Fashioning the Victorians - (Dress, Body, Culture) by Rebecca Mitchell (Paperback)

About the Book

Offering a unique anthology of primary texts, this sourcebook opens a window on the writing that shaped and mirrored Victorian fashion, taking us from corsets to crinolines, dandies to decadent 'New Women'. A user-friendly collection that provides a solid grounding in the fashion history of the nineteenth century, it brings together for the first time sources that trace the evolution of dress and the social, cultural and political discourses that influenced it. Featuring seminal writings by authors and commentators such as Oscar Wilde, Thorstein Veblen and Sarah Stickney Ellis, plus satirical cartoons, illustrations and fashion plates from key sources such as Punch magazine, it combines primary texts and illustrations with accessible explanatory notes to offer a wide-ranging overview of the period for both students and researchers. Each section opens with an introduction that examines the major trends in Victorian clothing - and the material, economic, scientific and cultural forces driving those trends - situating the texts in the pressing social anxieties and pleasures of the time. Exploring both menswear and womenswear, and key topics such as corsetry, dress reform and mourning, Mitchell extends her analysis into interdisciplinary fields including gender studies and literature, and guides the reader with a timeline, glossary and further readings.

Book Synopsis

Offering a unique anthology of primary texts, this sourcebook opens a window on the writing that shaped and mirrored Victorian fashion, taking us from corsets to crinolines, dandies to decadent 'New Women'. A user-friendly collection that provides a solid grounding in the fashion history of the nineteenth century, it brings together for the first time sources that trace the evolution of dress and the social, cultural and political discourses that influenced it.

Featuring seminal writings by authors and commentators such as Oscar Wilde, Thorstein Veblen and Sarah Stickney Ellis, plus satirical cartoons, illustrations and fashion plates from key sources such as Punch magazine, it combines primary texts and illustrations with accessible explanatory notes to offer a wide-ranging overview of the period for both students and researchers.

Each section opens with an introduction that examines the major trends in Victorian clothing - and the material, economic, scientific and cultural forces driving those trends - situating the texts in the pressing social anxieties and pleasures of the time. Exploring both menswear and womenswear, and key topics such as corsetry, dress reform and mourning, Mitchell extends her analysis into interdisciplinary fields including gender studies and literature, and guides the reader with a timeline, glossary and further readings.

Review Quotes

Fashioning the Victorians is a first-rate contribution to the teaching of 19th century fashion, dress, and culture. Exploring how fashion was deeply integrated into the fabric of the time, this valuable and interdisciplinary book will be the basis of lively classroom discussion.

A well-researched and properly illustrated text that weaves together contemporary sources for a fascinating look into the wardrobes of Victorian Britain.

About the Author

Rebecca N. Mitchell is Senior Lecturer of Victorian Literature at the University of Birmingham, UK. She is the author of Victorian Lessons in Empathy and Difference (2011) and co-author of Oscar Wilde's Chatterton: Literary History, Romanticism, and the Art of Forgery (2015), among other works.