From rags to riches

the long version

Describes how clothing for girls in the United States has reflected society's changing views on children, from dressing girls as little adults in the seventeenth century to allowing girls to express themselves by choosing from a variety of styles in the twenty-first century. Who thought up bloomers? Why were three-year-old colonial girls bound up in corsets? How did fashions such as voluminous muttonchop sleeves and incredibly wide hoopskirts catch on? From corsets and bustles to blue jeans and bell-bottoms, an acclaimed author of art books for children takes a thoughtful look at what American girls have been wearing from Colonial times to the present. Through pictures and a lively text, Leslie Sills presents practical as well as outrageous garments, how clothing was made, the people who made the clothes, and how fashion was marketed to women. This book includes more than sixty pictures and photographs, a glossary, index, bibliography, webography, and list of museums with costume collections.