After something like 2 years in gestation Noreen’s book, Dictionary of Children’s Clothes, finally appears in early-October. Here’s what the V&A’s blurb for the book says:

Over the last 300 years, children’s clothing has witnessed a gradual shift from dressing children to adult requirements, in multiple layers and formal styles, to the booming designer childrenswear market of today. This accessible and well-illustrated dictionary features over 300 garments, from air-raid suits to zouave jackets, with specially commissioned photographs from the world’s largest and most diverse collection at the V&A Museum of Childhood. A fully illustrated timeline and introduction offer an at-a-glance understanding of the changes in children’s fashions and a rich selection of line drawings and illustrations from sewing and knitting patterns, to catalogues, dolls, fashion plates, photographs, paintings and children’s fiction put the garments in context. Noreen Marshall is Curator of the Dress, Doll and Childcare Collections at the V&A Museum of Childhood. She has worked on a number of V&A exhibitions, including Stile Liberty, Jolly Hockey Sticks, The Pack Age, and a series of Christmas exhibitions.

Despite having been married to Noreen for most of the 30-odd years she’s worked at the Museum of Childhood, I have seen relatively little of this book during its birth traumas; it’s been a closely guarded secret. Until now, that is! I have now seen an early-released copy and, as can be seen from the dust-jacket (above), it’s a sumptuous volume illustrated with specially commissioned colour photographs on every page of the dictionary section. As well as the dictionary there is an extended essay by way of introduction, a 300-year timeline and several appendixes which enhance the main content. The book isn’t cheaply produced, something which is reflected in the cover price of £30, but this is excellent value considering the quality and the work which has gone into the production.

This book is a real treasure for anyone interested in costume or childhood. It may be pre-ordered from Amazon UK or from the V&A Online Shop.

Dictionary of Children’s Clothes, 1700 to the Present, by Noreen Marshall, is published on 06 October by the Victoria & Albert Museum at £30; ISBN 9781851775477.