In this beautiful book, Aileen Ribeiro surveys the clothing worn by the middle and upper classes throughout Europe in the eighteenth century and discusses what this meant in terms of social definition and identity. Ribeiro, one of the world's premier historians of dress, also looks at such subjects as developments in retailing and distribution, etiquette, the rise of the dress designer and couturier, the evolution of ready-made clothes, fancy dress, and the masquerade. This new edition updates the text and bibliographical material in the previous highly acclaimed volume and adds many new illustrations in full color.

Dress in Eighteenth-Century Europe 1715-1789 (Revised Edition)

Arts & Photography

Ribeiro, Aileen

History & Criticism

Yale University Press

Costume and fashion were a lifelong obsession for James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). His exquisite depictions of women and the details of their clothing contributed to his career as one of the most accomplished and successful—if controversial—artists of the nineteenth century. This lavishly illustrated book focuses on fashion in Whistler’s art as a key to understanding his life and work and as a new means of exploring his relationship with women and his portraits of them. The book offers new insights into some of Whistler’s most beloved masterpieces in the context of art and fashion in the Victorian period. 
Illustrated with paintings, pastels, prints, and drawings by Whistler, the book also presents photographs of his sitters, contemporary costumes, works by other artists of the period, and artifacts from Whistler’s studio. These illustrations, with new material drawn from the Centre for Whistler Studies, illuminate the interaction between the artist and the women he portrayed during his fifty years in Paris and London—mistresses, family members, artists, actresses, aristocrats, and many others.

Whistler, Women, and Fashion

MacDonald, Margaret F.

Galassi, Susan Grace

De Montfort, Patricia

Relatively few garments survive from before the eighteenth century, and the history of costume in the preceding centuries must therefore rely to a great extent on literary and visual evidence. This book, the first of its kind, examines Stuart England through the mirror of dress. It argues that both artistic and literary sources can be read and decoded for important information on dress and the way it was perceived in a period of immense political, social, and cultural change. Focusing on the rich visual culture of the seventeenth century, including portraits, engravings, fashion plates, and sculpture, and on literary sourcespoetry, drama, essays, sermonsthe distinguished historian of dress Aileen Ribeiro creates a fascinating account of Stuart dress and how it both reflected and influenced society. Supported by a wealth of illustrative images, she explores such varied themes as court costumes, the masque, the ways in which political and religious ideologies could be expressed in dress, and the importance of London as a fashion center. This beautiful book is an indispensable and authoritative account of what people wore and how it related to Stuart England’s cultural climate.

Fashion and Fiction: Dress in Art and Literature in Stuart England (The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)

An entirely new way of looking at the history of fashion through the eyes of artists There have always been important links between art and clothing. Artists have documented the ever-evolving trends in fashion, popularized certain styles of dress, and at times even designed fashions. This is the first book to explore in depth the fascinating points of contact between art and clothing, and in doing so it constructs a new and innovative history of dress in which the artist plays a central role. Aileen Ribeiro provides an illuminating account of the relationship between artists and clothing from the 17th century, when a more complex and sophisticated attitude to dress first appeared, to the early 20th century, when the boundaries between art and fashion became more fluid: haute couture could be seen as art, and art used textiles and clothes in highly imaginative ways. Her narrative encompasses such themes as the ways in which clothing has helped to define the nation state; how masquerade and dressing up were key subjects in art and life; and how, while many artists found increasing inspiration in high fashion, others became involved in designing “artistic” and reform dress. Sumptuously illustrated, Clothing Art also delves into the ways in which artists represent the clothes they depict in their work, approaches which range from photographic detail, through varying degrees of imaginative reality, to generalized drapery.

