Medieval Costume and How to Recreate It

Book Description

This unique reference classifies the clothes and accessories of the 12th through the 15th centuries along social lines. Garments of every type, from the wardrobes of peasants and nobility, appear in over 200 period illustrations and patterns. Helpful advice covers: choosing fabrics, placement of seams, draping and folding garments, more. 203 black-and-white illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Just guidelines.......2007-09-16

It's a nice book, it covers all the areas of the medieval society... but briefly.
It has a lot of images, and some sketched patterns, but it's of no great use if you're a newcomer to both medieval clothes and sewing techniques.
Used together with some other books, it can come in handy.
With goods and bads, it worths its price.

Disappointing from the title.......2007-02-13

Medieval Costume - yes. Sorta. I guess. She doesn't give much in the way of proof for her costuming conjectures. Lots of drawings and narrative, but really no citations worth mention.

How to Recreate it? Not at all. not a bit. Not even so much as a cutting diagram or a single discussion of how to cut, sew, assemble or reproduce the garments.

Very disappointing.

a very good book to know and sew medieval costume.......2007-01-09

Even if I am french I can use this book to realize medieval costumes. The patterns are very good and the explanations quite easy.

For the serious Re-inactor.......2006-10-28

I'm of mixed feelings on this book .
First, if you don't own a single costuming book, then get it, just for some inspiration.

The best reason for anyone to get the book is the illustrations......over 200 period illustrations to use for inspiration.
Granted, they're in black and white.......so you don't get the colors to see, but Ms Hartley often describes the colors, so that helps.
She has provided a number of pages of detailed line-drawing illustrations to help explain/show how cloth was cut and sewn to create various outfits.
As such, they are helpful, sometimes.
Ditto, other times they are off the mark.

Some of her interpretations are, shall I say 'creative' without adequate proof in her period sources to support her theories of construction.
With that, I have some major problems, but if her purpose is to give a resonable facsimile for stage interpretation, then her theories are adequate.
If her purpose was to provide accurate historical information, then she is often being misleading in regards to the needs of the serious historical re-inactor.
i.e. she interprets the 'modesty panel' triangular insert, in a 15th c. gown as a 'vest'. Granted, she says "a small triangular vest" so maybe her idea of a vest, and mine, are merely a difference in understanding. But her perception of a Hellsgate overgown is off the mark. Because the upper portion of the winter worn ones is often covered in, or lined with, fur, she incorrectly interprets the upper portion as a totally seperate garment, calling it a 'sleeveless jacket/coat' and both her line drawings and her text clearly indicate she genuinely believed it to have been such, stating : ".........shows a sleeveless jacket which must have been comforting in drafty halls-it may be fur-lined, or only fur trimmed- but it is definately part of the jacket. The front seems to be stiffened by light strips of wood or whalebone (I have major problems with this, as it has no sound basis, at all. Stiffening elements were used, in later times, as means of support, but were not needed for this garment, which hung loosely. Her interpretation is apparently based on the stiff appearance of the panels, but this is due to the heavy weight of the (Attached)skirts holding it vertical)..... and the jacket secured to it firmly by metal studs or clasps. The whole jacket is essentially a sturdy little affair, and though in some cases it seems to have been worn as part of the robe, we believe it was always made and put on seperately."

