Work has been busy, plus I’ve been watching lots of shlocky 1940s-set tv shows/movies (Bomb Girls, Land Girls, The War Bride, etc.) so I’ve been on a modern/vintage sewing kick!
In the meantime, I recommend reading this article from Humanities Magazine about the backstory of the Illuminating Fashion exhibition & book. I’d be interested in knowing what medieval costumers think of the book — does it provide a lot of new information?
I have this book and wrote a brief review on it here – http://medievalthreads.blogspot.com/2011/08/two-new-books.html It’s beautiful and large and has lots of wonderful pictures, many of which are not in any other source that I have easy access to, but some of the explanatory text is really really bizarre. The author clearly has no understanding of period construction techniques, current archaeological scholarship, or even what some of the garments in the pictures are (frilled veils are fur lined hoods for example). It’s worth getting for the pictures, just ignore the words.
I just ordered Illuminating Fashion, so I’ll reserve comment until it’s in my grubby little hands! I was super bummed to miss the exhibit when it was at the Getty last year, though. Still all sad-facey about it. 🙁
P.S. I’ve also been on a vintage/modern sewing kick! Weird! Do we, in fact, share a brain?