Series: Fashion in Detail

Review – 20th-Century Fashion in Detail

Posted June 24, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – 20th-Century Fashion in Detail

20th Century Fashion in Detail

by Claire Wilcox, Valerie D. Mendes

Genres: Fashion, History, Non-fiction
Pages: 224
Series: Fashion in Detail
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

20th-Century Fashion in Detail reveals the elaborate embroidery, intricate pleats, and daring cuts that make up some of the most beautiful garments in the twentieth- century fashion collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, one of the world's top fashion and design museums. Authors Claire Wilcox and Valerie D. Mendes, leading fashion experts from the V&A, have written a book that will be an invaluable resource for students, collectors, and designers.

Including exquisite haute-couture pieces, from sequined Chanel ensembles to embellished Dior evening gowns, this revised and expanded edition features more than 30 new garments. Each piece is accompanied by detail photography and line drawings showing its complete construction. An extraordinary exploration of the techniques used by couturiers, 20th-Century Fashion in Detail will delight all followers of fashion.

Claire Wilcox and Valerie D. Mendes’ 20th-Century Fashion in Detail is a pretty good volume, with lots of detail. It’s not a period I’m super interested in for fashion, though I do like the designs of e.g. Madeleine Vionnet (felt surprised/sad there was only one of her items in here and definitely not a favourite of mine), but the volume’s a good one all the same, going through various types of detailing and cut in themed chapters.

As ever, I quibble about the fact that there’s no full-length picture for a lot of the garments. I know the point is to see the details, but sometimes it’s hard to understand what you’re seeing without the full image, even with the line-drawings that are included. It’s especially difficult if you’re non-visual like me, but I think it would be helpful for any reader, honestly.

Lovely photographs and some astounding details, good explanations thereof, and the line drawings are helpful — it’s a good volume, as usual for this series.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – Japanese Dress in Detail

Posted June 7, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Japanese Dress in Detail

Japanese Dress in Detail

by Josephine Rout

Genres: Fashion, History, Non-fiction
Pages: 208
Series: Fashion in Detail
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

A unique insight into the history and key themes of Japanese dress from the eighteenth century to the present, Japanese Dress in Detail reveals the elaborate embroidery, precise folds, and sophisticated dyes that form some of the most beautiful garments in the Victoria and Albert Museum's unparalleled Japanese dress collection. This book provides readers with the rare opportunity to examine historical clothing, from breathtaking Edo-period kimono, court robes, and No-- theatre costumes to indigo-dyed utilitarian garments and exciting contemporary designs.

Featuring both garments and accessories, this book is an extraordinary exploration of the beauty and complexity of Japanese fashion. Specially commissioned close-up photography and authoritative texts accompany each garment, and front-and-back line drawings make this publication an invaluable resource for students, collectors, designers, fashion lovers, and Japanophiles.

As usual for the books in this collection from the V&A, Japanese Dress in Detail is rich with photographs and illustrations to help understand and explain the details of garments. I must admit that it helped that I’d also seen some of them in person now at the V&A itself; though the fashion gallery is currently closed, several of the items are to be found in the Japanese gallery. It was extra-neat to read about the items I’d actually seen and got to examine in a few more dimensions (even if through glass).

I found it interesting how the clothes were mostly from 1850 or so onward, 1750 at oldest (if I remember the dates rightly) — the history of contact with Japan also making an imprint here, compared to the much older clothes from Britain and the US (and, if I remember rightly, China as well).

One of my favourite garments of the book was utilitarian, though: a fireman’s outfit which was heavily padded both to provide protection from falling objects and so it could be soaked to help with protection from flames.

Overalll, as ever, a lovely and fascinating volume.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Nineteenth-Century Fashion in Detail

Posted December 8, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Nineteenth-Century Fashion in Detail

Nineteenth-Century Fashion in Detail

by Lucy Johnston

Genres: Fashion, History, Non-fiction
Pages: 144
Series: Fashion in Detail
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

From the delicate embroidery on ballgowns to the vibrant synthetic colors of crinolines, the major themes of 19th-century fashion are explored as never before in this exquisite book. Featuring specially commissioned color photographs of garments from the V&A's superb collection and many close-up details, alongside accurate line drawings of each garment's underlying structure, the book's 150 pieces capture the opulence and variety of this fascinating era.

Nineteenth-Century Fashion in Detail is very much what it says on the tin, discussing the fashions of the nineteenth century through the V&A’s collection, in a series of themed chapters that discuss different trends in fashion.

As usual with this series, the photography is great and there are line sketches of the garments as well to help you envision how they look as a whole — but quite often the whole garment is not pictured, only parts of it, which can be more than a little frustrating (especially to someone who can’t visualise things well).

There are some lovely choices, and I always enjoy when they point out the specifics of the garment in question too (e.g. that you can see traces of unpicking where a gown has been remodelled to suit a new fashion), rather than just discussing generalities.

It’s a nice volume, but again, I just have that little niggle about not showing the full garments!

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – Underwear: Fashion in Detail

Posted August 16, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Underwear: Fashion in Detail

Underwear: Fashion in Detail

by Eleri Lynn

Genres: Fashion, History, Non-fiction
Pages: 224
Series: Fashion in Detail
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Get intimately acquainted with the V&A's world-renowned collection of undergarments in this eye-opening visual history. From camisoles to corsets, basques to boudoir caps, Underwear: Fashion in Detail traces the peculiar evolution of underwear. Revealing photographs highlight close-up details in the garments, while intricate line drawings show their masterly construction. A wide range of designs is represented, from rare 16th-century examples to Dior's curvaceous New Look, to Calvin Klein's notorious briefs.

Underwear: Fashion in Detail is another of the books from the V&A delving into a particular topic through their collections, this one written by Eleri Lynn. I found it a little less easy to read than the others, with text arranged in columns rather than going smoothly across the page, and it doesn’t provide full images of many of the items discussed. Just seeing the detail without seeing how it fits into the whole is pretty unedifying, to be honest.

There’s a lot of information here, and someone with a better visual imagination might find it more useful for envisaging the whole thing, but I was a bit disappointed in the presentation.

Still, if it’s a topic you have interest in, it’s worth it!

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – 18th-Century Fashion in Detail

Posted August 3, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 8 Comments

Review – 18th-Century Fashion in Detail

18th-Century Fashion in Detail

by Susan North

Genres: Fashion, History
Pages: 224
Series: Fashion in Detail
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

This beautifully illustrated book reveals sharp pleats, high collars, gleaming pastes, colorful beads, elaborate buttons, and intricate lacework that make up some of the garments in the Victoria and Albert Museum's extensive fashion collection. With an authoritative text, exquisite color photography of garment details, and line drawings and photographs showing the complete construction of each piece, the reader has the unique opportunity to examine up close historical clothing that is often too fragile to be on display. It is an inspirational resource for students, collectors, designers, and anyone who is fascinated by fashion and costume.

The V&A’s 18th-Century Fashion in Detail is written by Susan North, and it’s a beautiful item, with glossy full-colour images of details from the garments discussed. My main quibble is that it doesn’t provide full images of how the garments looked as a whole, rather breaking them down into one bit that the author has chosen to discuss, like just a close-up of some embroidery. There are sketches showing the garments and how they’re put together, but it’s not really the same.

It’s still a fascinating read, especially when it discusses some of the unfinished garments that were sold part-completed, so they could be fitted to the wearer. There’s almost nothing about children’s clothes, which made me curious — I think in this period they were still usually mini-versions of the adult clothing, but I’d still like to see some examples.

It’s a lovely volume, despite the caveats.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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