Her line drawings shows it as a simple fur-lined vest (with a normal sleeveless opening......which her period illustrations do not support, at all ) and a line drawing of one (vest) with a button-front panel down the center, which she has taken the creative measure of showing 'how' it was 'surely' attached to the edges of the front vest opening, by way of 4 buttons at the corners of the front insert, going through button holes, in the vest, barely concealed at the edges of the fur edging along the front edges. There is absolutely no historical evidence to support this theory; she had, clearly gotten it in her head, that this was a seperate jacket, and is attempting to demonstrate how the period variations might have been achieved, to support this silly idea. I need to add that in many of her other line drawings she seems to rule out the cut of the cloth pieces being a shaping factor, and, instead, resorts to the use of darts to show how to achieve a fitted look. Only in two incidences has she shown the use of gores to widen a skirt. In at least two cases (of men's garments) she has done something interesting with the cloth directly below where the cut goes into the body of the cloth, to isolate the sleeve for sewing the underarm seam. She has, instead of cutting it from the body of the garment, (to use as sleeves, etc.) left it, open and seamless, to wrap the front, back around the sides of the body, and the back panels, forward over those to create a double layer of cloth at either side of the torso, (for warmth ?) held in by the belt. I've never seen the first bit of period source to support this theory, nor does any of her period sources provided in the book, support it. She also shows an interesting theory on the cut of a laborer's shirt with high collar (under her chapter on 'Artisans' oddly enough) Cuts are made down either side of what is to be the high collar, and the cloth, to either side of the collar, is folded down over the shoulders in a manner like the side panels earlier mentioned, and stitched into place. Once again, she tucks in darts to shape with. She also elaborates on her 'padded shoulders' theories by showing two other drawings of "shoulder flaps" again, un-supported by any evidence in the form of period illuminations, etc.

Dispite all of this, believe it, or not, but I Still LIKE the book !!!
It's well worth the money in period pictures, if for no other reason.

I also like the fact that she's steered away from the usual emphasis on royal garments, and has concentrated her efforts on the clothes of the everyday common man, dividing her chapters to cover individual professions. Her line drawings are excellent, even if off-the-mark at times with her theories of construction......she has nicely isolated some interesting details of accessories to go with the different professions and situations, as in the clappers, etc. that the lepers were required to announce their approach,...her text in these things, elaborates more on the assorted situations, with helpful historical information.

All in all, my single largest problem with her concise little book is when it comes down to her attempts to introduce her own theories as to construction; using her line drawings to try and prove how her theories might have been achieved, while she neglects to provide period sources to give visual support to her ideas. As a quick guide to theatrical costuming, it has it's merits. As a first costuming book for Medieval Historical re-inactors, it is valuable for the period illustrations, but her interpretations often need to be taken with a grain of salt, as many will not fly if entered in an A & S costuming competition, judged by informed judges...so you be the judge of how valuable this book may be in your library. I have over 100 costuming books in my own, and I'm still glad I added this one, if for no other reason than as a sometimes bad example,....but, again, the period illustrations are well worth the cost of the book. R.D. Wertz/Shara of Meridies

Medieval Costume and How to Recreate it.......2006-03-10

This book is a "dreams-answered" book on medieval clothing design and sewing for me. Finally, some tricky things in medieval clothing design were explained or sketched. This along with some historical information makes it a superior book.
I make a lot of medieval clothing, often without a pattern, though I do use commercial patterns to help with difficult sewing areas This book is very, very helpful. I have already recommended it to my friends who also sew medieval style clothing.

Average customer rating:

Medieval Costume and How to Recreate It
Dorothy Hartley
Manufacturer: DOVER THRIFT EDITION
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K6KFEK

Average customer rating:

Medieval Costume and How to Recreate It
Dorothy Hartley
Manufacturer: DOVER THRIFT EDITION
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GLQSWW

Customer Reviews:

Uhmmm........2007-01-09

I was told by a few other designers that this was a must have... needless to say, I was not impressed.

Book Description

Traders played a key role in the revitalization of the Navajo economy in the late nineteenth century, and Don Lorenzo Hubbell was among the most respected and influential. The post he established still serves visitors and the Navajo community.

Customer Reviews:

Well worth the visit.......2006-03-19

I visited this trading post during a motorcycle trip in June, 2005. After reading Elizabeth Hedgemann's "Navajo Trading Days", I did some more research and purchased this book. Good photographs and historical data on the surrounding area. I plan to return to the Navajo Nation in 2006 and revisit this trading post and others.

