Search

The article explores the history and political aspects of women's clothing in the era of the U.S. Civil War. Emphasis is given to fashion culture among white planter women, female house slaves, and the seizure and destruction of clothing by white soldiers. Other topics include the symbolic aspects of women's attire, clothing as a marker of gender identity, and racial hierarchies.

This article examines the clothing of landowning farmers in inland Swedish from a gendered perspective during industrialisation in the nineteenth century. It considers clothes as possessions and goods within a European framework of trade and influence. In particular, it shows how clothing was a means of expression that changed during the course of industrialisation and how gender became an important factor in the supply and making of clothes. In the region examined, clothing changed from being a local fashion, characterised by similarities in material and workmanship between men's and women's clothes, to become a part of fashion in general with its emphasis on differences between men's and women's wardrobes. In the early nineteenth century, the female wardrobe accounted for a higher value as it included a greater share of garments made of manufactured fabrics. In late nineteenth century, when industrial forestry had replaced livestock farming as the main source of income in the area, men's wardrobes grew in value due to increased demand for tailor‐made garments and purchased fabrics. By contrast, women's garments were often made of simpler fabrics and sewn by seamstresses. These changes responded to the growing breadwinner–homemaker ideal and to national‐romantic ideas about folk costume – two tendencies that emphasised female domesticity and home‐woven fabrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the close study of a group of eighteenth-century chintz nightgowns that were ready-made or partly ready-made in India for the European market. Whereas nightgowns are usually associated with the taste for the exotic and the spread of the fashion is sometimes linked to the availability of the garment on the ready-made market, the production of ready-made gowns in India and the methods put in place to manufacture these commodities have not been studied. Based on a close reading of surviving chintz nightgowns, the article attempts to understand production techniques put in place by Indian craftsmen to meet European demand. Material evidence suggests streamlined production processes were in place in India from the end of the seventeenth century that had no real equivalent in Europe. The article thus sheds further light on the idea of Europe's 'Indian apprenticeship', showing that Indian mastery of colour was coupled with production methods combining artisanal, non-mechanized work with a level of bulk production and enhanced efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I outline the influences, intellectual and personal, that have led me to the subject of dress and age, a topic that I have explored with great enjoyment over the last decade. These have their roots in earlier academic and personal interests, and one of the aims of the article is to show how these different spheres of life and work intersect. I discuss this under three broad headings: intellectual and academic influences; longterm personal interests, particularly in history and the aesthetics of dress; and the impact of becoming an older woman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay describes the evolution of the garment known as a blusa, worn by urban women in north-western Algeria. The blusa, a full-length dress with short sleeves, was conceived and developed in the cities of Tlemcen and Oran. It incorporates locally meaningful traditions as well as fashion styles in conjunction with different cultures. Its transformation illustrates how Algerian women resisted cultural assimilation through dress while creatively appropriating western European textiles, techniques and aesthetics in their clothing, during the French colonial period (1830-1962) and its aftermath. The exploration of the contemporary blusa variations reveals how the relationship between clothing and identity is still highly complex in Algerian cities. To date, the invention, the rituals, the design, and the production of the blusa dress has been little studied. This paper reconstitutes an historical puzzle based on recent object-based research and anthropological investigations. It seeks to interpret the blusa as an interface between tradition and modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates French women's dress during the reign of King Louis XVI of France, particularly focusing on changing fashion trends in the 1770s due to an increasing English influence on fashion. It addresses the popularization of simple garments intended to be more comfortable for the wearer in informal settings, as well as notes the presence of garments from this time period in dress collections. Other topics explored include the reduction in hoop petticoat size, the "Robe à la Polonaise," by Claude-Louis Desrais, and the enhancement of a slender waist.

