Resources for historical fiction - how people looked in a given time period

by thecaliforniacohen

I’m writing a time travel series and am looking for resources on how people looked in specific time periods (height, dress, facial features, etc). I’m constantly googling to get answers but if anyone knows books or podcasts that address this topic specifically, I’d appreciate it. My characters go to a variety of places and time periods so I won’t list them all here.

mimicofmodes

I don't believe that you'll find differences in facial features over time in a population, but as for clothing: I generally recommend Phyllis Tortora and Sarah Marcketti's Survey of Historic Costume for a really broad look at fashion history. It is focused on Western dress traditions, although it starts off with Near Eastern dress in the "ancient world" section, as is traditional for things that discuss "the West" on a broad timescale.

There are better sources for specifics, but this should help guide you to start.