I saw this title mentioned on a recommended reading list I found buried in the depths of the historical costuming internet, and immediately put in an Inter-Library Loan request for it hoping a library somewhere would have a copy. They did, and let me just say this book is absolutely amazing.
Do you want a book with high quality, full page detail photography of extant garments (not full length shots, but those nice tiny detail shots that are hard to find online)? A book with simple flat line diagrams of the extants photographed? A book which gives you the museum collection information- including the piece's official number (so that you can actually look up the full museum shots and information if a piece interests you)? Or quotes historical text examples from the time periods? Has a bibliography with superscript referrals in the body text? A freaking further reading and recommendations list? A mini glossary?
Then you absolutely, positively want this book.; this book, to me, is the holy grail that I've been looking for.
It's organized into sections based on subject focus,, instead of being a straight timeline of history. Which does mean that several pieces appear across multiple sections, and information is repeated. Personally, though, I enjoyed the opportunity to see garments from different angles in the detail shots and was happy to see them repeated.
Unlike someone in another review complains, it is not "mostly modern / 20th century" in terms of extant examples. While the majority are from the mid 1800's to the early 1920's (which is rational, given how few examples of earlier garments survive- let alone are in good enough condition to photograph), it has a healthy mix of time periods ranging from 1500's all the way up to the 00's; the book gives you an absolutely lovely, broad view of undergarment history and does allow you to see the evolution over the course of it.
I love this book beyond words. so much so that I'll definitely be picking up both it and the 2nd edition (blue corset cover; 2014) from Barnes & Nobles for my personal collection as soon as I can afford the $49.99 pricetag per book.