Book Review: The Typical Tudor

 At long last: The Typical Tudor.

[Full disclosure: as an early pre-order customer, I did receive an advanced version of the chapters on men's jerkins and on women's coats & waistcoats, and also provided feedback on one of the round gown patterns.] 

I ordered this in The Before Time. It was worth the wait.

The Typical Tudor: Reconstructing Everyday 16th Century Dress by Jane Malcolm-Davies and Ninya Mikhaila is the 6th book from the Tudor Tailor. I've previously reviewed three of their other works: The Queen's Servants, The Tudor Tailor, and The Tudor Child.

Chronologically, The Typical Tudor covers a lot of the same period as The Tudor Tailor. At 191 pages (excluding bibliography), this book is substantially longer than the other books from this publisher. Where it really distinguishes itself is in its meticulous research--to provide context to the garments, this book includes a very thorough overview of 16th century English economics and social class divisions. There's also detailed discussions of fabrics available (fiber, processing, finishing, price, usage), the cloth- and garment-making trades, trimmings, sumptuary laws, annual income by professions, etc. The first 35 pages are devoted to these topics, including many period illustrations, and photographs of surviving garments--as well as some excellent tables quantifying the extent garments which were researched.

There are 14 pages of general construction notes which include scaling the pattern grids, sewing methods, and knitting techniques. Next comes 135 pages of projects. These are grouped into 5 categories (undergarments, men's wear, women's wear, headwear, and others). Each grouping begins with a research overview including the evidence for each garment type, who was using the garments, the frequency of different materials/colors, and changes over the time period. Not counting variations, there are 40 base projects covering the beginning, middle, and end of the Tudor period for men and women: stockings, garters, hose, smocks, shirts, doublets, jerkins, kirtles, petticoats, coats, gowns, caps, coifs, hoods, aprons, and more. Knitting projects include stockings, sleeves, and caps. As in the earlier publications, each project includes line drawings and photographs of the reconstructed garments, a materials list, the pattern pieces drawn out on a grid (scaled down), and basic instructions for how to construct the garment.

In scope and topics, this book most closely follows The Tudor Tailor, and does include updates of some of the same patterns (like the woman's round gown and kirtle or man's hose). However, The Typical Tudor has benefited from an additional 16 years of research, and includes both new garments and updated interpretations of others. One notable update was the different shapes and construction methods for the coifs. The "everyday dress" aspect of The Typical Tudor puts an emphasis on the garments worn by the working class and gentry, which comprises a huge swath of the population: the only groups that are really excluded are the monarch's family and upper nobility/clergy.

This book also incorporates some features I that appreciated from its more recent predecessors. Like The Queen's Servants (and I presume, The King's Servants), each project is accompanied by pie graphs showing the most common colors and fabrics used for that garment.* Each project also has a small chart the year-range and social class to which the garment is appropriate, which was a feature I appreciated in The Tudor Child.

Project drafts and instructions are suitable for intermediate to advanced sewists; scaling up and fitting the patterns will be needed, though instructions are provided. If you've worked with any of their previous titles, this is very similar to the writing style in those. The only problem I've found with the book is a cut-off sentence on page 87 at the end of the research on Men's Doublets.

I would honestly recommend this book for anyone doing any form of 16th century costuming. Even if you're looking to recreate nobles' garments from the reigns of Henry VIII-Elizabeth, I think the techniques and shapes provided give a more more historically-grounded starting point than any other reference book I know of.

*From the research the authors conducted, which included documentary evidence from wills and inventories, as well as surviving garments.

**The exception being, that if you're looking for nobles' attire in the reign of Henry VII, I would steer you towards The King's Servants and/or The Queen's Servants.

Stars: 5

Accuracy: High. This is easily the most thoroughly-researched (and certainly the most thoroughly-cited) costume book I have encountered to date.

Skill Level: Intermediate, tending Advanced

Strongest Impression: Incredibly scholarship; this book is full of accurate detail, while also providing fairly user-friendly instructions and diagrams.