The Journal of Dress History

Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Front Cover Image:

Detail, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1765, Oil on
Canvas, 238.10 x 146.20 cm, © Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh,
Scotland, Purchased in 1992 with Contributions from the Art Fund and the National
Heritage Memorial Fund, Photographed by Antonia Reeve, PG 2895.

Additional information about the image can be viewed at:

[Link]
The Journal of Dress History
Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Editor–in–Chief Jennifer Daley

Editor Ingrid E. Mida
Proofreader Georgina Chappell
Editorial Assistant Irene Calvi
Editorial Assistant Katharine Lawden

Published by
The Association of Dress Historians
journal@[Link]
[Link]
The Journal of Dress History
Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

journal@[Link]
[Link]

Copyright © 2019 The Association of Dress Historians

ISSN 2515–0995
Online Computer Library Centre (OCLC) accession #988749854

The Journal of Dress History is the academic publication of The Association of Dress
Historians (ADH) through which scholars can articulate original research in a constructive,
interdisciplinary, and peer reviewed environment. The ADH supports and promotes the
study and professional practice of the history of dress, textiles, and accessories of all cultures
and regions of the world, from before classical antiquity to the present day. The ADH is
Registered Charity #1014876 of The Charity Commission for England and Wales.

The Journal of Dress History is circulated solely for educational purposes and is non–
commercial: journal issues are not for sale or profit. The Journal of Dress History is run by
a team of unpaid volunteers and is published on an Open Access platform distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is cited properly.
Complete issues of The Journal of Dress History are freely available on the ADH website:
[Link]/journal.

The Editorial Board of The Journal of Dress History encourages the unsolicited submission
for publication consideration of academic articles on any topic of the history of dress, textiles,
and accessories of all cultures and regions of the world, from before classical antiquity to the
present day. Articles and book reviews are welcomed from students, early career
researchers, independent scholars, and established professionals. If you would like to discuss
an idea for an article or book review, please contact Jennifer Daley, editor–in–chief of The
Journal of Dress History, at email: journal@[Link]. Consult the most recently
published journal issue for updated submission guidelines for articles and book reviews.

The Journal of Dress History is designed on European standard A4 size paper (8.27 x 11.69
inches) and is intended to be read electronically, in consideration of the environment. The
graphic design utilises the font, Baskerville, a serif typeface designed in 1754 by John
Baskerville (1706–1775) in Birmingham, England. The logo of the ADH is a monogram of
three letters, ADH, interwoven to represent the interdisciplinarity of our membership,
committed to scholarship in dress history. The logo was designed in 2017 by Janet Mayo,
longstanding ADH member.
The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

The Advisory Board

The Editorial Board of The Journal of Dress History gratefully acknowledges the
support and expertise of The Advisory Board, the membership of which follows, in
alphabetical order:

Sylvia Ayton, MBE, Independent Scholar, England

Penelope Byrde, MA, FMA, Independent Scholar, England
Caroline de Guitaut, MVO, AMA, Royal Collection Trust, England
Thomas P. Gates, MA, MSLS, MAEd, Kent State University, United States
Alex Kerr, PhD, FBS, The Burgon Society, England
Jenny Lister, MA, The Victoria and Albert Museum, England
Timothy Long, MA, Independent Scholar, United States
Jane Malcolm–Davies, PhD, The University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Susan North, PhD, The Victoria and Albert Museum, England
Martin Pel, MA, Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museums, England
Anna Reynolds, MA, Royal Collection Trust, England
Aileen Ribeiro, PhD, The Courtauld Institute of Art, England
Georgina Ripley, MA, National Museums Scotland, Scotland
Gary Watt, MA, NTF, The University of Warwick, England
Rainer Wenrich, PhD, Catholic University, Eichstaett–Ingolstadt, Germany

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Contents

Articles
Liberating the Natural Movement:
Dance and Dress Reform in the Self–Expression of
Isadora Duncan (1877–1927)
Alicia Mihalić 7

Plaiding the People:

Party–Coloured Plaid and Its Use in the North American Colonies,
1730–1800
Michael Ballard Ramsey 37

Book Reviews
Pious Fashion:
How Muslim Women Dress
By Elizabeth Bucar
Olaf Bachmann 70

Exquisite Slaves:
Race, Clothing, and Status in Colonial Lima
By Tamara J. Walker
Laura Beltran–Rubio 73

Designed in the USSR:

1950–1989
By Moscow Design Museum
Doris Domoszlai–Lantner 77

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

African Wax Print Textiles

By Anne Grosfilley
Helen Elands 80

Hats
By Clair Hughes
Harper Franklin 83

Unbroken Thread:
Banarasi Brocade Saris at Home and in the World
By Anaemic Pathak, Abeer Gupta, and Suchitra Balasubrahmanyan
Jasleen Kandhari 87

Camp:
Notes on Fashion
By Andrew Bolton
Alice Mackrell 90

The Clothing of the Common Sort, 1570–1700

By Margaret Spufford and Susan Mee
Eliza McKee 92

La Parisienne in Cinema:
Between Art and Life
By Felicity Chaplin
Mariaemanuela Messina 95

Clothing the Past:

Surviving Garments from Early Medieval to Early Modern
Western Europe
By Elizabeth Coatsworth and Gale R. Owen–Crocker
Ninya Mikhaila 99

Dresses and Dressmaking:

From the Late Georgians to the Edwardians
By Pam Inder
Caroleen Molenaar 102

Fashion in the Middle Ages

By Margaret Scott
Hendrik van Rooijen 105

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

The Anthropology of Dress and Fashion:

A Reader
By Brent Luvaas and Joanne B. Eicher
Emmy Sale 108

Fashioned Text and Painted Books

By Erin E. Edgington
Scott William Schiavone 111

Looking at Jewelry:
A Guide to Terms, Styles, and Techniques
By Susanne Gänsicke and Yvonne J. Markowitz
Naomi Sosnovsky 114

Dressing the Scottish Court, 1543–1553:

Clothing in the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland
By Melanie Schuessler Bond
Emily Taylor 117

How to Read Fashion:

A Crash Course in Understanding Styles
By Fiona Ffoulkes
Milly Westbrook 120

The Birth of Cool:

Style Narratives of the African Diaspora
By Carol Tulloch
Elli Michaela Young 123

Recent PhD Theses in Dress History 126

A Guide to Online Sources for Dress History Research

Jennifer Daley 132

The Editorial Board 160

The Advisory Board 163

Submission Guidelines for Articles 168

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Submission Guidelines for Book Reviews 189

Index of Articles and Book Reviews 193

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Welcome

Dear ADH Members and Friends,

I am delighted to announce that Dr. Ingrid E. Mida has joined The Journal of Dress
History as Editor. As a published author, Dr. Mida excels in editorial strategy, and
she understands the important relationship between authors and editors. Recently,
she worked closely with two authors, Alicia Mihalić and Michael Ballard Ramsey,
whose ground–breaking articles are featured in this issue.

As always, if you have comments about this issue——or an interest in writing an article
or book review——please contact me at journal@[Link].

