After a Fashion: How to Reproduce, Restore, and Wear Vintage Styles

Rating:
Summary: I wish I'd had this when I started costuming!
Review: Well-written, beautifully illustrated. The focus of this book is on reproducing historic costumes and restoring and wearing vintage clothing. It contains brief overviews of some of the more prevalent historical periods being re-created today (anything more detailed is not within the scope of this book -- this book encourages you to research the period you're interested in recreating). Ms. Grimble leads you through the different stages of creating your own historic costume, from planning to some basic sewing techniques. The second half of the book covers vintage clothing, from buying them to altering and mending the items. I'm more interested in creating historic costuming than in purchasing vintage clothing, but I found this part of the book an interesting and informative read! At the end of the book, Ms. Grimble lists sources of interest to the costumer or collector -- from books on period styles to dealers in vintage fashions. All in all, one of the most complete books I've ever seen on the technical side of costuming!