For some sixty years Alexandra, Princess of Wales (1844-1925), later Queen Consort, lived at the heart of the British monarchy. Feted by her public and peers, she negotiated a careful and successful sartorial path through the many civic and social commitments of her long career. Her style was admired and copied by women, sometimes entering mainstream fashion, although her clothing choices were often informed by other considerations. This article explores Alexandra's fashionability and how factors, such as her attitude to money and a need to mask physical imperfections also influenced the way she dressed. An examination of Alexandra's surviving clothing and related documentary evidence can reveal not only what lay behind the creation of Alexandra's regal, fashioned body but also cast new light on her biographical story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at advice on how to dress the body in order to achieve a slim figure from around 1960 and after 2000. How should clothes consumers materialize the ideals verbalized and visualized? How are big consumers portrayed, and what can contribute to making their bodies socially accepted, or preferably beautiful? The material shows how the communication of the ideal is maintained despite the change in communication form. Around 1960 the books were clear in their communication of the norms. In today's literature norms are no longer presented as norms, but are referred to as personal choices and a matter of well-being. In this way the strict ideal of similarity can be sustained under the guise of individuality. The article can therefore contribute to an understanding of why so much apparent freedom results in so little variation in the ways in which people actually dress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the history of cultural exchange between British and Ottoman societies through an examination of the influence of Eastern fashions on the costumes and clothing worn by women in Ottoman port cities in the 16th through 20th centuries. The emergence of Turkish women's fashions, the concept of women's suffrage, and the adoption of Ottoman customs in Great Britain are explored along with an analysis of ways in which Ottoman women adapted British clothing pieces such as trousers and veils for their own use. Other topics include the religious, political, and social aspects of borderlands, the Ottoman clothing item şalvar, and Turkish military uniforms.

For around 400 years fashion and decency required a neatly boned body, yet at the same time many women spent much of their adult lives pregnant. How women were able to dress would affect their role in public society, yet letters and diaries show little reduction in their daily activities. Evidence of what was actually worn is scarce, perhaps because the dilemma was not so great as we imagine — whenever clothing is mentioned or depicted we see women wearing normal garments adapted with the addition of one or two items. Front-lacing stays could be adapted with stomachers, and some back-lacing ones exist with additional side-lacing; both styles would suit the pregnant and non-pregnant state alike. It is not until the nineteenth century that specific maternity corsets and clothing begin to appear, when general corset design and fashion styles became impossible to adapt without structural alteration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the development of women's ski clothing in Europe from 1880 to 1930. Among the factors that influence change in ski-wear are practicality, the impact of the First World War and the role of the ski-wear designer in dictating style. An overview of the origins of skiing is also presented. It explains the role of female skiers in changing attitudes in the winter resorts.

The article investigates the dress of women mountaineers from 1850 to 1914. Englishwoman Lucy Walker climbed the Matterhorn wearing a gathered blouse, long, full skirts, veiled hat, boots and a long Alpenstock in 1871. It mentions that a number of women mountaineers climbed alongside their husbands during the period. Also cited is the recommendation of the periodical "The Queen" in 1869 about how to waterproof an outdoor garment.

The article describes developments in women's bathing dress in England from 1850 to 1900. The preoccupation with modesty is said to be reflected in bathing dresses of the 1850s. The old dresses of the 1850s and 1860s were replaced by one- and two-piece costumes, which were more functional and more decorative, during the 1870s. The simpler bathing garments and accessories in 1900 demonstrate the shift in focus from mere submersion of the body in water to swimming at the English seaside.

The article examines the probate inventory of clothing of Mary Ring, one of the earliest American settlers and was a member of the Leiden Separatist Church, during the 17th-century. Ring's inventory of clothing reveals the influence of the Dutch on the style of her garments and costumes. Kirtles and gowns are also included in the inventory. In addition, Ring owned several underwear and accessories.

The article provides information on ancient Greek dress. It explains the process for producing textile garments, particularly with woollen cloth. It also describes the basic garment for both sexes and how it is worn. It also features different garments that are worn by Greek gods and goddesses, including the himation for men, chlamys or a Thessalian short cloak, and the peplos for women.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including an exhibition on the work of the fashion designer Alexander McQueen, the clothing trends of Eastern Europe during the 1950s and an exploration of attire worn by women at Vassar College in the 1950s.