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Dr. Jennifer Daley, PhD, FHEA, MA, MA, BTEC, BA

Chairman and Trustee, The Association of Dress Historians (ADH)
Editor–in–Chief, The Journal of Dress History
chairman@[Link]
[Link]

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Liberating the Natural Movement:

Dance and Dress Reform in the Self–Expression of
Isadora Duncan (1877–1927)

Alicia Mihalić

Abstract
By laying the foundation for a new dance that would release the
inner spiritual impulse through unrestricted movement, Isadora
Duncan sought to return to the understanding of the body as a
medium for harmonious expression of natural rhythms. Such
kinetic celebrations of female vitality required the adoption of
garments that challenged the dominant conventions of women’s
dress and represented a route to alternative practices that
encouraged physical and personal freedom. This article builds a
comprehensive view of Duncan’s progressive identity by
considering the ways in which the dancer aligned herself with late
nineteenth century dress reform movements and adopted
references from classical antiquity in order to develop a distinctive
style within the context of both everyday sartorial presentation and
performative culture.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Introduction
In one of her earliest essays, The Dance of the Future, published in 1903,1 Isadora
Duncan (1877–1927) addressed her approach to dance as a complex artistic and
social practice. For Duncan, the new dance, which was to be understood as an eternal
form of expression with the ability to bridge the past and the future, found its origins
in harmonious rhythms of nature. Both inanimate motions of the wind and waves and
animate gestures of humans and animals unfolded, according to Duncan, from natural
rhythmic exchanges and encompassed as such an inherent aesthetic value. The
primary function of the dance was to establish a unity of the soul and the body by
celebrating movements developed in proportion to the individual human form.2 The
concept of unrestricted corporeal gestures, which as the dancer later explained
originated from the solar plexus, was placed in stark opposition to the codified
techniques of classical ballet. Although there is evidence that Duncan had taken ballet
lessons both as a child and later as a young woman,3 she repeatedly criticised not only
the artificiality of the traditional ballet system and its disassociation with the laws of
nature, but sought a way to express her views regarding the distorting effects imposed
by the ballet costume on the human, in particular female, figure.

Duncan’s writings provided a theoretical framework for her own concept of art dance
that she developed at the end of the nineteenth century. Concerned with the rigid
formalism of classical ballet and the potential to cause adverse effects on the body,
Duncan articulated a radical approach to dance and its social implications related to
the perception of womanhood. By envisioning the dancer as a medium with the
potential to convey ideas of social progress, Duncan evolved her persona, as observed
by dance critic Deborah Jowitt, into an emblem of freedom. She sought to achieve
liberation by rejecting the prevailing notions of dance together with the nineteenth
century perceptions regarding the way in which women were expected to lead their
lives and construct their sartorial appearances.4 Her ideas about the unrestricted body
and reliance on free–form choreography were accompanied by a distinctive use of
simplified, loose garments made of lightweight, drapable textiles (Figure 1). At a time
when women’s fashions were governed by strict rules of etiquette and marked by
multiple layers of clothing and various silhouette shaping garments, Duncan’s
preferences for lightweight free–flowing tunics, based on models adopted from

1
Isadora Duncan’s essay, The Dance of the Future, was first presented as a lecture at the Berlin
Press Club in 1903.
2
Isadora Duncan, The Art of the Dance, Theater Arts, New York, New York, United States, 1928,
p. 54.
3
Ann Daly, Done into Dance: Isadora Duncan in America, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown,
Connecticut, United States, 2002, p. 68.
4
Deborah Jowitt, “Images of Isadora: The Search for Motion,” Dance Research Journal, Volume
17, Issue 2, Autumn 1985, p. 21.

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

classical antiquity, significantly challenged her path to public acceptance, while

allowing her to play a major role in the development of modern dance and its
elevation to a legitimate form of art.

Figure 1:
Isadora Duncan in Munich, Germany,
Atelier Elvira, 1904, Jerome Robbins Dance Division,
© The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts,
New York, New York, United States, b12134458.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

American Reformers and Delsartean Physical Culture

In her transgression of performative boundaries, Duncan aligned herself with other
anti–formalist dancers of the day such as Loïe Fuller (1862–1928), who increased the
visibility of women in the public sphere and represented a prototype of the new,
independent woman of the twentieth century. Fuller believed in the transformative
potential of dance which was to be achieved through an inventive fusion of light and
floating drapery and preceded Duncan in the abandonment of the corset.5 Growing
up in Fresno, California, United States, during the 1880s and 1890s (Figure 2),
Duncan might have been exposed to concerns regarding the restriction and
unhealthiness of female attire expressed by promoters of health and dress reform
movements that emerged in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Figure 2:
Isadora Duncan at Age 12
in Fresno, California,
at the Time When She
Was Touring Various
Californian Towns with
Her Siblings, Photographer
Unknown, 1889, Jerome
Robbins Dance Division,
© The New York Public
Library for the Performing
Arts, New York,
New York, United States,
b14790262.

5
Helen Thomas, Dance, Modernity and Culture: Explorations in the Sociology of Dance,
Routledge, London, England, 1995, pp. 56–61.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Both medical and aesthetic arguments questioning the dominant attitudes toward the
body and practices of conventional fashions that disabled movement and limited work
and sport activities were supported by various organisations and individuals on both
sides of the Atlantic. In order to address the issues of health and beauty in clothing,
many intellectuals and artists, including physicians, educators, feminists, actors,
dancers, and opera singers, attempted to find means to improve the constraining
features of mainstream fashions and encourage the acceptance of a healthy body in
its natural form. While some limited their suggestions for sartorial improvement
solely to the abandonment of tight and heavy undergarments in order to maintain the
fashionable appeal of contemporary styles, others encouraged the adoption of new
forms of dress that would significantly challenge the rigid standards of nineteenth
century fashion culture.6

In light of rational and hygienic practices, American reformers viewed the healthy
female body as the one that incarnated “the true principles of physiology and art”7
and placed a significant value on the notion of physical culture, which had the ability
to accentuate ideas related to the body’s expressive and social implications. The
increasing popularity of theories formulated by the French music and drama educator
François Delsarte (1811–1871) established an interest in the relationship between
bodily motions and spiritual functions. Initially envisioned as a system that assigned
corresponding meanings to vocal and dramatic gestures, Delsarte’s theoretical
principles of motion were based on training methods that were to serve professional
orators and actors and encourage the development of their own movement
vocabularies.8 Known as Aesthetic or Harmonic Gymnastics, American Delsartism9
was quickly adopted by many upper– and middle–class women interested in the
improvement of health and enhancement of personal freedom. Further elaborated
and popularised by Genevieve Stebbins (1857–1934), the technique developed into

6
Patricia A. Cunningham, Reforming Women’s Fashion, 1850–1920: Politics, Health and Art, Kent
State University Press, Kent, Ohio, United States, 2003, p. 5.
7
Elizabeth Kendall, Where She Danced: The Birth of American Art–Dance, University of
California Press, Berkeley, California, United States, 1979, p. 23.
8
Nancy Lee Chalfa Ruyter, “The Delsarte Heritage,” Dance Research: The Journal of the Society
for Dance Research, Volume 14, Number 1, Summer 1996, pp. 62–64.
9
Ruyter explained, “In any investigation of his [Delsarte’s] relevance to dance history, however, it is
important to distinguish what was taught in France by F. Delsarte himself——in his courses and
lectures on acting, voice production and aesthetics——and what came to be called American
Delsartism. This latter was based on Delsarte’s theory but also included significant practical
adaptations and extensions developed in the United States by Steele Mackaye (1842–1894) and
Genevieve Stebbins (1857–1914 or later) and their followers.”
Ibid., p. 62.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

an expressive exercise programme that made a substantive contribution to the

emerging field of the alternative dance art.10

In addition to limited training in classical ballet and knowledge of social dances

acquired from her sister, Elizabeth Duncan (1871–1948), Isadora Duncan’s theory of
dance is considered to have been influenced by Delsartean principles of the body11
and, in particular, his elaboration of the importance of succession and fluidity of
movement. During the second half of the nineteenth century, American reformers
considered physical exercise of the highest importance for the achievement of a
naturally beautiful body and called attention to classical antiquity in order to eschew
the harmful effects of tight corsetry. Echoing their thoughts, Duncan addressed similar
issues of dress reform by establishing a correlation between her understanding of the
ideal body movement and images of sartorial constraint. In her 1905 essay The
Dancer and Nature, Duncan noted:

