashion. The exhibitions capture the elegance and charm that the clothing had in its day, as though simply having been ‘awakened’ after a long ‘sleep.’”
They may have been asleep for a while. But the articles of clothing described and displayed in the two volumes of Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Century are the stuff of vibrant dreams and of the wish for transcendent beauty and considerable fun.
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