Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1977 - 36

through a text which is full of jargon and look at graphics which
tend to be repetitious. Good ideas are therefore obscured. At
other times, the tone of the discussion borders on a posture
which presumes the moral superiority of the environmental
style. On a purely technical level, there are typographical errors
in at least two places; the printing is blurred on several pages;
the paste-up is out of alignment here and there; and, in the end,
the book is a very poor value for its price.
McNamara, Rojo and Schechner are dedicated, experienced
environmentalists but, as book-artists, they fail to be charming,
persuasive and seductive. Their work is much easier to appreciate
than it is to enjoy.
Brian Arnott

Toronto

THE EVOLUTION OF FASHION: PATTERN AND CUT FROM
1066 TO 1930
by Margot Hamilton Hill and Peter A. Bucknell
London: B.T. Batsford, 1973
no ISBN
xii, 226 pp., iIIus., $22.50
This is a large book, one that can be studied only when it is
lying open on a table or on the sloping sid.e of a large lectern.
It is also well-made and its leaves lie flat; both sides of a page
(left and right) can be read without turning a page. There are fiftysix full-page drawings, each showing a man's and a woman's
costume. Following each plate comes a double-page layout showing patterns. The title of the book, The Evolution of Fashion,
is explained by the sequence of the styles, named for the kings
of England with dates of their reigns. Facing each costume group
is a left-hand page of text arranged in three columns and printed
in type somewhat smaller than that of most modern books on
costume. The contrast of large figures with small text makes for
an imbalance, suggesting that the pictures alone could convey
the story. Possibly this attitude is deliberate on the part of the
authors.
The bibliography includes perhaps most of the standard
treatises on the history of costume, but a good many titles are
missing from the list, notably several in French. The deficiency
of this bibliography, however, is its lack of attention to essential items in listing a book, especially the surprising omission
from all the notations of the city in which a book was published.
The question arises, for what use was this list of books intended?
Is it to show what printed works the authors have consulted,
or is it to help a reader to pursue his study with the book-list
in hand? A novice will be in difficulties when he tries to find
a book in his available library.
The scope of this book is clearly stated by the authors. The
divisions are by reigns of the kings of England from the Norman
Conquest to about ten years before the Second World War. The
pictures make a clear comment on the pace of Fashion during
this expanse of time. Between the first William and the first
Henry (about 50 years) one fashion sufficed and likewise between
Henry I and II (another 50 years!. After that, time's pace grows a
bit faster and increases for the rest of the centuries, so that in the
1920's every few years saw notable changes in the designs of
women's dress.
The authors state in their introduction that they have endeavored to show English men and women of only the upper middle
class. But the people in these drawings, up to the 19th century,
seem to be wearing court costume, laden with detail of fancyweave fabrics, embroideries, and jewels of all sorts. We see no
middle-class housewives, no solid burghers. Grant that by the
end of the seventeenth century the bourgeo isie were often prosperous, but we also learn that up through the sixteenth century
sumptuary laws placed a good deal of restriction on them. Yes,
of course, those laws were sometimes disregarded, but perhaps
not by the typical English man or woman. To costume a play
by, say Ben Jonson, the technician in clothes has to know how to
dress his stageful of less (much less) than courtiers. By the time
we get to the nineteenth century this is not an issue to be raised,
for from then on we have fashion plates for all women to pour
over and inspire to imitate and men drifted further and further
36

FALl,1977

into duller and duller sameness.
The student is thus deprived of a good deal of simple elegance as shown especially by Holbein and the miniaturists in
the sixteeneth century, by the Dutch painters in the seventeenth
century and by England's own portraitists of the eighteenth
century.
Frankly, the drawings that might have to inspire us to make
costumes for the stage are not appealing even to those who do
indeed know that every item of the amazingly detailed designs
can be traced to a plausible source, primary or as reproduced
in many pictures ... but not necessarily all simultaneously on one
garment.
So we come to the matter of sources and the reader's right to
know something more about where the ingredients of these particular sketches came from. To be sure, the introductory text
names the kinds of sources in general consulted by the artist. The
first drawings clearly show their sources in sculpture and painting
already known to the student; but increasingly more and more
sources are available and then might come the temptation to put
everything from a given period 0[1 one figure. During the long
reign of the first Elizabeth, English taste in dress was frequently
made fun of, not only by visiting foreigners but also by English
writers. Perhaps we should have one set of costumes that could
be laughed at by the playwright and that we can laugh at, but a
whole stageful would be too much to bear, even in a comedy and not to be thought of in a tragedy. If these overtrimmed
clothes must stand as the norm, then by all means let's have
"Shakespeare in modern dress."
It is hard to decide just who could use the patterns laid out
on the double facing pages. The pattern-maker himself, after explaining how his scheme works, seems to take back his promise
of help by saying, "because of this small scale of some parts of
the layout the taking of actual measurements from the patterns
should be avoided. Specific measurements from the person for
whom the costume is to be made and the drafting of basic blocks
adapted to the character of these patterns is considered advisable."
Then why not go to one of the recent books which do give exact
patterns, such as the two by Nora Waugh, The Cut of Men's
Clothes, 1600·1900 and Corsets and Crinolines?
In this essay, the authors seem to have played down the value
of the written word. But there are writings (several herein listed)
that are informative and also good reading. These other writers
have set down, often wittily and sometimes beautifully, their
reaction to the charm and great social significance of dress in
all centuries. You who may feel a bit revolted by many of the
figures here depicted should look for and read such essays and so
recover your admiration for the costume fantasies of your· ancestors.
Lucy Barton
University of Texas

DIALECTS FOR THE STAGE
by Evangeline Machlin
New York: Theatre Arts Books, 1975
ISBN 0-87830-040-6
182 pp. plus two cassette tapes, 839.95
Over the years we all have seen many books which have attempted to convey proper production techniques and sounds of
regionalisms or dialects through the use of text alone. With few
exceptions most of these have not been successful. The other
general approach to studying dialects has been to listen to various
recordings of famous speakers and actors and to try to distill from
these the characteristics of the regionalisms. Although superior
to using text alone the usefulness of this method for developing
an authentic dialect is limited since not all dialect types are
available in this form and since it takes a great deal of concentrated effort to isolate those characteristics which are particularly
relevant to a given dialect. Of course the best method is to work
with a professional coach who can help on individual phrases until
the proper dialect speech pattern is achieved, but the time and
money involved to do this for every dialect type is prohibitive.
Perhaps, the next best method is to use this book.
"Dialects for the Stage" combines both printed text and re-

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