First draw me the form of a woman as it is in Nature. And now

draw me the form of a woman in a modern corset and the satin
slippers used by our modern dancers. Now do you not see that
the movement that would conform to one figure would be
perfectly impossible for the other? To the first all the rhythmic
movements that run through Nature would be possible. They
would find this form their natural medium for movement. To the
second figure this movement would be impossible on account of
the rhythm being broken, and stopped at the extremities.12

Discourses of Liberation and the Hellenic Ideal

Having considered “the ideal beauty of the human form and the ideal beauty of
movement”13 to have been lost for centuries, Duncan linked her beliefs regarding the
liberation of the body from restrictions imposed by late nineteenth century culture to
Hellenic concepts. Duncan found the basis for her understanding of undulating
movement within the eternal aesthetics of classical Greek art. Genevieve Stebbins,
whose popular teaching methodology of artistic statue–posings and interpretations of

10
Ibid., p. 70.
11
Dorée Duncan, Carol Pratl, and Cynthia Splatt, Life into Art: Isadora Duncan and Her World,
W.W. Norton, New York, New York, United States, 1993, p. 29.
12
Duncan, 1928, op cit., p. 70.
13
Ibid., p. 90.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

historical and international dances (including ancient Greek dance) might have made
an important impact on Duncan in the early 1890s. Duncan believed that the art of
ancient Greece expressed the highest standards of universal qualities of beauty and
nature and modelled her movements in accordance to Greek imagery.14 Duncan’s
interest in the study of ancient Greek art deepened after she travelled to Europe in
1899 and devoted herself to the perfection of a dancing vocabulary reliant on
references adopted from classical sources. Her brother, Raymond Duncan (1874–
1966), an eclectic artist, philosopher, craftsman and textile designer15 who was later
known for his strong advocacy of the healthfulness of Greek dress,16 demonstrated a
similar interest in the art of ancient Greece. Together, they visited numerous
European museums, where the siblings focused on the study of vase paintings,
statuary, and bas–reliefs. Raymond drew sketches, while Isadora attempted to identify
and evoke the harmony and rhythm of movement that accompanied the depicted
notions of the body and subsequently translate Hellenic discourses into her own
theory of modern dance.

Similar to figures observed from Greek art, Duncan adopted a physical appearance
——that accompanied her movement vocabulary——and became an important
component of her sartorial expression. In her autobiography My Life (1927), Duncan
often indicated her preferences for “little white Greek tunics,”17 which she mentioned
wearing as early as 1895 during her attempts to make her first professional
appearances in Chicago. 18 She soon moved to New York to join the commercial
theatrical company of Augustin Daly (1838–1899) and in 1898 started creating her
first solo programmes to the musical compositions of Ethelbert Nevin (1862–1901).

14
Ruyter, op cit., pp. 69–72.; Daly, op cit., p. 125.
15
Alexandra Palmer, “‘At once Classical and Modern:’ Raymond Duncan Dress and Textiles in the
Ontario Museum,” in Charlotte Nicklas and Annebella Pollen, Eds., Dress History: New Directions
in Theory and Practice, Bloomsbury Academic, London, England, 2016, p. 129.
16
Harold Koda, Goddess: The Classical Mode, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New
York, United States, 2003, p. 48.
17
In her autobiography My Life, which was originally published in 1927, Duncan used the phrase,
little white (Greek) tunic, on several occasions. On p. 17 of the 2013 edition of My Life, Duncan
used the exact words “little white Greek tunic;” on p. 62 she mentioned the “simplicity of my tunic;”
on p. 120 she stated, “I would sit far into the night in my white tunic;” on p. 123 she mentioned “in
my little white tunic;” on p. 128 “my tunic;” on p. 133 “in my Greek tunic;” on p. 135 “in my Greek
tunic and sandals;” on p. 142 “my little white tunic;” on p. 156 “the little white tunic;” on p. 158 “my
little white tunic;” on p. 181 “my tunic;” on p. 203 “in my simple Greek tunic;” on p. 209 she
mentioned while referencing Paul Poiret, “I, who had always worn a little white tunic, woollen in
winter, linen in summer.” Later, Duncan described her stage clothes as an embroidered tunic and
a red tunic.
18
Isadora Duncan, My Life, Liveright Publishing Corporation, New York, New York, United States,
2013, p. 17.

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

At the time of these early performances, Duncan’s construction of the body continued
to follow certain conventional codes related to dancing attire, encompassing as such
ballet slippers and pink coloured tights. This can be noticed on a series of cabinet
cards captured by the renowned theatrical photographer Jacob Schloss (1856–1938)
in 1899 in which the young dancer is dressed in a garment made from her mother’s
lace curtains (Figure 3).

Figure 3:
Isadora Duncan
in
New York,
New York,
United States in
Various Poses,
Dressed in Her
Mother’s Lace
Curtains,
Jacob Schloss,
1899,
Jerome Robbins
Dance Division,
© The New
York Public
Library for the
Performing
Arts,
New York,
New York,
United States,
b12144860.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

First Appearances in London, British Aestheticism, and Liberty’s

Even though her costumes of the late 1890s were already considered filmy and
draping, Duncan’s radical strategies of dress continued to develop along with her
radical approach to dance. Flowing draperies and bare feet celebrated and revealed
the dancer’s body as she left the United States for Europe in 1899 and explored
mythological images represented in literary works, painting, and music during her
debut appearances at London’s New Gallery at 121 Regent Street. Duncan named
these short dances the Dance Idylls programme. As part of this, she performed a
recital based on Botticelli’s Primavera and enacted several figures represented in the
painting as a realisation of “soft and marvellous” movements that emanated from the
scene and indicated a message of love, spring, and procreation of life.19 Her costume
was clearly inspired by the depiction of the spring goddess, Flora, and can be seen in
photographs captured by her brother, Raymond (Figure 4). The dancer is shown in a
long, draped dress made of several layers of lightweight gauze fabric with floral
ornaments, her head and upper body wreathed in strings of rose blossoms. Her
frolicsome and graceful movements translated the gestures of Venus. The whole
performance represented, according to the local press, a scene that “might have
happened in ancient Greece.”20

Duncan’s early interest in the arts and the “simplicity of the dress”21 was linked to her
upbringing in San Francisco22 where reproductions of great masterpieces appeared as
a cultural signifier of artistic sensibility.23 American dress reformers of the 1880s and
1890s indicated a growing interest in the achievement of natural beauty through artistic
forms of sartorial expression and often suggested the classical ideal as the most
relevant standard for female beauty. 24 Duncan, however, engaged in a more
immediate contact with Aestheticism by joining the progressive cultural elite of
London and finding support for her art among its prominent members. Encouraged
by her enthusiasm for social reform, Duncan was further introduced to the art of Pre–
Raphaelite painters through her friendship with Charles Hallé (1846–1914), the
founder of the New Gallery and one of the first directors of the Grosvenor Gallery at
135–137 New Bond Street, London, a central place for social display of Aesthetic
dress. Worn by artists, writers, patrons, and female members of artistic audiences
involved in the activities of the Aesthetic movement, Aesthetic dress appeared as a

19
Ibid., p. 94.
20
Irma Duncan, Isadora Duncan: Pioneer in the Art of Dance, The New York Public Library, New
York, New York, United States, 1959, p. 3.
21
Daly, op cit., p. 92.
22
Duncan, 1928, op cit., p. 128.
23
Daly, op cit.
24
Cunningham, op cit., pp. 136–140.

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

socially motivated practice and supported similar issues of health, morality, and
beauty represented by other dress reform movements.

Figure 4:
Isadora Duncan’s Costume for Primavera, Raymond Duncan, 1900, in © Dorée
Duncan, Carol Pratl, and Cynthia Splatt, Life into Art: Isadora Duncan and Her
World, W. W. Norton, New York, New York, United States, 1993, p. 42.

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With origins dating to the art and culture of Pre–Raphaelite artists and the sartorial
expression of female members of the extended Pre–Raphaelite circle,25 these clothing
practices embodied historical allusions to classical and medieval models and, as
pointed out by Kimberly Wahl, acted as a performative aspect of Aestheticism. 26
Aesthetic dress enabled the formation of artistic individual and group identities and
was further disseminated by the Liberty Company,27 the designs of which played a
significant role in the construction of Duncan’s appearance in a variety of contexts.
Softly draped textiles, items of dress based on historical styles that appealed to
artistically inclined women, and romantic outfits inspired by the pastoral countryside
illustrations of Kate Greenaway (1846–1901), whose characters’ late eighteenth
century and Regency fashions were converted by Liberty into designs for children’s
clothing, can be found mentioned in Duncan’s descriptions of dress practices in which
she referred to fabrics employed for her dancing costume as well as to clothing and
headwear worn as her everyday wardrobe at the beginning of the twentieth century
(Figure 5).28

25
Stella Mary Newton, Health, Art and Reason: Dress Reformers of the 19th Century, John Murray,
London, England, 1974, pp. 27–35.
26
Kimberly Wahl, Dressed as in a Painting: Women and British Aestheticism in an Age of Reform ,
University of New Hampshire Press, Durham, New Hampshire, United States, 2013, p. 70.
27
See Alison Adburgham, Shops and Shopping 1800–1914: Where, and in What Manner the
Well–Dressed Englishwoman Bought her Clothes, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., London,
England, 1967, pp. 173–183.
28
In her autobiography, Duncan recalls buying “a few yards of veiling at Liberty’s” for her first
appearance at a dinner party in London organised by a woman for whom Duncan had performed
previously in New York. Duncan mentions dancing in “sandals and bare feet,” which was an
unconventional image as tights were at the time worn commonly by ballet dancers. Dancing in
“sandals and bare feet” would significantly shock German audiences a few years later, but it did not
seem to cause any negative response from upper–class English spectators. Furthermore, references
to styles of the late 1790s and early 1800s that were marked by white high–waisted muslin dresses
can be found in Duncan’s description of the attire she described, as follows: “I was dressed in a
white muslin Kate Greenaway dress, a blue sash under the arms, a big straw hat on my head, and
my hair in curls on my shoulders.”
Duncan, My Life, 2013, pp. 40–43.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Figure 5:
Isadora Duncan, Photographer Unknown, 1905, Jerome Robbins Dance Division,
© The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts,
New York, New York, United States, b12134463.

Departure from Conventional Clothing Practices

Since Duncan approached dance as “the foundation of a complete conception of
life,” 29 she articulated her ideas about the liberated body though unconventional
clothing practices, frequently discarding sartorial norms and opting to wear her “little
white Greek tunic,”30 bare feet, and sandals for public occasions other than her own
dance performances. 31 As previously mentioned, Loïe Fuller rejected the corset

29
Duncan, 1928, op cit., p. 101.
30
Duncan, 1927, op cit., p. 17.
31
Duncan frequently wore a tunic for off–stage appearances; for example, on p. 135 of My Life
(2013) Duncan described her stay in Bayreuth, “At Villa Wahnfried I met some young officers who
invited me to ride with them in the mornings. I mounted in my Greek tunic and sandals,
bearheaded, with my curls flying in the wind. I resembled Brünhilde.” After her December 1904
performance in St. Petersburg, Russia, she went to see a ballet performance at the opera and
comments on p. 142, “I was still wearing my little white tunic and sandals and must have looked
very odd in the midst of this gathering of all the wealth and aristocracy of St. Petersburg.”

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

before Duncan, but was nevertheless astonished by the flimsy attire in which Duncan
appeared both on and off the stage. Impressed by her skills, Fuller attempted to help
Duncan gain more attention in Europe. In her memoirs, Fuller described the
garments worn by Duncan during their visit to the wife of the English ambassador in
Vienna in 1902 with the following words:

On this day I came near going in alone and leaving my dancer

[Duncan] in the carriage because of her personal appearance. She
wore an Empire robe, grey, with a long train and a man’s hat, a
soft felt hat with a flying veil. Thus gowned she appeared to so little
advantage that I rather expected a rebuff.32

By advocating comfort and mobility in clothing, Duncan disassociated herself from

the rigid principles of mainstream fashions and presented an idiosyncratic mode of
dress through which she asserted her notions of universality and timelessness of the
natural human body. In addition to physical restrictiveness, the dancer frequently
confronted the fashion system with its susceptibility toward perpetual innovation. She
believed that fashion’s forward–looking and ephemeral character was unable to affect
the ideal beauty of women to which she referred as eternal and unresponsive to
changes imposed by fashion. Duncan explained these thoughts in her essay
Movement is Life in 1909:

The beauty of the human form is not chance. One cannot change
it by dress. The Chinese women deformed their feet with tiny
shoes; women of the time of Louis XIV deformed their bodies
with corsets; but the ideal of the human body must forever remain
the same. The Venus of Milo stands on her pedestal in the Louvre
for an ideal; women pass before her, hurt and deformed by the
dress of ridiculous fashions; she remains forever the same, for she
is beauty, life, truth.33

32
Loïe Fuller, Fifteen Years of a Dancer’s Life, with Some Account of Her Distinguished Friends,
Herbert Jenkins, London, England, 1913, p. 224.
33
Duncan, 1928, op cit., p. 79.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Reinterpretation of Classical Garments

Preferences for Grecian bodies led Duncan toward the adoption of everyday
Neoclassical dress forms to which she referred as “Directoire.” Using the term as early
as 1902 during the family’s first visit to Greece, Duncan described the contrast
between this type of clothing and fashionable dress styles worn by her sister–in–law,
Sarah Whiteford. 34 By portraying contemporary fashions as “degenerate,” she
discussed her decision to abandon her own clothing in favour of an even more
profound return to ideal Hellenic originals (Figure 6), such as “tunics, and chlamys
and peplum.”35

Figure 6:
Isadora Duncan in a Museum in Athens, Greece, Raymond Duncan, 1903,
in © Dorée Duncan, Carol Pratl, and Cynthia Splatt, Life into Art: Isadora Duncan
and Her World, W. W. Norton, New York, New York, United States, 1993, p. 51.

34
Duncan’s brother, Augustin Duncan (1873-1954), married 16–year–old Sarah Whiteford in 1899,
just before the family departed the United States for London.
35
Duncan, 2013, op cit., p. 105.

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Although her approach to dance was often referred to as Greek, Duncan did not strive
to reconstruct Greek dances. She clearly described her relationship to the discourses
of ancient Greece solely as inspirational, highlighting that the references adopted from
classical art enabled her to interpret universal and natural gestures.36 On a similar note,
Duncan’s temporal turns toward ancient dress forms represented only an
approximation of the Hellenic originals, namely costumes she could have perceived
through her study of classical artworks (Figure 7). Having in mind that historical
revivals, as argued by art historian Deborah Cherry, could be characterised by a variety
of meanings, possibilities, and strategies and therefore expressed through a return of
a style or through the reappearance of a particular form or even survival of an object,37
Duncan’s version of ancient Greek dress encapsulated a modern interpretation that
translated her beliefs regarding the importance of physical freedom.

Figure 7:
Isadora Duncan at the
Parthenon Theatre in Athens,
Greece,
Raymond Duncan, 1904,
Jerome Robbins
Dance Division,
© The New York Public
Library for the Performing
Arts, New York, New York,
United States, b14790259.

36
Duncan, 1928, op cit., p. 103.
37
Deborah Cherry, “The Ghost Begins by Coming Back: Revenants and Returns in Maud Sulter’s
Photomontages,” in Ayla Lepine, Matt Loder and Rosalind McKever, Eds., Revival: Memories,
Identities, Utopias, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England, 2015, p. 29.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

The potential of revivalism to communicate self–performance allowed Duncan to

conjure her quotations of historical styles through the use of lightweight Chinese or
Liberty silks and her distinctive adaption of classical draping. As described by Harold
Koda in his study of ancient Greek dress and its later historical and contemporary
innovations, the dancer’s interpretations of the classical chiton38 comprised pieces of
silk joined through knots or safety pins and fastened by cords or elastic bands around
the shoulders and waist. 39 Since the form of many Grecian garments required a
particular system of pleating,40 the dance costumes were further enhanced using a
technique that was described by the dancer’s pupil and adoptive daughter, Irma
Duncan (1897–1977), as follows:

To achieve the same pleated effect observed on Greek statuary,

we started out by sprinkling the tunics with water. Two girls then
got hold of the ends, folding one tiny pleat upon the other, and
then gave the whole thing a twist, held together by a ribbon. This
had to be repeated after each performance, so the tunics would be
in proper shape for the next one. With so many tunics involved,
it was a laborious and patience–demanding process. Isadora
herself taught us this trick.41

Whereas classical dress was marked by a similarity of styles worn by men and
women, a shorter version of the chiton, known as chitoniskos, appeared as an
exclusive item of men’s clothing. Female members of the Greek society wore
modest floor–length gowns and the rare chitoniskos depicted as women’s attire
were most commonly associated with the hunting goddess Artemis and
mythological Amazon warriors. As can be seen on various photographs of
Duncan and her pupils, the dancer’s ideological implications of the body were

38
Harold Koda stated that women’s apparel in ancient Greece fell into three general garment types:
the chiton, the peplos, and the himation. Koda wrote, “Structurally, the most elemental dress type
is the chiton, which is constructed in several ways. The most commonly represented is accomplished
by stitching two rectangular pieces of fabric together along either sideseam, from top to bottom,
forming a cylinder with its top edge and hem unstitched. The top edges are then sewn, pinned, or
buttoned together at two or more points to form shoulder seams, with reserve openings for the head
and arms.”
Koda, op cit., p. 21.
39
Koda, op cit., p. 27.
40
François Boucher, A History of Costume in the West, Thames and Hudson, London, England,
1967, p. 27.
41
Irma Duncan, Duncan Dancer: An Autobiography, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown,
Connecticut, United States, 1966, p. 189.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

frequently accompanied by revealing interpretations of short chitons

characterised by a distinctive Empire waistline (Figure 8).42

Figure 8:
Isadora Duncan, Arnold Genthe, 1915–1918, Jerome Robbins Dance Division,
© The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts,
New York, New York, United States, b12156296.

42
Koda, op cit.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

In addition, departures from original Greek attire, characteristic for historical

revivalism, are noticeable in Duncan’s approach to dress as combinations of elements
adopted from different cultures. Duncan’s triumphant pose captured at the
Parthenon by the pictorialist photographer Edward Steichen (1879–1973) shows an
attire comprised of both Greek and Roman elements (Figure 9). The dancer is
depicted draped in a Grecian himation, a cloak typically pinned on one shoulder,
worn over a garment with wide sleeves more closely related to Roman dress or
clothing cultures of the Near and Middle East.43

Figure 9:
Isadora
Duncan
at the
Parthenon,
Athens,
Greece,
Edward
Steichen,
1920,
Jerome
Robbins
Dance
Division,
© The New
York Public
Library for
the
Performing
Arts,
New York,
New York,
United
States,
b14757971.

43
Koda, op cit., p. 15.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Sartorial Articulation of a Progressive Individual and Social Identity

Duncan asserted, “I took off my clothes to dance because I felt the rhythm and
freedom of my body better that way;”44 however in doing so, she created a sensation
among turn–of–the–century audiences accustomed to the attire of classical ballerinas
and vaudevillian dancers. During her performances as one of the three Graces in
Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth festival in the summer of 1904, Duncan’s filmy costume
and bare legs created a discussion about the morality of her revealing appearance.
When requested by her hostess Cosima Wagner (1837–1930) to cover her body with
a long white chemise, Duncan decidedly refused and noted in her biography “I would
dress and dance exactly my way, or not at all.” Moreover, she condemned the salmon–
coloured tights worn by ballet dancers as “vulgar and indecent” 45 in comparison to the
beauty and innocence of the naked human body.

The naked body, to which Duncan often referred in her writings, should, however,
be understood, as discussed by Ann Daly, in terms of a body which is not completely
nude, but one that, in the spirit of Greek statuary, has the ability to reveal its moral
and noble form while covered in modest veiling.46 Seeing Duncan dance as an art that
symbolised the freedom of women, she did not aim to “suggest anything vulgar.”47 For
Duncan, concealment was “vulgar,”48 while the body itself represented a temple of art.
In Duncan’s words, “nudeness”49 was considered to epitomise truth and beauty and,
therefore, lacked the ability to appear as “vulgar” or “immoral.”50 Duncan addressed
the criticism of the public and wrote:

44
Duncan, 1928, op cit., p. 129.
45
Duncan, 2013, op cit., p. 136.
46
Daly, op cit., p. 31.
47
Isadora Duncan, “The Freedom of Woman,” in Bonnie Kime Scott, Ed., Gender in Modernism:
New Geographies, Complex Intersections, University of Illinois Press, Champaign, Illinois, United
States, 2007, p. 750.
48
Ibid.
49
Ibid.
50
Ibid.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

They say I mismanaged my garments. A mere disarrangement of

a garment means nothing. Why should I care what part of my
body I reveal? Why is one part more evil than another? Is not all
body and soul an instrument through which the artist expresses his
inner message of beauty? ...It has never dawned on me to swathe
myself in hampering garments or to bind my limbs and drape my
throat, for am I not striving to fuse soul and body in one unified
image of beauty?51

To her supporters, Duncan’s performative practices represented grace and nobility

of the natural whereas her approach to dance and the theory of a liberated body
embraced a desire for progress and social change. Duncan was, therefore, often
perceived in America as a pioneer of the new art and the new understanding of life
that accompanied the twentieth century and its transforming ideas of modern
womanhood. Moreover, her references to ancient Greek ideals could be recognised,
as argued by Ann Daly, as a rhetorical strategy employed to elevate the aesthetic and
social value of the dance. 52 By relying on the unquestioned authority of classical
antiquity, Duncan acquired cultural legitimacy for dance as a marginal late nineteenth
century practice and turned her progressive sartorial expression into an emblem of
cultural subversion.

Having in mind that her stage costumes and daily attire represented an equally
significant challenge to the conventional female dress norms (Figure 10), Duncan’s
sartorial appearance may be examined within the dialectic between the dominant and
oppositional clothing discourses as analysed by the cultural sociologist Diana Crane.
By understanding the symbolic boundaries of clothing as a form of non–verbal
resistance, Crane discussed the conservative agenda of nineteenth century fashion and
differentiated various aspects of clothing behaviour as either marginal or hegemonic.
Since nineteenth century clothing discourses incorporated the behaviour of groups
who perpetuated conformity with the prevailing notions of status and gender roles as
well as groups who expressed social tensions by introducing new approaches to
clothing, sartorial opposition could be administered through alternative forms of dress
that occupied a distinctive position within the public space of fashion.53

51
Ibid. Ellipses added by the author of this article.
52
Daly, op cit., pp. 10–16.
53
Diana Crane, Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender and Identity in Clothing , University
of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, United States, 2000, p. 100.

