Hilda AmphlettHats: A History of Fashion in Headwear (Dover Fashion and Costumes)

I bought this for reference for hats for an amateur drama group - so it's not totally necessary to have them perfect, but it is necessary for us to get a "feel"right for the time and convey differences in age and social status of the different characters. It's pretty good for this purpose. It has a lot of illustrations (the last one is figure 800, and most have some reference given for the picture - though the last 150 or so, are only described as travellers' photos or coming from one specific book)- but they're all pretty small (about a 1/6 of an A4 page) and black&white sketches . The figure captions are relatively uninformative (for instance "German"), and it's necessary to skim through the text to find even small amounts of information about the picture. The chapters are arranged by century so its easy enough to find an approximate era. It focuses heavily on European (especially English) hats though has some from other continents.This is a book on what the hats looked like, not how they were made or how to make reproductions.Although it says it cover 2 millennia the first millenium has only 5 pages, so you need to look elsewhere for deep history.There's nothing obviously wrong with it, but I'm left feeling uninspired. (Possibly part of the problem is that almost all historic sources focus on what rich people wore rather than poor people, and this book uses those sources. And likewise the attention given to people of different ages and men/women is dependent on what sources ever existed, still existed & the author was able to find in 1974 so overall is patchy ). I suspect this is the best I'll get for a reasonable price - it's wonderful that Dover is reprinting these older historic costume books - I just wish I liked it more.

If you are a milliner that have students asking you all about the history of hats, well this is book. I had originally borrowed this book from a distant university through interlibrary loan. How happy was I that I could get this as an ebook?! I compared it to the original print version & its exactly the same as the first printing.

This is a mostly well-researched history of hats, however the pictures are mysteriously lacking identifying labels of the item or style shown. Also, non-European hats and headwear occupy but a few pages at the end of the book, which feels almost like an addendum. That is most unfortunate. I hope some future edition will correct these issues to make a better book.

As others have noted, good written info but pictures are not very helpful. I prefer The Mode in Hats and Headdresses for images.

Great book !!

disappointing---small sketches--some of which are so bad you can't tell what it is

this book was bought as a present for another party and has been accepted as a gift, I myself have only glanced at it.The recipient asked for this title.

An another great Dover publication, this one from 2003. The chapters are grouped by century and then divided into Men, Women, Children as well as some speciality sections such as Military, Crowns, Ecclesiastical. Differences between various European countries at various times is included, with a chapter on 20thC non-European countries as well. Utilises detailed b/w sketches, though usually only the front of side view. Great dialogue on each era provides context. An excellent resource for anyone with an interest in this topic.

Expected rather more from the text.Nothing special, no in depth analysis of periods and head coverings, which one would expect from "A History..." There are only indifferently executed line drawings, some taken from well-known art works, as illustrations.I made the mistake of falling in love with the cover. Disappointing for anyone with an interest in the development of clothing design and its impact on and influence by societyand historical events.

Good for research

beaucoup d information sur le chapeau

Articolo arrivato super puntuale, ben imballato.Felice dell'acquisto