Yester-year

Behind every sleeve, veil, and ribbon lies a story of power, vanity, and desire. Fashion is never just fabric. Yester-year: Ten Centuries of Toilette gathers Alfred Robida's vivid chronicle of the changing rituals of dress, translated into English by Cashel Hoey, tracing the history of toilette from medieval courts to nineteenth-century boudoirs. With keen eye and gentle irony, it moves through French and European fashion as it shifts across ages and empires, from chivalric austerity to rococo extravagance and the polished restraint of the early modern city. Hairstyles and cosmetics history, perfumes, accessories, and the etiquette of getting dressed unfold as a living theatre of society, turning an illustrated fashion history into an intimate portrait of its age. A classic vintage fashion book and historical costume study, Yester-year spans medieval to Victorian dress in a way that feels both scholarly and wonderfully readable - indispensable for costume designers, fashion historians, and anyone building a serious history of costume collection or simply dreaming over lost finery. Out of print for decades and now republished by Alpha Editions, it is restored for today's and future generations, more than a reprint - a collector's item and a cultural treasure. For students of French and European fashion and for curious general readers alike, this elegant new edition of ten centuries of toilette opens a window onto the past that still colours how we dress today.