Fabric a la Romantic Regency: A Glossary of Fabrics from Original Sources from 1795 – 1836 Paperback – November 5, 2013

It's difficult to give a limp review to any book in the tiny world of Regency, especially since the authors are such help to one another. But I must confess disappointment, rather severe disappointment with this book. It is not at all what I expected. Nor is it, to be fair, what I was led to believe it was by the Look Inside.Anyone who even tiptoes through the Regency knows that fabric was as important to these people as the way it was cut. They were obsessed with it, and consequently, were constantly tossing around names of fabrics known to them that are long forgotten. Ms Salisbury says in her very good introduction, which I was allowed to see before purchase, that this is so, and makes it difficult to always have much of a definition of what a particular cloth was. I understand. What I was not permitted to see was a typical listing. If I had, I wouldn't have bought it. This very large book is an absolutely encyclopedic list of places in which the name of each cloth is found, with pieces of quotes from some of the sources, everything from a few words out of a 1797 dictionary to La Belle Assemblee to the Gazette. I don't own every copy of La Belle Assemblee. Even if I did, this would be cumbersome. And words from the reference without a picture are little help, discovering it was "an autumnal brown wrap-coat with sleeves of twill and sarcenet." Ok. So? What is sarcenet? I was expecting at least a couple of sentences describing this cloth - its typical uses, for rich ladies or middle-class, summer weight or winter, typical colors. What I'm instead generally left with is very little, and nothing I can put together without going to the sources cited. In truth I'm making it sound more helpful than it is. With a very common dress material, like sprig muslin, there is no statement concerning what it was, what it looked like, was it fashionable throughout the period, was it embroidered or block-printed, etc. I did find some small quotes that seemed to be instructions to a professional loom operator of the period. Again, not helpful. These references are great I suppose for someone doing in-depth research, but I was hoping for a couple of general sentences from the author herself. You don't get that. Therefore, some listings, like sarcenet, will give you a few dictionary words, "fine thin woven silk," others don't. It doesn't give you too much even at that. This listing starts with "a white crape petticoat" and a reference to the magazine I must dig up that may or may not offer a picture. Cumbersome, and not what I expected.I saw her other book, Elephant's Breath and London Smoke, that was strictly colors, where you do get to see a typical entry. But I have several books on colors, as well as the invaluable OED, and therefore can almost always discover what a color was. OED doesn't usually discuss fabric, certainly not in anything like detail. So far, I can't find anything that does, in at least general and helpful terms.

astounding resource for regency fabrics and other fashion sundries of the era. Pairs well with Regency Women's Dress: Techniques and Patterns 1800-1830 and The Lady's Stratagem: A Repository of 1820s Directions for the Toilet, Mantua-Making, Stay-Making, Millinery & Etiquette

Fantastic well worth the cost.

I produce historical costumes for use in a museum as well as by reenactors. As such, I am on a constant pursuit of accuracy, particularly when it comes to fabrics. While I initially put this book on my wishlist because I thought it would have a lot of images (I suppose I could have read the description more carefully), I found that the opposite was true--no pictures at all.That being said however, the book instead is chock-full of references to obscure fabric names from the period, complete with references from periodicals of the time. Woot! This is ever-so-useful if you spend a lot of time reading fashion descriptions and are wondering "What the hell is paduasoy?"My only complaint is that the references are laid out in such a way that they are a little difficult to separate and decode: all of the references for one term are basically jammed into one paragraph, and it's like reading several hundred pages of footnotes.So my feeling is this--it's an immensely useful book for academics and serious reproducers of historic costume. For anyone who would prefer to drool over some eye candy in a glamorous picture book, this one isn't going to be a good choice.

Useful collection of period comments on fabrics. This resource will work best for you if you already know (or have read/heard) a term for a certain fabric and wish to know more about it. Fabrics are alphabetized by name, with comments from sources (usually fashion magazines) of the time. Thus, it is a great resource to have on hand if you need to look up "pamyrienne" or "satin Rachelle", as it will provide definitions and descriptions from original sources from the era.This book will not be AS useful in stand-alone form for the user who is wishing to peruse fabrics by category -- for instance, by evening dress. Rather, this is the book you turn to if you already HAVE a list of fabrics used for evening dresses, and you want to know what those terms actually mean (and see them used in context). :)Additionally, the author notes that although one fabric might be described as the height of fashion one year, it may be deemed common in the next. For that reason, the dates of the sources have been provided so the reader can discern the popularity of a fabric by year.

Not quite what we expected. Purely definitions and descriptions with no illustrations or examples. However it will be a useful and informative reference to the fabric types with their names and applications in the Regency period.