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Figure 10:
Isadora Duncan in Ouchy, Switzerland, Photographer Unknown, 1916,
Jerome Robbins Dance Division,
© The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts,
New York, New York, United States, b12134506.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Emerging into previously established discourses of health and dress reform

movements, Duncan’s strategies of dress managed to carry a distinctive notion of
individuality that nevertheless bridged universal ideas of social progress and social
identification with the female collective. Her marginal position within the dress culture
of the early twentieth century and her inclusion of classical elements managed to leave
considerable impression on other artists, more specifically on Michel Fokine (1880–
1942) whose ideas initiated a transformation of the Russian ballet. According to the
memoirs of prima ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska (1872–1971), Duncan’s January
1905 appearance in St. Petersburg, Russia, encouraged the choreographer to adopt
her preferences for the music of Chopin and Schumann and in his aspirations to
achieve free expression of emotion, Fokine proceeded to study similar sources of
ancient Greek art and movement.54 The later fusion of classical and oriental elements
in the choreography and costume design of the Ballets Russes created a sensation in
Paris, and in 1909 the future of Parisian fashion seemed to be attained, as Valerie
Steele observed, “through visiting the long ago and far away.”55

Enthusiasm for the Work of Avant Garde Designers

Historical revival of dress forms appropriated from classical antiquity enabled the
fashion system to recall its “passion for things Antique”56 and develop a new taste for
Directoire, Empire, and Regency periods that allowed women to abandon the S–
curve corset and embrace the raised waistline as a signature element of the
Neoclassical silhouette. Citations of classicising Directoire models were particularly
promoted by the French couturier Paul Poiret (1879–1944) whose revolutionary
designs introduced in 1906 a narrow line that moved away from the conventional
traditions of dressmaking. 57 With his abandonment of the corseted figure and
introduction of relaxed clothing styles, Poiret’s radically simplified garments
correlated with Duncan’s concept of the body and in her autobiography she recalled
her enthusiasm for his creations:

54
Irma Duncan, 1966, op cit., p. 70.
55
Valerie Steele, Paris Fashion: A Cultural History, Oxford University Press, New York, New York,
United States, 1988, p. 215.
56
François Boucher, op cit., p. 337.
57
Harold Koda and Andrew Bolton, Poiret, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New
York, United States, 2007, p. 14.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

And now, for the first time, I visited a fashionable dressmaker, and
fell to the fatal lure of stuffs, colours, form——even hats, I, who had
always worn a little white tunic, woollen in winter, linen in
summer, succumbed to the enticement of ordering beautiful
gowns, and wearing them. Only I had one excuse. The dressmaker
was no ordinary one, but a genius——Paul Poiret, who could dress
a woman in such a way as also to create a work of art.58

Poiret credited Isadora Duncan as his inspiration,59 transformed a part of her studio
with extraordinary decorations comprising of black velvets, golden mirrors, and
Oriental textures and was known to have made an elaborate embroidered dress for
the dancer’s young daughter Deirdre (1906–1913)60 who referred to the garment as
her “robe de fête.” 61 Paul Poiret’s Empire–waisted evening gown attributed to
Duncan, circa 1912, is preserved in the collection of the Museum of the City of New
York. 62 Made of yellow and ivory silk chiffon and decorated with an intersecting
meander motif across the draped bodice, the dress evokes a classical Greek style, but
rather than fully complying with historical modes of construction, represents a new
approach to modern dress that marked the couturier’s departure from the rigidity of
nineteenth century fashions.

During the same period, references to original Greek garments and introduction of a
columnar silhouette became apparent in the work of the eclectic artist Mariano
Fortuny (1871–1949) whose experience in theatre design and painting sparked an
interest in classical and regional dress, encouraging him towards research of printing
and draping processes. Inspired by the Charioteer of Delphi,63 Fortuny collaborated
with his wife, Henriette Negrin (1877–1965), a Parisian textile artist and clothing
designer, in order to develop his own interpretation of the ancient pleating technique
and produce garments made of fine corrugated silk taffeta. The subtle colour and

58
Duncan, 2013, op cit., pp. 209–210.
59
Daly, op cit., p. 251.
60
Deirdre Duncan (1906–1913) was the biological daughter of Isadora Duncan (not one of the
adoptive daughters who were originally Duncan’s pupils), who was killed in a car accident together
with her younger brother, Patrick Duncan (1910–1913).
61
Duncan, 2013, op cit., p. 238.
62
Museum of the City of New York, New York, New York, United States, Accession #62.119.3. See
Koda and Bolton, op cit., p. 74.
63
The Charioteer of Delphi is an Ancient Greek bronze sculpture, circa 475 BC, representing a
life–size statue of a chariot driver dressed in a typical long tunic or chiton. The sculpture was found
in 1896 near the temple of Apollo in Delphi, Greece.

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loose form of the accordingly named Delphos gown found support among female
members of fashionable artistic circles including Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923),
Eleonora Duse (1858–1924), and Isadora Duncan who probably acquired her first
Delphos dress in 1909 or 1910.64 Although soft and elastic with the ability to adapt to
the natural lines of the body, Duncan never considered the design suitable for her
stage performances. 65 She was, however, seen wearing the garment on numerous
domestic and public occasions. Again, a very rare children’s model was known to have
been constructed for her young daughter Deirdre66 and in August 1919, Duncan’s
adoptive daughters acquired the dress in different colours during their visit to the
renowned Fortuny shop in Venice (Figure 11).

Figure 11:
Lisa, Anna and Margot Duncan,
Adoptive Daughters of
Isadora Duncan, Wearing
Delphos Dresses by
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo,
Albert Harlingue, circa 1920,
© Albert Harlingue/Roger–
Viollet, Paris, France, HRL–
512376.

64
Duncan, Pratl, and Splatt, op cit., p. 109.
65
Irma Duncan, 1966, op cit., p. 189.
66
Duncan, Pratl, and Splatt, op cit., p. 109.

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Despite Duncan’s interest in creations of avant garde designers, visual evidence

supports a continuation of her preferences for garments intrinsic to her personal style
and the distinctive use of historical references. During the years that followed the First
World War, upon her return to Europe from the United States, Duncan could still
be seen in combinations of garments resembling stylistic idioms of past clothing
cultures, thus highlighting her continuous revision of historical precedents and the
marginality of her position within the emerging twentieth century dress practices.
Photographs captured upon her return to her former home in Bellevue, Meudon,
France illustrate her use of more modest floor–length tunics and large rectangular
shawls draped as classical himations (Figure 12).

Figure 12:
Isadora Duncan in her Pavilion at Bellevue, Meudon, France,
Photographer Unknown, 1919, Photographies de l’Agence Meurisse,
© Bibliothèque Nationale de France,
Département Estampes et Photographie, EI–13 (2608).

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Conclusion
It could be argued, therefore, that Duncan’s Neoclassicism encompassed a complex
dual temporality that could be seen as similar to the position occupied by Aesthetic
dress within the context of nineteenth century fashion culture,67 appearing both as a
product of modernity’s search for novelty as well as reactive anti–modernist stance.
Having moved away from dominant conventions, Duncan explored an experimental,
modern style of performance and superseded traditional concepts of femininity and
the body. Her clothing appeared as a negotiation between her vision of dance
understood as an aesthetic and a socially structured programme, a celebration of
individualised natural movement accompanied by a progressive, revolutionary break
with acceptable cultural norms and constrictive attitudes to dress. At the same time,
while highlighting the importance of the body as a social entity, Duncan adopted
antithetical codes that evoked past cultural systems as ideal models with the ability to
highlight timelessness of corporeal movements and universality of accompanying
forms of sartorial display. In this sense, Duncan’s theory of modern dance and her
understanding of the fashion system moved away from the rapidly alienising,
materialist world of the twentieth century in order to search for a unique vision of a
romantic unity of essential human experience and artistic achievement.

67
Wahl, op cit., p. xxv.

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Bibliography

Primary Sources: Published

Duncan, Irma, Isadora Duncan: Pioneer in the Art of Dance, The New York Public
Library, New York, New York, United States, 1959.

Duncan, Irma, Duncan Dancer: An Autobiography, Wesleyan University Press,

Middletown, Connecticut, United States, 1966.

Duncan, Isadora, The Art of the Dance, Theater Arts, New York, New York, United
States, 1928.

Duncan, Isadora, “The Freedom of Woman,” in Bonnie Kime Scott, Ed., Gender in
Modernism: New Geographies, Complex Intersections, University of Illinois Press,
Champaign, Illinois, United States, 2007, pp. 750–751.

