The Evolution of Dress

Abstract

THERE was certainly room for a scientific account of the evolution of dress. The present book, however, which professes to be “a popular contribution to the natural history of man,” is hardly more than a collection of curious survivals in modern fashions, uniforms, the dress of the Court, the Church, the Bar, and other learned and official personages. The bibliography consists largely of articles in magazines and newspapers, and the author seems to have little acquaintance with the scientific literature of the subject, such as the frescoes of the Minoan Age unearthed by Mr. A. J. Evans; the contributions of Mr, H. Balfour, Mr. Skeat, Dr. Westermarck, and Dr. Haddon on the evolution of ornament; Prof. Ridgeway on the penannular brooch; Dr. J. G. Frazer's classical paper on mourning as a disguise to baffle the ghost. He appears not to have read even such popular works as those of the late Mr. Elworthy on the “Evil Eye” and “Horns of Honour.”

The Heritage of Dress, being Notes on the History and Evolution of Clothes.

By W. M. Webb. Pp. xxvi + 393. (London: E. Grant Richards, 1907.) Price 15s. net.