Christian Dior: History and Modernity, 1947 - 1957

I was hesitant to purchase this book unseen, as I own Dr. Palmer's other Dior publication, but am so happy that I took the risk. It is a publication of great beauty with lovely photography, well researched and insightful text, and wonderful small patterns and diagrams that really bring the designs and their genius to life.

This book is very thoroughly researched. It has many great illustrations and photographs, and insight into Dior's designs. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in clothing construction and fashion history. If you are a fan of Betty Kirke's book on Vionnet then you will appreciate Alexandra Palmer's detailed book on Dior. It is one of my favorite design books in my library.

This book beautifully illustrates iconic Dior design elements in stunning photos with glorious detail. Inspiring to look at, insightful and informative if you are a maker yourself.

Its amazing to be able to see the pattern of the dress. And how it was constructed .

I’d give it five stars but the pictures are so dark it’s difficult to make out what the details on the clothes. Other than that, the diagrams, pattern layouts, and fabric information are neat. The book could have included more photos of some of the garments but I guess they don’t have to show all their secrets.

The book cover was damaged, but I decided to keep this book because it is extremely rare.

I love to sew and I enjoy fashion history, especially the 1940's and 1950's. Much more than a coffee table book, it has fabulous descriptions and detailed photographs of engineering and construction details. It is riveting, especially for any person who poured over the Vogue pattern book in the 50's and 60's. It will definitely fire up your sewing enthusiasm. The depth of research is admirable.

This book is worth it's price. It is a very detailed, beautifully photographed book full of technical detail and photographs of the inside of the dresses. If you are interested in couture methods, this is a good book. There are lots of dresses that are not to be found in other books and are so well photographed that there is a wealth of information to be got from them. There are also the original sketches, press photographs and scale patterns of the dresses featured. Certainly one of the best books on Dior. My only gripe is that using a black backdrop to photograph black dresses is not the best thing you could do and even if you stand at a window to get the best daylight to look at these particular photos, they are more than obscure, but the rest of the book makes up for it. Highly recommended.