Clothing Art: The Visual Culture of Fashion, 1600-1914

This wide-ranging survey, spanning four centuries, illuminates shifting perceptions of female beauty through works of art and the evolution of cosmetics Throughout the history of the Western world, countless attempts have been made to define beauty in art and life, especially with regard to women's bodies and faces. Facing Beauty examines concepts of female beauty in terms of the ideal and the real, investigating paradigms of beauty as represented in art and literature and how beauty has been enhanced by cosmetics and hairstyles. 
This thought-provoking book discusses the shifting perceptions of female beauty, concentrating on the period from about 1540 to 1940. It begins with the Renaissance, when a renewed emphasis on the individual was reflected in the celebration of beauty in the portraits of the day. The fluid, sensual lines of the Baroque period initiated a shift toward a more "natural" look, giving way in the 18th century to a more stylized and artificial face, a mask of ideal beauty. By the late 19th century, commercial beauty preparations had become more readily available, leading to new technological developments within the beauty industry in the early 20th century. Beauty salons and the wider availability of cosmetics revolutionized the way women saw themselves. 
Ravishing images of some of the most beautiful women in history, both real and ideal, accompanied by illustrations from costume books, fashion plates, advertisements, caricatures, and cosmetics, bring the evolving story of beauty to life.

Facing Beauty: Painted Women and Cosmetic Art

Costume, portraiture, and the presentation of self have been closely linked throughout the history of art. Yet while the face of the person portrayed is still accessible to the modern viewer, the meaning of the sitter's clothes has often been lost to history. In this innovative book, Aileen Ribeiro supplies readers with a time-transcending lens wrought from her considerable knowledge of the history of dress. She focuses on one hundred paintings, drawings, photographs, and other works of art from the National Portrait Gallery in London that demonstrate the fluidity and multiple modes of fashion throughout English history. The subjects span the past five centuries and include many notable figures, from Henry VII through Coleridge to Harold Pinter and Margaret Thatcher. Whether the costumes in question are the slashed doublets and pink satin lynx-lined gowns of the Tudor monarchy or the informally elegant T-shirts and jeans of Princess Diana, their details supply vital clues to the person's status, rank, milieu, profession, and personal character.
 How, exactly, does "style make the man"? How is identity forged through appearance over time? Observations on manufacture, decoration, and construction provide an evidential foundation for the story of "who we were and are, and how we wished to look." The pearls that embroider Sir Walter Raleigh's costume are attributes of his devotion to Queen Elizabeth; the blue shirt in a painting of 1934 reveals the sitter's radical allegiances; the Duke of Windsor's outfit is an expression of "his guiding principles in dress 'Comfort and Freedom.'"
 Lavishly illustrated, this valuable contribution to the history of British fashion includes related works of art, contemporary illustrations, and specially commissioned photographs of extant clothing examples. The introduction synthesizes English, art, fashion, and social histories to chronicle the evolution of the portrait from symbol of individual wealth and authority to its more recent role as revelation of essential personality. Commentaries explore the purpose and original context of the fashions, thus bringing readers intriguingly close to the reality of the past.

The Gallery of Fashion

Princeton University Press

Dress and Morality

Decorative Arts & Design

Holmes & Meier

This forms part of a series designed for those who need reference material on the history of dress, using a series of illustrations as the central part of each book thus giving the reader an idea of what was worn and how. The clothes are described, explained, interpreted and arranged in date order. Each illustration is captioned in a consistent way under the labels "head", "body" and "accessories". The reader may need to know whether a certain style was fashionable or unfashionable at a certain time, usual or unusual - such information is clearly and consistently laid out. An introduction outlines the broad developments of dress in the eighteenth century. The text should be of interest to students, designers and collectors.

The Eighteenth Century (A Visual History of Costume)

Chrysalis Books

A survey of the clothing worn by the middle and upper classes throughout Europe in the 18th century, and a discussion of what this meant in terms of social definition and identity. Aileen Ribeiro, a historian of dress, also looks at such subjects as developments in retailing and distribution, etiquette, the rise of the dress designer and couturier, the evolution of ready-made clothes, fancy dress, and the masquerade. This revised edition takes the text and bibliographic material in the previous volume and adds many new illustrations in colour.

Dress in Eighteenth Century Europe, 1715-1789

B.T. Batsford

The Visual History of Costume

Book by Ribeiro, Aileen, Cumming, Valerie

Cumming, Valerie

Drama Pub

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