Small Side Table Book for Western Decor.......2002-06-15

From the 1880's to the 1940's, non-Navajo individuals entered a world seldom seen by outsiders and became esteemed residents on the Navajo reservation. They were the Navajo traders, and they played a significant role in Navajo life during this time period. They ran the general store and pawn shop. They pushed for higher levels of craftmanship in Navajo arts and crafts and then marketed those products to the rest of the United States. The trading post was a central meeting place and a communication center, and the traders were the social service providers.

Lorenzo Hubbell was one of the earliest Navajo traders and is perhaps the most well known. Hubbell and his family ran the trading post at Ganado, Arizona. It is now the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. The book is a small coffee table style book designed to be interesting to look at and quick to read. The text is primarily about Hubbell and his family and how he was involved in the issues of his time. It includes a summarized history of the Navajo people and well appointed color and black and white photographs.

Since this book is only about Hubbell and the Ganado trading post, this book is an excellent historical resource if you are planning on visiting that site or would like a souvenier book. I purchased it as a supplemental text to learn more about Hubbell after I had learned about other trading posts and the Navajo culture. If you are interested in learning more comprehensive information about the Navajo culture and the role of the traders, I would recommend "Wide Ruins" by Sallie Wagner and "Navajo Trader" by Cladwell Richardson. Out of the two books, "Wide Ruins" is my favorite, but both books contain personal stories of Navajo people and their culture. I learned more about the role the traders played in the Navajo world from "Wide Ruins" and "Navajo Trader" then from "Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site", but it achieves its purpose with style.

Average customer rating:
Hubbell Trading Post National Historic site: An administrative history (Southwest Cultural Resources Center professional papers)
Albert D Manchester
Manufacturer: Division of History, Southwest Cultural Resources Center, Southwest Region, National Park Service, Dept. of the Interior
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006QSSQ6

Average customer rating:
An Archaeological assessment of Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site (Archives E 78 U5a H87 no. 3 NPS)
Dan Scurlock
Manufacturer: Center for Anthropological Studies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Archaeology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006XKCLI

Average customer rating:
Cultural landscape report for Hubbell Trading Post National Historical Site, Ganado, Arizona (Cultural resources selections)
Peggy Froeschauer-Nelson
Manufacturer: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Intermountain Region, Intermountain Support Office--Santa Fe, Cultural and National Register Programs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006RFSMW

Average customer rating:
Dendrochronology of Hubbell Trading Post and residence: Final report
William J Robinson
Manufacturer: s.n.]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006XKCPY

Average customer rating:
Excavation of the Sand Dune Site (AZ.K:6:11) at Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, Ganado, Arizona
Karin L Jones
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00072OH5U

Average customer rating:
Furnishing plans for the Hubbell Home, HB-2: Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, Ganado, Arizona
David M Brugge
Manufacturer: Denver Service Center]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Parks & Campgrounds | Food & Lodging | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00073BS24

Average customer rating:
Historic furnishings study, barn and blacksmith shop HB-3: Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, Arizona
A. Berle Clemensen
Manufacturer: Denver Service Center, Historic Preservation Division
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Parks & Campgrounds | Food & Lodging | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00073BS2O

Average customer rating:
Homestead and farm: A history of farming at the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site
Charles S Peterson
Manufacturer: Southwest Parks and Monuments Association]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Native American | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Native American Studies | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00071XG08

Average customer rating:
Hubbell trading post
Kath M Anderson
Manufacturer: Southwest Parks and Monuments Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

History | Subjects | Books | Africa | Americas | Ancient | Arctic & Antarctica | Asia | Australia & Oceania | Books on CD | Books on Cassette | Europe | Gay & Lesbian | Historical Study | Large Print | Middle East | Military | Military Science | Russia | United States | World
ASIN: B00072LII4

Book Description

A peek at Akbar & Jeff's private lives--are they or aren't they? (And what's up with Ernie and Bert?)

