A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in the Age of Empire

A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion #5

by Denise Amy Baxter (Editor)

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the production of dress shifted dramatically from being predominantly hand-crafted in small quantities to machine-manufactured in bulk. The increasing democratization of appearances made new fashions more widely available, but at the same time made the need to differentiate social rank seem more pressing.

In this age of empire, the coding of class, gender and race was frequently negotiated through dress in complex ways, from fashionable dress which restricted or exaggerated the female body to liberating reform dress, from self-defining black dandies to the oppressions and resistances of slave dress.

Richly illustrated with over 100 images and drawing on a plethora of visual, textual and object sources, A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in the Age of Empire presents essays on textiles, production and distribution, the body, belief, gender and sexuality, status, ethnicity, and visual and literary representations to illustrate the diversity and cultural significance of dress and fashion in the period.

Genres: History, Fashion History

288 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2018

Reviews

[Darian Burns]

Denise Amy Baxter is the editor of A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in the Age of Empire. The book addresses nine topics: textiles, production and distribution, the body, belief, gender and sexuality, status, ethnicity, visual representations, and literary representations. Its conceptual approach is to look at history through fashion and clothing. Despite the ambitious goal of covering such a large area, the book mostly succeeds. There is also a need to improve the book's coherence. Owing to the varied academic backgrounds of the contributors, there is unevenness. Some discussions are chronological, others are thematic, and others are centered on one particular phenomenon. Ultimately, the varying perspectives and approaches strengthen the discussion. Likewise, the variance of writers creates differing sourcing strategies, but both secondary and primary sourcing are used throughout. Diaries, dresses, materials, lectures, letters, charcoal drawings, lithographs, memoirs, patterns, and textiles are the primary sources used throughout the book.  
As the book is contextualized, it takes place within a specific milieu; since it is contextualized within specific discourses, such as nineteenth-century colonialism, emerging forms of modernity, and the historiography of fashion and dress studies, it takes place within a particular milieu. Through the analysis of both representations and modes of dress of the long nineteenth century, these essays offer an overview of nineteenth-century fashion culture. This is informed by visual and material culture studies, which emphasize garments as a primary method of understanding the period's cultural history.
Each chapter of A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in the Age of Empire explores the book's overarching purpose of revealing the vital role fashion plays in understanding history to its fullest. Philip Sykes, a professor of fashion at Manchester Metropolitan University, introduces readers to novel color and print production techniques. What's more, he discusses textile production changes. During the Empire, handcrafted garments were replaced by mass-produced garments, as Sykes explains in some detail. He examines patterns, colors, and weaves based on the imperial class' ambitions. In "Production and Distribution," Susan Hiner establishes the nexus of her study in the context of Parisian fashion. Her primary purpose is to cover fashion in Paris during the Age of Empire from an Engelian class framework. The author primarily concerns female working-class women, whom she somewhat condescendingly calls "little hands." Hiner refers to women who are sewists, salesgirls, weavers, and more. The book's editor, Denis Amy Baxter, uses her essay to look at formal and religious fashion during the time. Annette Becker elucidates some relationships between bodies and the dress that conceals, reveals, and shapes them differently. Baxter deals with respectability and ethics, while Annette Becker deals with shaping the human body.
As part of chapter 5, Ariel Beaujor provides a fascinating and informative analysis of the masculine suit of the day and the feminine corset. Using these two representations, she illustrates how hetero-normative clothing was challenged through fashion. The author discusses in Chapter 6 why England makes a productive case study. This is because of its historical significance as a significant imperial power and a center of industrialization during that era. The author stresses that fashion during this period did not reflect class differences as in the past. There appears to be confusion between ethnicity and class issues in the ethnicity essay. Sarah Cheang's essay could have been more consistent, frequently conflating class status with ethnicity. Even though there has been a parallel between the two throughout history, focusing on both as the same diminishes the role that ethnicity alone played in demonstrating how race and ethnicity were negotiated through fashion separately. Justine DeYoung concludes the book with an examination of fashion's visual representation. In his discussion of the topic, DeYoung places it within the context of French fashion dominance. Dress is presented from various perspectives, including photographs, prints, paintings, caricatures, film, and advertisements. There is a disconnect between the author and the topic in the final essay, "Textual." Rather than focusing on textures, she examines fashion representation through literary representations. Despite this, the essay uses the book's context to dive deeply into how literature can both shape fashion and be shaped by it.
The editor states that the book's purpose is to present a cultural history of fashion and encourage readers to look at history through fashion and dress. He also asks how historical studies may be seen through fashion. A recent example from this author might be his study of the African prophet "Black Jesus," who created numerous connections to Christ in his dress so his followers would believe he was the black Christ. Native people groups would follow him because his dress represented the symbols of various West African indigenous religions. He also had images with Muslim connections to attract Muslim followers. Almost every aspect of his clothing was there for a specific purpose. Those purposes opened history to various perspectives, contexts, and questions. Fashion is a doorway to any severe historian's attempt to understand his subject matter thoroughly. Almost any historical subject of inquiry is more fully understood when considering fashion as part of its research.

[Josh McBride]

An interesting and insightful collection, especially as a study of the methodology.