As though you had stepped aboard a trend time machine, go back in time as you leaf though these pages featuring fashion whims and trendy curiosities since the Antiquity.
While certain fashion trends perdure such as Greek drapery, which inspired the pleated dresses of Madame Grès, or shoes with pointy ends that come back in the spotlight pegged to the seasons, others have been definitely abandoned.
Exit crinoline dress from the Victorian era, that swept everything along their way at the risk of damaging the ribs of fashion victims from that era, who carried off their name very well indeed.
We like: men are not spared by the diktats of fashion. Beard, mustache, leggings, wig, corselet, fake teeth… proving you have to suffer to be beautifull.
The plus: lovely images and Spicy anecdotes. Just imagine that under Catherine of Medici, courtesans were expected to have a 33 cm waistline in order to meet the beauty codes of their peers, ouch!
Extravagances, Les excentricités de la mode à travers les âges
Texts by Barbara Cox, Carolyn Sally Jones, David and Caroline Stafford, Published by Eyrolles, 256 pages, 32€
© 2013 Groupe Eyrolles
