What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America : The Colonial Williamsburg Collection [Anglais] [Relié]

If clothes, as they say, make the man (and now, of course, the woman), then knowledge about garments makes an individual understand the past in relation to human nature. Colonial Williamsburg curator and author (Eighteenth Century Clothing at Williamsburg, 1986), Baumgarten explores via the museum's collection the process of becoming a connoisseur of antique frocks, fabrics, mythos and meanings, life passages, alterations, and common dress. Everything's explained against a visual panoply of period paintings, artifacts, and clothing, executed in slow, sometimes meandering prose. Along the way, tidbits and informational sidebars stand out. Such as in the 1700s, when male wigs were in fashion, while at home, men removed them in favor of soft caps. Another interesting fact is that frontier legend Davy Crockett usually wore normal clothing, donning a hunting shirt only to appeal to his rural Tennessee voters. And George Washington was, in truth, taller than his forty-second successor, George W. Bush. Intended for fashion fans with enough time to wade through and reorganize fashion facts. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Beautifully produced...Well-written, well-priced,...full of pertinent details...[F]or both scholars and casual readers...[R]ecommended for all libraries.

Paintings of upper-class men and women tell an important part of the history of costumes, but surviving garments themselves reveal even more. Every crease, stitch, and stain in a piece of clothing supplies information about its wearer and its era. This stunning book features eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century garments from the premiere collection of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Illustrated with more than 300 color photographs, including many details and back views, the book treats not only elegant, high-style clothing in colonial America but also garments for everyday and work, the clothing of slaves, and maternity and nursing apparel.

Drawing on contemporary written descriptions and on actual costumes of the period, the book analyzes what Americans in the eighteenth century considered fashionable and attractive and how they used clothing to assert status or to identify occupations. The book also examines the myths and meanings of clothing in British and American society, clothing for the entire lifecycle, and a history of clothing alteration. Informative sidebars on a variety of fascinating topics complete the volume.

This book accompanies an exhibition at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, Virginia, from October 26, 2002 to October 26, 2003.

Published in association with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Linda Baumgarten is curator of textiles and costumes at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia.