Book Review: A Pictorial History of Costume

During my relaxing winter break, I began reading through my stack of history-themed books that I accrued throughout the year. The first book I completed was A Pictorial History of Costume by Wolfgang Bruhn and Max Tilke, which I found for a mere $7.00 at the Book Barn in Niantic, CT. The book combined a pair of earlier books: Deutsche Kultur-Bilder: Deutsches Leben [German Culture Pictures: German Life] published by Bruhn in German in 1934, and Kostümschnitte und Gewandformern [Costume Patterns and Garment Designs] published by Tilke in German in 1948. I read the 1988 English language edition with a publisher’s note on the “archaism” found within the book, a polite way of warning readers that some depictions would not be politically correct.

The book was divided into two sections. In the front half were written descriptions of the costumes, which include information on the culture represented through clothing, famous people who might have worn the clothing, and often the original reference for the illustration. For example, an illustration of a toga pura, a simple white garment worn by young Roman men, was based on a statue of Julius Caesar found at the Altes Museum in Berlin, Germany. Thanks to modern digital collections practices, I found the collections listing to view the original statue. The arms of poor Caesar have been removed in the ninety years since the first publication, as these were not his to begin with but had once belonged to a different statue. Back to the book, my only complaint for this section was that the text was small, perhaps a 8 or 9 point font, and printed in dark grey rather than rich black. Increasing the size to 11 point and darkening the ink would have greatly improved readability.

The second half of the book would be more interesting to the typical reader, as these were the illustrations. The nine inch by twelve inch semi-glossy paper provided sharp contrast for black-and-white images and vibrant hues for full-color images. Combined with the heavier weight of the paper and relaxed spine, I felt comfortable laying the book flat on a desk and rapidly flipping through to find exact costumes without worrying about damaging pages. One of my favorite pages was the illustrations of European shoes during the 14^th and 15^th centuries. These long leather shoes with an exaggerated, curled up toe looked similar to elf shoes found in modern Christmas movies. Medieval travelers wore wooden sandals below their leather shoes to protect the delicate material.

When considering illustrations in the book as grouped by time period, location, and culture, the numbers were significantly uneven. Countries of “Antiquity”, which appeared in the Bible, took up the first twenty-five pages, while the European Middle Ages took up the next thirty-four. Bruhn’s original work as a German culture researcher was evident when about thirteen pages were dedicated to early 20^th century folk costume in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. In contrast, all of sub-Saharan Africa received a single page, while any culture outside the West was depicted in the late 19^th and early 20^th century, never earlier. Bruhn and Tilke likely had no resources from these places, which would have been much more difficult to collect before modern transportation and the internet. To the credit of the artists, people of all cultures were drawn accurately and with respect, although occasionally with incorrect facial structure and skin tone.

A Pictorial History of Costume is a great resource for anyone interested in learning more about what people wore long ago, especially cultures from western Europe and the Mediterranean. While a product of its time in its failure to be diverse and equitable by modern standards, the artists maintained a high quality of illustration throughout the book. The material is appropriate for middle school age and up as a classroom or homeschool textbook. Additionally, it is an excellent resource for historical reproduction artists. One final warning on age appropriateness: as I have noted in past posts, Americans have retained their puritan sensibilities about nudity, so members of that audience should note that some costumes in Egypt and South America contained little more than a strip of cloth. Overall, I encourage readers interested in this topic to track down their own physical copy rather than relying on the scans available online, as the detail and color cannot be matched in current digital formats.

Abby Epplett’s Rating System

Experience: 9/10

Accessibility: 6/10