We’ve built up a small and select collection of book offerings here at Atelier Lily Absinthe and right now, many are on sale. Besides, fabrics and patterns, reference books are a key aspect in understanding historical clothing. Bellow are just some of our selections:

Drawing on the exquisite collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute, Fashion: A History from the 18th To The 20th Century provides a compact yet comprehensive overview of fashions spanning one of the most active periods in Western fashion styles. The best part is that while this book is comprehensive, it’s sized for easy handling so it’s just the perfect size for quickly looking up things while actively working on a project.

Fabrics are the basic foundation of fashion and when it comes to the Victorian and Edwardian eras, it can be quite bewildering trying to figure out how some of the more obscure fabrics were used. Textiles For Victorian and Edwardian Clothing: 1880-1920 helps to sort things out through the use of historical documentation and swatches of the various fabrics.

For an introductory visual survey of Victorian and Edwardian fashions, we highly recommend Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey by Alison Gernsheim.

For a more detailed treatment of Victorian/19th Century Fashion, English Women’s Clothing in the Nineteenth Century by C. Willett Cunnington is a good place to start.

And for a good overview of how high fashion progressed during the mid to late 19th Century, we recommend Victorian Fashions & Costumes from Harper’s Bazar 1867-1898. This has been a constant source of inspiration for many of our designs here at Lily Absinthe.

Finally, for a French view of Victorian and Edwardian fashion, we highly recommend Victorian and Edwardian Fashions from “La Mode Illustrée” by JoAnne Ollan. This too has been a constant source of inspiration for us. Well, there you have it! We have all of these in stock at Atelier Lily Absinthe, ready for shipment today!