This study of the role of costume in portraiture, illustrated in colour throughout, takes 100 examples from the National Portrait Gallery's collections, ranging from the magnificence of the Tudor monarchs to the often understated yet equally telling costume of the 1990s, and through them explores the purpose and original context of the dress in which each sitter chose to be recorded. Each portrait is complemented by related works of art and other contemporary images, together with specially commissioned photographs of original surviving examples of costume. The text encourages the viewer and reader alike to a new understanding and appreciation of one of the most attractive aspects of the hidden history of some of the best-known images of the last 500 years.