KIRTLE TO NEW LOOK

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 535, 23 September 1949, Page 19

KIRTLE TO NEW LOOK

THE ART OF ENGLISH COSTUME, by Willett Cunnington; Collins, through the | British Council. English price, 16/-. |F they are well written, books by specialists are often of exceptional interest to the general reader. This is such a book. Dr. Cunnington, whose famous collection of English costumes has recently been bought by the City of Manchester, adds to the antiquarian’s knewledge the medical man’s insight into human nature, and gives an analysis, authoritative and pungent, of the art of English costume, applying to: his thesis the canons of criticism which hold in the study of any visual art, treated morally and pictorially. In costume, says Dr. Cunnington, we study the exposure of the mind by the concealment of the body. Aiming to present the continuity of a living: art through six centuries, he discusses the philosophy of dress, emphasising the English genius for compromise. Technically, he reviews such topics as form in costume, the sleeve and the glove, headgear and hair, the principles of colour, textures and materials; philosophically, he discusses the aesthetics of costume, symbolism, mobility and the principles of sex attraction. This original survey is enlivened with gems of pertinent and outspoken contemporary criticism of extreme fashions in the past, and by his own vigorous wit. The immediate appeal of such a book must depend largely upon the’ pictorial illustrations. Here the author has been at some pains to choose unusual prints. The coloured plates are very attractive and the arrangement of the other plates in three groups is as convenient as any because each plate is referred to several times in the text. The early illustrations are mainly of portraits or of line drawings and prints of brasses or effigies which, appropriately, are becoming more widely used in historical surveys. Nearer ovr own time are choice carieatures, cartoons, photographs and fashion plates. These may be consulted for reference or for delight: there are very few family albums which have anything more delicious than the tennis group, 1855 (wearing, the author computes, a stone’s weight apiece in clothes -and gloves) or the bathing costume, 1886, "of turquoise blue flannel edged with torchon lace!" The Art of English Costume is + quick reading (the type, incidentally, is clear) because. constant reference to various plates is necessary, but it is always entertaining. Moreover, it rewards the reader by giving him a new (continued on page 21)

BOOKS (continued from page 19) appreciation of English costume and a heightened interest in modern dress, so that, even as Dr. Cunnington, he gazes on his kind with the inward eye of

speculation.

C.M.

B.