Duncan, Isadora, My Life, Liveright Publishing Corporation, New York, New York,
United States, 2013.

Fuller, Loïe, Fifteen Years of a Dancer’s Life, with Some Account of Her
Distinguished Friends, Herbert Jenkins, London, England, 1913.

Secondary Sources: Articles

Jowitt, Deborah, “Images of Isadora: The Search for Motion,” Dance Research
Journal, Volume 17, Issue 2, Autumn 1985, pp. 21–29.

Ruyter, Nancy Lee Chalfa, “The Delsarte Heritage,” Dance Research: The Journal
of the Society for Dance Research, Volume 14, Number 1, Summer 1996, pp. 62–
74.

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Secondary Sources: Books

Adburgham, Alison, Shops and Shopping 1800–1914: Where, and in What Manner
the Well–Dressed Englishwoman Bought her Clothes, George Allen and Unwin Ltd,
London, United Kingdom, 1967.

Boucher, François, A History of Costume in the West, Thames and Hudson,

London, England, 1967.

Cherry, Deborah, “The Ghost Begins by Coming Back: Revenants and Returns in
Maud Sulter's Photomontages,” in Ayla Lepine, Matt Loder and Rosalind McKever,
Eds., Revival: Memories, Identities, Utopias, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London,
England, 2015, pp. 29–44.

Crane, Diana, Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender and Identity in
Clothing, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, United States, 2000.

Cunningham, Patricia A., Reforming Women’s Fashion, 1850–1920: Politics, Health

and Art, Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio, United States, 2003.

Daly, Ann, Done into Dance: Isadora Duncan in America, Wesleyan University
Press, Middletown, Connecticut, United States, 2002.

Duncan, Dorée, Pratl, Carol, and Splatt, Cynthia, Life into Art: Isadora Duncan and
Her World, W.W. Norton, New York, New York, United States, 1993.

Kendall, Elizabeth, Where She Danced: The Birth of American Art–Dance,

University of California Press, Berkeley, California, United States, 1979.

Koda, Harold, Goddess: The Classical Mode, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, New York, United States, 2003.

Koda, Harold, and Bolton, Andrew, Poiret, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, New York, United States, 2007.

Newton, Stella Mary, Health, Art and Reason: Dress Reformers of the 19th Century,
John Murray, London, England, 1974.

Palmer, Alexandra, “‘At once Classical and Modern:’ Raymond Duncan Dress and
Textiles in the Ontario Museum,” in Charlotte Nicklas and Annebella Pollen, Eds.,
Dress History: New Directions in Theory and Practice, Bloomsbury Academic,
London, England, 2016, pp. 127–143.

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Steele, Valerie, Paris Fashion: A Cultural History, Oxford University Press, New
York, New York, United States, 1988.

Thomas, Helen, Dance, Modernity and Culture: Explorations in the Sociology of

Dance, Routledge, London, England, 1995.

Wahl, Kimberly, Dressed as in a Painting: Women and British Aestheticism in an

Age of Reform, University of New Hampshire Press, Durham, New Hampshire,
United States, 2013.

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Copyright © 2019 Alicia Mihalić

Email: [Link]@[Link]

Alicia Mihalic earned a Master’s degree in Theory and Culture of Fashion from The
University of Zagreb, Croatia. She is currently employed as an Assistant Lecturer at
the same graduate study programme and is responsible for courses related to history
and ethnology of dress and textiles. Her research focuses on the intersection of
costume history, fashion theory, and material culture studies, and establishes
connections between dress and its socio–cultural representation in painting,
photography, and film. She is mainly interested in the phenomenon of nostalgia, trend
mechanisms, and the revival of former dress styles throughout the nineteenth century
as well as the development of marginal clothing discourses during the second half of
the same period.

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Plaiding the People:

Party–Coloured Plaid and Its Use in the
North American Colonies, 1730–1800

Michael Ballard Ramsey

Abstract
This article examines the use of Scottish woollens among the
labouring poor in Britain’s North American colonies during the
eighteenth century. The application of these textiles within a
labouring context is illustrated through an examination of runaway
advertisements, which provide a rare glimpse into clothing and
textiles worn by the enslaved and servants alike. Additional
information is gleaned from further exploration of the garments
and textiles found in the written record, images, and extant
samples found in both Britain and the United States. This article
argues that there are differences between tartan and plaid, but
those differences are not always clear. Lastly, this article proposes
to reinterpret the current understanding of the terms “tartan” and
“plaid” because this study has a limited historiography as
compared to other aspects of the history of tartan.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Introduction
Throughout their histories, tartan and plaid have been closely associated with
Scotland. However, once these textiles were exported, the cultural connection to their
Scottish origins was sometimes lost, particularly prior to 1800. Much of what has been
written on tartan and plaid focuses on the evolution of their status and meaning within
Scotland. Taken outside of the vacuum of their country of origin, tartan and plaid
were inexorably affected by the cultural diversity found in the North American
colonies during the eighteenth century. Scholars such as Linda Baumgarten 1 and
Johnathan Faiers2 have written about tartan and plaid in the colonies, but their work
focuses primarily on the relationship between tartan or plaid and the enslaved
communities specifically. This article offers a wider view in examining what might be
thought of as the labouring poor; a stratum of society that includes both free labourers,
the indentured servants who are serving apprenticeships or paying for trans–Atlantic
passage through labour, and unfree labourers, the enslaved Africans and Native
Americans or convicts transported to the colonies. Rebecca Fifield’s methodology
provides a framework for this article because particular focus is placed on the
advertisements for runaway servants; such advertisements offer rich details illustrating
the sartorial decisions of a class of society that is often overlooked.3 This line of inquiry
will be further supported by exploring newspaper advertisements for shop inventories,
probate inventories, and shipment invoices to explore the diverse use of these Scottish
textiles in Britain’s North American marketplace.

Using the colony of Virginia as a focal point, the research in this article stretches into
both the mid–Atlantic colonies of Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, as well as
deeper into the southern colonies of North and South Carolina. This article aims to
understand whether there was a difference between tartan and plaid within the context
of the North American colonies. If this differentiation exists, what constitutes the
distinction: price, quality, fibre content, textile width, or finishing? Additionally, it is
important to clarify that this study is not trying to determine if, or at what frequency
Scottish dress was worn in colonial North America. Instead, this article seeks to
illustrate the specific application of these textiles in fashion of the eighteenth century
by a careful examination of the garments found in the colonial written record, images,
and extant samples found in both Britain and the United States. Lastly, it should be
noted that the British and European records were consulted where necessary to
provide context. Scotland contains a variety of records including letters between

1
Linda Baumgarten, “Plains, Plaid and Cotton: Woolens for Slave Clothing,” Ars Textrina, Volume
15, 1991, pp. 203–222.
2
Jonathan Faiers, Tartan, Berg, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, 2008.
3
Rebecca Fifield, “Had on When She Went Away…:” Expanding the Usefulness of Garment Data
in American Runaway Advertisements 1750–90 through Database Analysis, Textile History,
Volume 42, Issue 1, May 2011, pp. 80–102.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Colonists and merchants in Scotland, shipping records of Scottish factories, and the
books of the artisans such as the tailors who stitched the readymade clothes or those
of the weaving houses such as William Wilson and Sons of Bannockburn. An
examination of these records is beyond the scope of this article and will be the subject
of a future publication.

