A HISTORY OF FASHION AND COSTUME: VOLUME 4 – EARLY AMERICA

Paige Weber

Bailey Publishing Associates Ltd., Hove, England

Year 2005

Pages 64

An eight-volume set examining the development of costume and fashion and the social history that gave rise to it. It depicts the changing styles, processes, and trends – from the first people to wear clothes in the last Ice Age to the courtly fashion of medieval Europe and to the globalization of Western style – that led us to the clothing of today. This volume explains that throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, explorers left Europe to search for westward sea routes to Asia. Instead they discovered the Americas, vast continents filled with unknown civilizations and treasures. Some of these native civilizations had developed into powerful empires.  European explorers quickly understood that clothing was an important indicator of status among Native Americans. A person from any civilization could be judged instantly by the richness of his cloth, rareness of his jewelry, and magnitude of his headdress. The rulers were obvious. Though the clothing worn by these civilizations – European and Native American – differed greatly, they all shared a common interest in costume. The desire to dress up, to decorate the body, and to convey wealth and identity through clothing was common to every early American society.