Ardern Holt c1890s Fancy Dresses Described or What to Wear at Fancy Balls 5th Ed

Up For Sale Today is

Fancy Dresses Described
or
What to Wear at Fancy Balls

by

Ardern Holt

Hardcover. 8vo. Published by Debenham & Freebody / Edward Arnold, London, UK. No Date (c1890s?).  253 pgs, illustrated with 16 color plates and 64 black and white illustrations. 5th Edition.

Bound in cloth boards with titles present to the spine and front board. Boards have light shelf-wear present to the extremities. Previous owner's name present to the FFEP. Foxing present. Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid.

The Victorians adored fancy-dress parties: what better way to escape the rigidity of social conventions than to spend a festive evening disguised as Cleopatra, a Swiss milkmaid, or Alice in Wonderland? Well-to-do party-goers of the era consulted Fancy Dresses Described, an elaborate guide to hundreds of glorious costumes.

Costumes range from the peasant garb of Austria, Italy, and Ireland to the finery of the six wives of Henry VIII, Marie Antoinette, and other members of French and English royalty. Additional entries spotlight characters from Shakespeare and Dickens; traditional apparel of Egypt and ancient Greece and Rome; Cinderella, Maid Marian, and other folkloric figures; as well as outfits suggested by astronomy, the seasons, the animal kingdom, and other thematic subjects. Costume designers, reenactors, lovers of Victorian fashion, and Halloween enthusiasts will find this historic volume a tremendous source of inspiration.