The Chronicle of Western Fashion by John Peocock 5 Stars Worthy

The Chronicle of Western Fashion by John Peocock 5 Stars Worthy

Today, I wanted to review another one of Peocock's fashion books. This one focuses on western fashion. It starts with ancient Egypt. He chose to start with Egypt because the Europeans are fascinated with Egypt. Many consider the Egyptians Europeans... for some reason or other. In any case, most European history books start with Egypt and Mesopotamia. As such, Peocock started his fashion book in the same fashion.





Anyhow, each chapter shows you some sample drawings. Most of them focus on the fashion of the Kings and the nobles. Then again, until the 1800s the lower classes only had one outfit. You could recognize them based on their shabby clothing. As such, Peocock only needed one figure for the fashion of the poor. After the 1800s, clothing became cheaper.

The industrial revolution allowed for the fashion of today to come into being. Now, fashion artists could make clothing for both the rich and the poor alike. Anyhow, the last chapter focuses on fashion from the 1900s to 1980s. I do not know why Peocock always stops in the 80s. It must be because he hates fashion beyond the 20th century.

Aside from dresses, this book has a section that tells you about the fabrics. I never did get how that was useful. Still, I found the descriptions of the attires very useful. Think about it, with their proper names you can work with each piece of clothing independently. For creating new fashion, the descriptions were very useful. Truly, this fashionable book of Peocock deserves 5 stars rating.