Russian Elegance: Country & City Fashion from the 15th to the Early 20th Century

This is a really lovely book on the fashion in the Russian State Historical Museum. It differs from a lot of other Russian fashion books in that it has a large section of historical costume worn by the peasants and middle class in the country. There's a lot of colorful and intricate festive dress on display and the book explains how town fashion influenced country fashion and vice versa over the centuries. The end section of the book concentrates on town haute couture fashion and includes examples of court dress, general town clothes for men and women and a dress worn by Empress Marie Feodrovna. If you are into antique fashion this book is wonderful eye candy.

I great book filled with a lot on the garments of its time, Love it.

It was okay, but I wish they would have provided some sample pages before I bought it. It seemed disconnected from the true Russian wardrobe.

I was expecting more background information on the background of the clothing shown and their significance. Too many of the illustrations were captioned collection of peasant dresses". There wasn't much discussion on the parts of the garments or how they all went together.I hope I'm not the only one appalled to see 200-hundred-year-old garments displayed on hangers on racks as if there were being sold at the local Walmart.

I look at it all the time. It has not only beautiful traditional Russian clothes but also shows the lovely more 'European' styles that the aristoricracy wore. if you like fashion or Russian culture, you will like this. there's more to the sarafan than you might think,

The photographs are quite good. The selection is obviously limited by the availability of items that have survived the years, so expect lots of garments for the extremely wealthy and practically nothing for the other 99-percent.Nonetheless, if one is a fashion historian, fashionista, or fashion recreator, this will be enjoyable.

If you are interested in early Russian period dress this book is for you! The pictures are clear and clothes are magnificent and interesting. There is a wide variety of city and country clothes and very good explanations on the style and materials used.

I love this book! I'm reading the Forgotten People about the lives of the nobles during and after the revolution. This is a wonderful visual guide to their opulent clothing, just one of many reasons their society turned upside down.

I have only just started reading this book in depth, having looked through leisurely. It's educational, eye-opening, enlightening. If you are looking for something which gives you beautiful photographs, detailed explainations of the same and in-depth background, then this is the book for you. The only thing missing was the wonders of Russian jewellery, but that must be another book in itself.

This is an excellent book if you are interested in fashion history and Russia. With excellent illustrations, good analysis and very interesting anecdotes it serves both general reader and specialist alike. As an introduction it just draws you into a new world of elegance, fashion and history. Brilliant

Wonderful book about Russian historical costumes- it has a fantastic collection of photographs of, and information about, traditional Russian costumes, western-influenced fashion and court dress.

took a while to arrive, but worth the wait.

Really nice book about fashion in a country that we sort of tend to forget.