Rating: 
Summary: a must for historical writers or costumers
Review: This book is a wonderful reference book for historical writers, SCA people or costumers. It covers three centuries of England and France during the Middle Ages, and has over 350 illustrations. Describes the styles, patterns for construction of medieval dress for all classes. also, goes into adornments such as jewelry and hairdressing. The book, as well,covers armour and the materials of the period. This is an absolute must for anyone wanting to know what they wore, what it was made of, and the various evolving of styles.
Rating:
Summary: A Fount of Information!
Review: This is a great book for anyone interested in the clothing of this period. It's an easy read, and there's lots of patterns printed, in addition to pictures of people wearing the fashions. It allows you to see clearly the progression of fashion from 1200 to 1500.
Rating: 
Summary: A good place to start
Review: While this book may be a good place to start, it shouldn't be your only source. It includes no photos of primary sources, but instead only modern drawings of various sources. The "patterns" are highly simplified and are the author's guess as to a plausible construction of the garments, rather than a Janet Arnold-style examination of extant pieces. Take these "patterns" with a large grain of salt! However, I did think the section describing religious vestments is detailed and informative, since I knew almost nothing about that subject. Unfortunately, the section of this book covering the 15th century is much less detailed than those covering the 13th and 14th centuries, and only shows a few examples of the complicated and rapidly evolving fashions of that century, with no detailed "patterns". The fancy women's hats from the 15th century (which include the pointy and double-horned styles most people think of as "medieval") are only described briefly, with no actual construction information. This book is fine as far as it goes, but anyone wanting to do historical costuming will need much more detailed and accurate information. In particular, look for books with photographs of the actual paintings, sculpture, or illuminated manuscripts that show the clothing. Be careful when using books that only show a modern artist's rendering, as this one does.
| 
