This book traces the evolution of the style of men's dress through a sequence of diagrams accurately scaled down from patterns of actual garments, many of them rare museum specimens. The plates have been selected with the same purpose. Some are photographs of suits for which diagrams have also been given; others, reproduced from paintings and old prints, show the costume complete with its accessories. Quotations from contemporary sources--from diaries, travelers' accounts and tailors' bills--supplement Norah Waugh's text with comments on fashion and lively eyewitness descriptions.

"This is a comprehensive guide to understanding and creating men's costumes and fashions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As well as being historically accurate, the author's patterns have been prepared so that they fit the modern male figure and adapted so that they can be readily constructed using today's fabrics and sewing techniques."--Back cover.

Subtitle on cover: Pattern cutting from the 16th to the 19th centuries.