Customer Reviews:

Fun comic.......2007-09-22

Cute comics from the creator of "The Simpsons". I love Matt Groening's "other stuff"! I like Akbar & Jeff's various business schemes and relationship problems. Fun to leaf through!

Ok start for our lovable Groening........1999-10-05

An eary work for the now VERY famous Groening, this comic book will bring laughs for all Life is Hell, Simpson, and Futurama lovers. Go to your local barnes and noble or borders to actually buy this comic book, for it is out of print and you cant buy it over the internet. :)

Akbar & Jeff's guide to life: A cartoon book

Average customer rating:

Akbar & Jeff's guide to life: A cartoon book
Matt Groening
Manufacturer: Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Drawing | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006ES2RI

Average customer rating:

Akbar and Jeff Guide to Life
Matt Groening
Manufacturer: Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0679724974

Average customer rating:

Akbar and Jeff's Guide to Life

Manufacturer: HARPER COLLINS 1 PAP
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H08YBA

Average customer rating:

Excellent Biography of the Rolling Stones

some insight

I Got Satisfaction

Gimmme BS

Now Look!

Old Gods Almost Dead: The 40-Year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones
Stephen Davis
Manufacturer: Broadway
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Composers & Musicians | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones

Stone Alone: The Story of a Rock 'n Roll Band

Nankering With the Rolling Stones

Rolling With The Stones

S.T.P.: A Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones

ASIN: 0767903137
Release Date: 2002-09-03

Book Description

The acclaimed, bestselling rock-and-roll biographer delivers the first complete, unexpurgated history of the world’s greatest band.

The saga of the Rolling Stones is the central epic in rock mythology. From their debut as the intermission band at London’s Marquee Club in 1962 through their latest record—setting Bridges to Babylon world tour, the Rolling Stones have defined a musical genre and experienced godlike adulation, quarrels, addiction, legal traumas, and descents into madness and death_while steadfastly refusing to fade away. Now Stephen Davis, the New York Times bestselling author of Hammer of the Gods and Walk This Way, who has followed the Stones for three decades, presents their whole story, replete with vivid details of the Stones’ musical successes_and personal excesses.

Born into the wartime England of air-raid sirens, bombing raids, and strict rationing, the Rolling Stones came of age in the 1950s, as American blues and pop arrived in Europe. Among London’s most ardent blues fans in the early 1960s was a short blond teenage guitar player named Brian Jones, who hooked up with a lorry driver’s only son, Charlie Watts, a jazz drummer. At the same time, popular and studious Michael Philip Jagger–who, as a boy, bawled out a phonetic version of “La Bamba” with an eye-popping intensity that scared his parents–began sharing blues records with a primary school classmate, Keith “Ricky” Richards, a shy underachiever, whose idol was Chuck Berry. In 1962 the four young men, joined by Bill Perks (later Wyman) on bass, formed a band rhythm and blues band, which Brian Jones named the “the Rollin’ Stones” in honor of the Muddy Waters blues classic.

Using the biography of the Rolling Stones as a narrative spine, Old God Almost Dead builds a new, multilayered version of the Stones’ story, locating the band beyond the musical world they dominated and showing how they influenced, and were influenced by, the other artistic movements of their era: the blues revival, Swinging London, the Beats, Bob Dylan’s Stones-inspired shift from protest to pop, Pop Art and Andy Warhol’s New York, the “Underground” politics of the 1960s, Moroccan energy and European orientalism, Jamaican reggae, the Glam and Punk subcultures, and the technologic advances of the video and digital revolution. At the same time, Old Gods Almost Dead documents the intense backstage lives of the Stones: the feuds, the drugs, the marriages, and the affairs that inspired and informed their songs; and the business of making records and putting on shows.

