Description

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Have you ever wondered why we wear the type of clothes we do? Packed with outlandish outfits, this exciting history of fashion trends reveals the flamboyant fashions adopted (and discarded) by our ancestors.
In the days before cosmetic surgery, people used bum rolls and bombastic breeches to augment their figures, painted their faces with poisonous concoctions, and doused themselves with scent to cover body odor.
Take a fresh look at history’s hidden fashion disasters and discover some of the stories behind historical garments:
How removing a medieval woman’s headdress could reveal her as a harlot
Why Tudor men traded in their oversized codpieces for corsets
How crinoline caused a spate of shoplifting among Victorian ladies
Karen Bowman charts our sartorial history from the animal skins first used to cover our modesty and show off hunting skills, right up to the twentieth-century drive for practicality and comfort. Corsets and Codpieces is a fascination read for history buffs and fashionistas alike.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

About the Author

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Karen Bowman is the author of Essex Girls and Essex Boys, and a contributor to British Life magazine. She is a frequent public speaker on historical subjects, including fashion. Karen lives in Essex, England.

Praise For…

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“Corsets and Codpieces is an extremely expansive, often jolly book. Karen Bowman is the writer’s equivalent of a magpie, her beady eye alert for the offset of details and the weirdest of facts in her brisk romp through a millennium of fashion’s victims.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Corsets and Codpieces is an extremely expansive, often jolly book. Karen Bowman is the writer’s equivalent of a magpie, her beady eye alert for the offset of details and the weirdest of facts in her brisk romp through a millennium of fashion’s victims.”
—New York Times Book Review