Norris Herbert. Costume & Fashion. Volume I

London: J.M. Dent, 1924. — 300 p.Despite the multiplicity of books on Costume already available, I found frequently in the early days of my professional work the greatest difficulty in securing authentic dated information to enable me to portray faithfully the modes and fashions of a chosen period. Many years ago, therefore, I started to compile a chronological list of dated notes and sketches on Costume and accessories, and have continually added to the list examples of unquestioned authenticity. It has been of the greatest value in the supervision of costumes for historical plays, pageants and films, and formed the basis of my course of lectures on Costume. Much of the information given in this volume has been published before, and is available elsewhere, in fragmentary form, to anyone who has the industry and the time to pursue the details in a hundred books (in half a dozen languages) and a thousand illuminated MSS., pictures, statues, mosaics and frescoes scattered throughout Europe, together with the knowledge to extract therefrom the facts of design and period which they record. At the suggestion of several clients who have tested the value of my collection, a selection from the notes, so far as they relate to periods discussed in the present volume, are here expanded into a chronological sequence, tracing the origin and development of a garment and its relations to forerunners and successors. It is hoped that the arrangement will facilitate reference and enable the student to find what he seeks without waste of time; and this, rather than the production of a literary or artistic work, has been the aim in view. The chronological order sometimes produces a somewhat fragmentary result, as in The History of the Tunica of Rome {see p. 97); items which developed simultaneously are usually kept separate, but occasionally, as with the Tunica and Dalmatica, details of their progressive changes are alternated in historical sequence. The evolution of Costume has been affected, throughout history, by the events and standard of culture of the times. For this reason I have prefaced each chapter by a list of historical data relating to the period concerned. Some events are chosen because in a measure they influenced Costume, but others which bore scarcely any relation to the subject are included because they are likely to assist the student to identify the period as contemporary with facts already known.