Fashioning the Victorians

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.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgements TimelineIntroduction: Fashioning the VictoriansI. Fashion Theory in the Nineteenth Century1. Thomas Carlyle, from Sartor Resartus (1836)2. Sarah Stickney Ellis, from The Women of England (1843)3. George Darwin, 'The Development of Dress' (1872)4. Thorstein Veblen, “The Economic Theory of Women’s Dress” (1894)II. Dress Reform5. Eliza Lynn Linton, “The Girl of the Period” (1868)6. M. Eliza Haweis, from The Art of Dress (1879)7. Florence Pomeroy, Lady Harberton, “Rational Dress Reform” (1882)8. Oscar Wilde, “The Philosophy of Dress” (1897)III. Crinolines and Corsets9. “Crinoline” (1863)10. Harriet Martineau, ‘A New Kind of Wilful Murder’ (1863)11. Violet Greville, “Victims of Vanity” (1893)12. Contemporary reports of crinoline and corsetsIV. Men’s Dress13. “Dress, Dandies, Fashion, &c.,” Fraser’s Magazine (1837)14. “Modern Beau Brummellism,” London Society (1867)15. “When I First Put this Uniform On” and costumes from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience (1881)V. Occasional Dress: Wedding, Mourning, Children's and Fancy Dress16. Contemporary reports on Queen Victoria’s wedding dress17. From Richard Davey’s A History of Mourning (1890)18. Arden Holt’s Fancy Dresses Described, 2nd edition (1882) and 6th edition (1896)19. 'Children Dress' (1884)VI. Production and Industry20. George Dodd, ‘Wallotty Trot’ (1853)21. ‘How we get Mauve and Tyrian Purple’ (1860) 22. ‘Progress of the Sewing Machine,’ Bow Bells (1865) VII. International Influences and Echoes23. ‘Latest from Paris’ (1876)24. ‘Death of the Leader of the Fashionable World’ (1895)25. ‘A Japanese Village’ (1885) VIII. Coda: Reflecting on the Victorians26. Woolf, ‘Modes and Manners of the Nineteenth Century’ (1910)GlossaryFurther ReadingIndex

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.