Resource for costumers, milliners, reenactors...heck, any student of history!



From: Art in costume design: practical suggestions for those interested in art, sewing, history and literature(1920)

Recently I stumbled across a site containing scans of lots and lots of old dressmaking and millinery books from the early part of the last century and older. Wow. They also have antique and vintage magazines and cookbooks scanned and saved to the site. Double Wow. Grab a cup of tea, wine, or (insert your beverage of choice here), and enjoy cruising through the site for a while, it's well worth it!

Check out all of these little gems here by The Human Ecology Collection at the University of Wisconsin. Thank you, University of Wisconsin, for bringing all of these wonderful historical resources to interwebs. :)

I love reading vintage books on how to dress, and there are a few on this site. The one I'm currently flipping through is called Clothes That Count and How To Make Them (1923). How could you not love advice like, "Clothes properly managed will transform a plain nonentity into a character to be reckoned with"? Those poor, plain nonentities were obviously in need of this book....