PATTERNS OF FASHION 4!!!
Hooray! I got Patterns of Fashion 4 yesterday. It's gooooogeous!
But first two negative comments:
1. I think it's a big flaw that this book has two pages about the Sture shirts (page 20-21), but not patterns for them. Especially since a previous POF deals with the Sture doublets and pludderhoses. This would be the perfect way to complete the circle. I guess Janet Arnold never got to draw their pattern and/or examine them as well as she should, but I would say the two ladies editing POF4 seems more than capable of it, and pretty good patterns exist already. Having two so extant 16.th century male shirts, and not including patterns in this book after describing them so well... Yes, it's a big flaw.
2. It bugs me that most (though not all) research and intro comments is about ENGLISH Renaissance clothes, while the book have lots of Italian, German and Swedish pieces, pics etc. It might be a natural consequence of Jenny Tiramani and Santina M. Levey having this as their field, being involved with the Shakespeare Globe Theatre - it's probably not surprising the research focus on Elizabethian fashion and traditions. But I still think more Italian and northern European sources and (for example) sumptuary legislations could have been included. There were local variations, after all, which the photos partly shows.
But other than that.... This book is unique. It's gorgeous. It's a gift from above. It's probably one of the prettiest costume books in my collection. I adore it!!! Much of it is way beyond what I can reproduce, but I highly enjoy looking at the possibilities. It's so beautiful, so well-researched, so.... YAY!! My boss saw it, and ordered it right away. 't is cool.
Is it allowed to hope for the other POF books being re-printed with colour photos sometime in the distant future?