Madeleine Ginsburg fut conservatrice du Victoria & Albert Museum.
La quatrième de couverture de ce livre présente ainsi l'ouvrage :"This brief introduction to four centuries pf dress and fashion illustration, traces the subject from its origins in the 16th century costume piture books (Trachtenbücher) through the works of the artist engravers of the 17th and 18th centuries to the beginnings of fashion journalism, when artists and publishers combined to bring news of new styles to an ever-increasing public. The V & A collection, which is used as the source for illustration, is one of the oldest and largest in the world, containing examples by most of the best known illustrators. The sixty plates have been chosen to show typical examples of their work, and, with extended captions, form a brief visual history of western European fashion between 1560 and 1939."