"High Style: Masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection and the Metropolitan Museum of Art" by Jan Glier Reeder is filled with detailed, full-color photos of fashions and accessories from the 1760s through the 1980s.

Madame Eta Hentz was born in Budapest and started her own company with Ann Sadowsky in the late 1930s. Her clothes were thought to be flattering, especially for matronly figures and were readily available on a ready-to-wear basis. She is most known for her Grecian-themed collection of 1943, featured here, which received much praise.

This very early sportswear sweater combines the aesthetics of fashionable dress through its large gigot sleeves and overall silhouette with the informal sportiness inherent in any knit fabric. Casual wear, such as this, is rare in museum collections because of the nature of its use and the intrinsic value people placed on more formal attire.

Lamé , a fabric which incorporates metallic threads and is known for its festive brightness, was often used in evening wear of the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Jessie Franklin Turner, the designer of this dress, was widely known for her evening wear. This example demonstrates one reason for her renown, as it incorporates pristine bias construction and inventive piecing of the sleeves, allowing the dress to drape the body in a dramatic, alluring way.

Charles James produced some of the most memorable garments ever made. He began his design career in the 1930s. It peaked between the late 1940s and mid-1950s, when his scarce and highly original gowns were sought after by society's most prominent women. Personally draping and constructing the garments that bear his label, he is considered to be the only American to work in the true couture tradition.