The first new biography of the Rolling Stones since the early 1980s, Old Gods Almost Dead is the most comprehensive book to date, and one of the few to cover all the band’s members. Illustrated throughout with photos of pivotal moments, it is a celebration of the Rolling Stones as an often courageous, often foolish gang of artists who not only showed us new worlds, but new ways of living in them. It is a saga as raunchily, vibrantly entertaining as the Stones themselves.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Biography of the Rolling Stones.......2007-01-15

This is an excellent in-depth biography of the Stones and their music. It's an easy read, full of interesting information, lots of good photos, and covers the entire career of the bad boys of Rock and Roll from their early days till the time of the book's publication. It is well-researched, balanced, fair to all involved, not overly fawning, and filled with new information I had not read elsewhere. I highly recommend it.
Five stars.

some insight.......2007-01-08

I was required to buy this book for a musicology class focusing on the Rolling Stones at Boston University. We were asked to read pretty much the entire book as supplemental reading along with the class. I like the way the book chronicles the events and feelings of the band throughout their gargantuan career however there are a few things I could have done without. I love the music but the rambling way that Davis describes each album when they released them is not really an easy read. I think that if he had somehow devised a different writing style for these crucial descriptions I would have given the book a full five stars. Nevertheless, its a good read whether you are or are not interested in the Rolling Stones and the pictures are also interesting. Its a good history.

I Got Satisfaction.......2006-11-02

This is the only Stones' book I've read and I plan on reading more, but as a start, I was impressed and feel Davis has written a decent biography of the band. He appears to deal thoroughly with the early years of the band all the way up to the death of Brian Jones. The Mick Taylor years seem a bit rushed (he wasn't there that long, though), in fact, the last two decades of the band seem written hurriedly, but I guess they weren't working nearly as much as they had in their true youth or weren't making as much news.

The details of the interrelationships of Anita Pallenberg, Brian Jones, Keith Richard and Mick Jagger alone would probably make a great book on it's own. I wouldn't mind knowing more about that!

Gimmme BS.......2006-06-21

Worst Stones book I've read in years
Riddleed with innacuracies
Skip this one

Now Look!.......2005-10-11

I don't care what the subject is, you're never going to find one book that will be the end-all. You gotta read everything you can get your hands on & decide for yourself what you wanna believe. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this read on the Rolling Stones. Three fifths of this book concentrates on the Brian Jones period. That's a good thing. Sure, there are some "facts" missing or just plain wrong, but I wasn't there to edit the manuscript for Mr. Davis. Maybe someday we'll get "Old Gods" part 2 & Davis can do a better job on the last 30 years of the band. Read it. Enjoy it. Bring your salt shaker.

Book Description

On the surface, fishing is all about casting, catching and communing with nature, but on a deeper level, the sport is filled with mysteries and contradictions. Why do people fish? How does a desire to return to nature go hand in hand with high-tech gadgetry? How is it possible to see other people’s fishing as despoiling nature but not one’s own? What does the long and complex history of the sport reveal? Like so much else in life, what fishing says about society and the people in it -- both past and present -- is hidden from view and almost never discussed.

This book is a considered foray into the leisure sport of fishing by an avid fisherman who is also a professional anthropologist. Those who enjoy the sport tend to extol its naturalness - fishing enables them to commune with nature at its most primeval. However, if it’s called natural, it’s probably a great spot to trawl for clues as to how people manage larger cosmic issues. ‘Call it natural,’ the author quips, ‘and the anthropologists will come.’

Is fishing an uncomplicated activity, or is it deeply meaningful? What does it say about culture? Is the recent resurgence of interest in the sport simply a reflection of more disposable incomes and more leisure time? What is the connection between fishing and Santa Claus? fishing and flamenco? And finally, what is the best way to kiss a trout? Unlike most books on fishing, which focus on the tale or on ‘how-to’, this book shows that there is much more lurking beneath the surface than fish.

Book Description

The profound changes in the relationship between employers and employees during the 1980s have included increases in the extent of employee participation, declining unionization, wage restraint, concession bargaining, and labor management cooperation. These essays examine whether these significant changes constitute a fundamental transformation of the American system of industrial relations.

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