Empire Fashions, Paperback/Tom Tierney

This coloring book panorama of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century French fashions offers a fascinating survey of the changes in clothing style worn during and after the Revolution, and of clothing of the Napoleonic era in general. Forty-five plates of detailed, accurate illustrations include representative of claw-hammer frock, coats and vests for the well-dressed man, loose pantaloons and shorter skirts for the working classes, high-waisted promenade gowns for fashionable ladies, the coronation gown worn by Empress Josephine of France, and other examples of period dress. Footwear, walking sticks, reticules (purses), top hats, turbans, a "poke" bonnet, and dozens of other period accessories are included, along with hairdos for men and women. A highly informative Introduction and detailed captions complete this new addition to Dover's popular coloring book series on the history of costume.