Living Fashion by Leen Demeester, explains the influence of fashion on the daily life of middle class women in Western Europe between 1750 and 1950. The text focuses mainly on high fashion as women from the middle classes tried to copy these styles as well as they could. The powerful rise of the bourgeoisie in the 19th century provided them with new possibilities and created an accessiblity to a pastime which stimulated the purchase of fashion. Text in English and Dutch. Contents: Living Fashion: Portrait of the collector Jacoba de Jonge - Karen Van Godtsenhoven Down to the Last Thread - Jacoba de Jonge Comfortable at Home: Fashionable Morning & Domestic Apparel, 18th-Century France - Wim Mertens Fashionably Pregnant in the 19th Century - Jacoba de Jonge This Sporting Life: Tennis Dresses, Divided Skirt & Riding Habits - Karen Van Godtsenhoven Homemade Fashion: Fact or fashion? - Frieda Sorber Modernity & Fashion in the 19th Century - Madelief Hohe Silly or Fashionable Fancy Dress? Narrative Costumes in the Jacoba de Jonge Collection - Rosalie Sloof AUTHOR: Jacoba de Jonge attended law school in Leiden, Netherlands, but gradually her passion for costume history grew and she started with a unique collection of dresses, now containing over 2500 pieces. She worked at the The Hague Kostuummuseum (museum of costume) for a year in 1965 and organised many costume exhibitions afterwards. With the help of historical gowns and accessories, fashion collector Jacoba de Jonge was able to create an image of the relation between the 'fashion ideal' and the actual clothing that women were wearing. Living Fashion looks at the production of fashionable clothing and the subsequent consequences concerning posture and behaviour. The book is then completed by several expert studies on fashion in general. SELLING POINTS: .A selection of images illustrating the amazing clothing collection of Jacoba de Jonge .Contains contributions from fashion curators and experts as well as accompanying an exhibition at the Fashion museum in Antwerp ILLUSTRATIONS: 150 colour