PERIOD COLOURS
Although the following books are more about art than clothes, they deal with something very important in historical clothing: namely human perception of colours, from an historical point of view. Forget Goethe, forget Chevreul, forget everything you thought you knew about colours. These books, the second one in particular, will change how you perceive the phenomenon colour, and might also give you some interesting ideas in terms of historical dressing and fashion.
PS - both books have a purely Western European point of view.
"Color and Meaning. Practice and Theory in Renaissance Painting.", by Marcia Hall.
The great debate in Italian Renaissance and Manneristic art was colore or disegno - colouring or drawing/design. What was more important to a painting, the sketching and the innovative design, or the way colours were used to bring it to life? Florentines and Romans advocated the disegno, the Venetians the colore. In the end the disegno "won", and was dominant in the following centuries. Not until the impressionists in the 19th century did the colore once again become dominant in painting. Yes, there are tons of exceptions, I'm giving you the general idea here.
The book deals with modern and period view on colours in art, with the disegno/colore debate in mind. It also focus on four "modes" of colouring Italian 16th century artist worked within, and how they were mixed to get the desired look. The remarks about "ironic colours" in manneristic art is also rather interesting.
Read it if you want to understand a bit more about colour practice in 15th and 16th century Italy.
LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Color-Meaning-Practice-Renaissance-Painting/dp/0521457335
Blue - the History of a Color.", by Michel Pastoureau.
Forget everything you thought you knew about colours. This book dismiss all modern perceptions, and tries to go back to an historical perception of colours. The basis for the tale is the colour blue, but the books isn't solely about blue colours - not at all. It starts with what's referred to as the ancient triad of colours - red, white and black, and continues with how colours were made, both for painters and fabric dyers, what rules they obeyed, and which colours were seen as contrasting and similar. He explains why red and green were seen as equals, while yellow and green was opposites. It also explains why blue historically was used for small girls, and pink for small boys. And why red wasn't red.
I've read the book twice. First read was... well, I won't call it mind blowing, but it definitely did something with my idea of colours. I grew up with Goethe's "Theory of Colours", and this book contradicts it all. And when looking at Italian Renaissance portraits (even though the book has a rather French view of life) I think I agree with most of what the author writes. I also like the debate on modern and period names on colours. Etymological discussions as how for example black, bleak, blanc, blekk and blek relates to eachother though they today are seen as opposites is also lots of fun.
Read it if you want the modern, scientific view of colours challenged.
LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Blue-History-Color-Michel-Pastoureau/dp/0691090505/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_3
(ETA: the same author has published a similar book on the colour black. Don't bother with this one. It's basically an expanded chapter from the "Blue" book. It's definitely not bad, but if you've read "Blue" the second books tells little new).