All posts tagged: V&A

Friday Review: Underwear in Detail

Madame Ornata bought herself V&A’s new ‘in detail’ book Underwear: Fashion in Detail, and was kind enough to lend it to me to drool over use for research and review purposes. So here is the review! The Good: Images of lots & lots of gorgeous, unique, and interesting undergarments, all supported by excellent research. The book is particularly good at featuring unique one-off garments, or at least garments that are less discussed. The Bad: ‘Underwear in Detail’ has the same problem that all the ‘In Detail’ books have: it can’t decide what it is.  Is it a costume history book?  Than why some of the artsier detail pics?  Is it a history book?  Then why divide the information into such peculiar chunks around the book.  Is it an art book?  Then why all the background info and sketches? Despite their problems, the previous ‘In Detail’ books managed to walk a very narrow and occasionally visibly wobbly tightrope between coffee table pretty and serious history book, one that appealed to both the pedestrian fashion lover and …