Beschrijving

The book

A book on historical clothing, combining museum pieces, archeology, art history and reenactment.

This costume book is unique in its scope, covering the history of costume through four centuries. It is also unique in its approach combining different disciplines such as museology, archaeology,  art history and reenactment. It shows research and images of historical clothing that survived in museums, fragments of pieces of fabric and clothing that come from archaeological finds and it shares with you experiences with making and wearing replicas of historical clothing. The book not only shows historical garments, what they looked like and how they were being made, but also the accessoires, including jewellry that were worn with these garments. And it gives an insight into how many pieces of clothing and what type of clothing one possesed depending on class and the place where you lived.

By whom?

I am Martine Teunissen, a public- and costume-historian. As a public historian I am specialised in translating academic research to a general public, for example in museums and films. I have been running my company Exerpience the Past since 2008. This is an event- & consultancy company, working with live costumed interpretation. With my team, we bring the past closer by organising historical balls, vintage parties & medieval crafts markets. We provide historical characters in role who perform for museums, castles and schools and we tell about historical events in a tangible manner. Over the years I have been recreating many historical costumes, doing constant research to improve my knowledge and skills. The Dutch publication of this book in 2020 brought all this knowledge together. This book has the title: Beleef Het Verleden. Een blik op vrouwenkleding in Holland van de 16e tot en met de 19e eeuw. 

For whom?

Whether you are a museum professional, a live costumed interpreter, working in the historical film industry or theatre, or you are a reenactor or hobbyist who likes to dress up historically correct for an event, this book is going to help you improve your knowledge and understanding of historical clothing, how it developed, why, and how it was being made.

Reviews

Some responses to the Dutch version of this book:

“What makes this study truly remarkeable, is its hands-on approach: Combining archeology and art history with her own experiences of re-creating historical costumes, Martine brings history back to live”  (Fenja Schulz)

“As an historian with an interest in (wearing) historical costumes I very much enjoyed reading this book. It gives a good insight in women clothing in Holland throughout the 16-19th centuries; how costumes were made, what fabrics they used and who wore them. For this the author combined a great number of museum costume collections, archaeological textile findings, art paintings and own (re)creations/replicas. A great example of interdisciplinary research! Above this, the book is abundantly illustrated and well written, which makes it suitable for a wide audience”.  (Jorien Boesveld)