Just gorgeous. Why, oh why was I born in the '80s? Being 20 in the 40s/50s would have been fashion heaven. ( )

A stunningly illustrated guide to more than three thousand years of shifting trends and innovative developments in the world of clothing. Containing everything you need to know about changing fashion and style.

Fashion is the definitive guide to the evolution of costume and style. Tracing 3,000 years from the early draped fabrics of ancient times to today's catwalk sensations and with a foreword by fashion guru Caryn Franklin, this is your own personal fashion show through history.

Barely scratches the surface, and gives hardly any attention to Italian Renaissance fashion. I expected more from such a weighty book and subject. ( )

This traces 3,000 years of human clothing styles, starting with the ancient world and ending with our time's haute couture runways. For a quick ride through the history of costume, this is perfect; the texts are enlightening and the illustrations numerous and pertinent, although sometimes placed away from their description. I've read other DK survey books that were good and this is one of the best ones. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to know how or why us humans have come up with such bizarre ways of protecting our bodies from the environment. ( )