I was talking about it earlier, here is the promised post about this japanese/french catalog. Here is the cover (thanks to Amazon):

Inside you can find a small introduction in japanese (I don’t know what it says) and then the  reproductions of the original catalogs. They come from several department stores in Paris, some that are still well known (like le Printemps or le Bon Marché) and others whose names I didn’t know. All the descriptions are left in French. You can see a lot of clothing pieces with their descriptions (materials used) and their price. They are shown as drawings, with lots of details. I think this is a very interesting book for those interested in vintage clothes. It might also be of interest for lace lovers, since it was sold in a lace shop.

I did some research since my last post. I wanted to find whether they publisher had made other books like this. It seems not. That’s a little disappointing, I would have loved to find a similar book about crinoline dresses. I love that kind of dress! Among the 19th/early 20th centuries fashions it’s one of my favorite. I’m not as crazy about the style of clothing they wore in 1900. And considering the price old catalogs and magazines go for, such books covering many era would be very interesting. This book has 303 pages and is sold at 2940 yens.

That said, while browsing through Amazon I discovered a good number of English books about Victorian fashion. Some of them have good reviews and seem interesting, I think one day I’ll take one or two. What I find sad is that all the books I found are in Japanese or English, while at least half of the material they’re based upon is French (catalogs or magazines). Why don’t we release anything like this in French??? Or maybe it’s only me and I didn’t search for the right thing… that would be sad if our resources are only used by other people. :s

Here are some of the English books I found that seem interesting:- Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey- Victorian and Edwardian Fashions from “La Mode Illustree”- Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper’s Bazar, 1867-1898- Elegant French Fashions of the Late Nineteenth Century: 103 Costumes from La Mode Illustree, 1886- Full-Colored Victorian Fashions: 1870-1893- Children’s Fashions of the Past in Photographs- Children: A Pictorial Archive of Permission-Free Illustrations- Children’s Fashions, 1860-1912: 1,065 Costume Designs from “LA Mode Illustree”