When I was a child I would spend hours looking in the historical fashion section of our Britannica and Collier encyclopedias. I am fascinated by historical costumes from ancient times on up to the early 20th century. My favorite period of historical dress was during the Empire and Regency periods of the late 18th and early 19th centuries when women let go of so much tight corseting and put on dresses and gowns inspired by the ancient Romans and Greeks. The high Empire waist line from that time is currently back in style again, and I love it. In the last 4 decades, fashion has basically been recycled over and over. This was not the case through the centuries. Braun and Schneider's historical fashion plates published in the late 1880s attested to diversity of fashion throughout the ages. Last year I bought Dover's edition of Braun and Schneider's work called Historic Costume in Pictures which can be seen here. All 125 plates which were published from 1861 until 1880 can be seen online. A prelude to all of the costumes are the ladies dancing above, these Turkish Ottoman ladies and an ancient Egyptian ruler and his servants.
Enjoy!
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