High Style - Masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

High Style - Masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (#50) by Jan Glier Reeder is a gorgeous coffee table book if you enjoy looking at clothes.  When the Brooklyn Museum decided to transfer ownership and care of their costume collection to the Metropolitan Museum, Ms. Reeder spent three years assessing and documenting it before the physical transfer, so she is intimately familiar with the clothes and accessories.  She's highlighted several designers and high points of the collection which spans a time period from the 1760s to the 1960s in different chapters with a brief essay introducing each section.  Mostly, she lets the clothes speak for themselves.

I look at a book like this and I know that I was born in the wrong century.  I find today's clothing so very, very boring.  It's probably been a couple of decades at least since I've leafed through a copy of Vogue.  Yet I can look at a photo of a full, sweeping lilac ball gown (1862 - 1865) by Charles Frederick Worth and leave it open on my coffee table for a week because I love to look at it, and think how clever he was to include two separate bodices: one bare shoulders version for the ballroom, and one with a high neck and long sleeves for a dressy, but daytime occasion.  Or admire the elegance of an afternoon dress (1875) in green and navy.  How I wish I could see the front of that dress!  What would it have been like to be able to wear some of these fabulous dresses?  I know, I live in a fantasy world.  I never could have afforded clothes like this, but if you are going to dream, why not outfit yourself in something really well-made and sumptuous?

There are also some interesting historical items in this collection: a dress that Queen Victoria is wearing in a family christening photo that is almost as wide as it is tall; a beautiful linen evening shirt that belonged to Czar Nicholas II; and a gorgeous evening ensemble that Ava Gardner wore in the movie The Barefoot Contessa. 

And did I mention that there's a whole chapter on shoes?  That chapter does include some of the strangest looking footgear I've ever seen.  I'm not sure how the wearer would walk confidently in sandals designed by Victor in 1940 with their cantilevered heels.  They are based on Venetian chopines of the 17th century (There's a photo of a pair included in this chapter, and I'm not sure how they managed either without falling over backwards!).

My one complaint about this book, (and it's a big one) is that for many of these incredible creations, only one photo is provided.  Ms. Reeder frequently mentions the three-dimensional aspect of clothing, and that these dresses were designed to give different silhouette and interplays of light and color depending on the angle the observer.  She describes how the skirt is draped on one side, but you never know what she's describing because there's no picture.  Of course, that's equally true when you attend a costume exhibit; clothes are displayed on mannequins that are pushed up against a wall, or into a corner. It would be so nice to be able to walk all the way around to really study the beauty of the design from all angles.  Oh well....