Definitions
Before delving into the colonial records, a working definition of the terms tartan and
plaid must be established. An eighteenth century travel journal described tartan as a
“woolen cloth, woven in squares of the most vivid colours, in which green and red are
… predominant.”4 Another late eighteenth century source adds depth to the detail of
the colour variations when describing tartan as a “woolen stuff chequered with red,
green and brown stripes, shaded with blue.”5 These two sources indicate that tartan
was understood to be a textile that featured a pattern of various stripes and checks.
The term, stuff, appears in the above definition and several times in this article, and
this is “a general term for worsted cloth” used throughout the eighteenth century.6

Conversely, the definition of plaid is less straightforward. Plaid has origins as a Gaelic
word. In that language, “plaide” translates into English as “blanket.” 7 Englishman
Edmund Burt wrote during the 1730s that the Highland Scots living in and around
Inverness wore a “short coat, waistcoat, [and] short stockings … [over which] they wear

Thomas Garnett, Observations on a tour through the Highlands and part of the Western Isles of
4

Scotland, particularly Staffa and Icolmkill: ...In two volumes. By T. Garnett,...Illustrated by a map,
and fifty–two plates, engraved...from drawings...by W.H. Watts, ...Volume 2, London, 1800,
Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg,
Virginia, United States, p. 88, Accesssed 8 May 2018. Ellipses added by the author of this article.
5
Faujas–de–St.–Fond, cit. (Barthélemy), Travels in England, Scotland, and the Hebrides;
undertaken for the purpose of examining the state of the arts, the sciences, natural history and
manners, in Great Britain:...In two volumes with plates. Translated from the French of B. Faujas
Saint–Fond,...Volume 2, London, 1799, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale, Colonial
Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, p. 67, Accessed 4 May 2018.
6
Florence M. Montgomery, Textiles in America 1650–1870, W.W. Norton & Company, New
York, New York, United States, 1984, pp. 353–354.
7
Alexander MacDonald, A Galick and English vocabulary, with an appendix of the terms of divinity
in the said language. Written for the use of the charity–schools, founded and endued in the
Highlands...By Mr. Alexander MacDonald...Edinburgh, 1741, Eighteenth Century Collections
Online, Gale, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, p. 87,
Accessed 9 May 2018.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

a plaid…the whole garb…made of chequered tartan, or plaiding.” 8 This passage

establishes an English understanding of plaid as an object, but also suggests that tartan
and plaiding are two descriptors with similar meanings. Both of these ideas are
displayed in portraits of prominent Scots of the eighteenth century, such as John
Murry, 4th Earl of Dunmore (Figure 1). Several reference works published in the
eighteenth century support this dual understanding. Printed in 1726, the universal
etymological English dictionary states that plaid is “a Mantle worn by the Highlanders
in Scotland; also a Sort of Stuff so called.”9

In 1750, another English dictionary described plaid as “a particular sort of striped

stuff, much used by the Scots.”10 By the close of the century, the textile was described
as “a striped or variegated cloth…[and an] outer loose garment worn much by the
Highlanders in Scotland.”11 These definitions indicate that in Britain there was an
understanding that plaid had a binary existence as a patterned textile and an object.
On the other hand, it appears that the North American colonialists understood plaid
and tartan as textiles for making garments, but not inherently a garment unto itself.

8
Andrew Simmons, Burt’s Letters from the North of Scotland as Related by Edmund Burt, Birlinn
Limited, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1998, p. 231. Ellipses added by the author of this article.
9
N. (Nathan) Bailey, An universal etymological English dictionary: Comprehending The
Derivations of the Generality of Words in the English Tongue, either Ancient or Modern, from the
Ancient British, Saxon, Danish, Norman and Modern French, Teutonic, Dutch, Spanish, Italian,
as also from the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew Languages, each in their proper Characters. The third
edition, with large additions. By N. Bailey, London, MDCCXXVI, [1726], Eighteenth Century
Collections Online, Gale, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, United
States, Accessed 17 May 2018.
10
Thomas Dyche, A new general English dictionary; peculiarly calculated for the use and
improvement of such as are unacquainted with the learned languages, The sixth edition, with the
addition of the several market towns, London, MDCCL, [1750], Eighteenth Century Collections
Online, Gale, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, Accessed
4 May 2018.
11
John Walker, A critical pronouncing dictionary and expositor of the English language. In which
Not only the Meaning of every Word is clearly explained, and the Sound of every Syllable distinctly
shown, but where Words are subject to different Pronunciations, the Authorities of our best
Pronouncing Dictionaries are fully exhibited, the Reasons for each are at large displayed, and the
preserable Pronunciation is pointed out. The second edition; with considerable improvements and
large additions, London, 1797, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale, Colonial
Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, p. 21, Accessed 15 May 2018.
Ellipses added by the author of this article.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Figure 1:
John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1765, Oil on Canvas,
238.10 x 146.20 cm, © Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland,
Purchased in 1992 with Contributions from the Art Fund and the National Heritage
Memorial Fund, Photographed by Antonia Reeve, PG 2895.12

12
Additional information about the image can be viewed at:
[Link]

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

This article provides significant emphasis to the examination of the runaway

advertisements throughout the eighteenth century from the colonies of Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and both North and South Carolina. In particular,
runaway advertisements were searched through the duration of the eighteenth
century, and the term “tartan” was utilised only during the period 1746–1780; plaid
(and its various spellings) was utilised only during the period 1736–1789; and various
other terms, such as checked, striped, diced, and cross–barred were utilised during
the period 1738–1800. Runaway advertisements were placed in local newspapers to
notify the public when the labouring poor fled from their situations. The information
contained in the advertisements typically included the names and physical
descriptions of these servants along with details of the items and garments that they
were either wearing or stole when they took flight. While there were not an
overwhelming number of advertisements that recorded runaways wearing tartan or
plaid, there were a total of 208 fugitives, only seven of which were listed as wearing
tartan, which appeared in the runaway advertisement during 1746–1780. The terms
plad, plaid, or plaiding were used, seemingly interchangeably, for 145 fugitives from
the mid 1730s through the turn of the nineteenth century. Lastly, between the late
1740s through the late 1780s, 52 entries mention garments described in such a way
that suggests either plaid or tartan without actually using those terms. These dates will
provide a framework to help contextualize the analysis of terminology that follows. It
should be noted that the structure of the following section is in a narrative format and
while dates are discussed, the narrative is not presented chronologically.

Tartan
Among the set of entries during the period 1746–1780 that include the descriptor,
tartan, are advertisements that illustrate details of the garments, but not of the tartan
specifically. John Ross, a teenager from the Scottish Highlands, ran away from his
situation in Virginia wearing a “Tartan Waistcoat without Sleeves, lin’d with green
Shalloon.”13 Perhaps Ross looked similar to Paul Sandby’s sketch of an errand runner
(Figure 2). Other advertisements detailed the textile’s quality, such as Thomas
M’Clain who fled wearing a “coarse Tartan Jacket.”14 Tartan of various qualities was
imported into the North American colonies. This fact is borne out in the shop

13
The Virginia Gazette, 14 August 1746, Number 524, Parks, Williamsburg, Virginia, p. 4,
[Link]
&style=/xml_docs/slavery/ads/display_ad.xsl&ad=v1746081417, Accessed 7 September 2018.
14
Joseph Lee Boyle, “Given to drinking and whoring:” White Maryland Runaways, 1720–1762,
Clearfield, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 2013, p. 267.

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 The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

advertisements listing tartan for sale that ranges in quality from coarse to “superfine.”15
Evidence of this can also be seen in merchant’s record books throughout the colonies.

Figure 2:
A Gillee Wet Feit, from Sketchbook of Drawings Made in the Highlands:
A Meeting of the Board of Ordnance, Attributed to Paul Sandby, circa 1749,
Ink and watercolour over pencil on paper, 16.3 x 25.5cm,
© National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, D 5339 A.24.

15
The Pennsylvania Gazette, 9 August 1750, Accessible Archives, [Link],
Accessed 15 November 2017.

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The Invoice book of Robert Hogg, a Scottish merchant in the Carolinas is instructive
in the consumption of tartan in the southern colonies. During 1762–1766, Hogg
imported 150 yards of tartan in two different qualities.16 Further information can be
gathered from the account books of Alexander Henderson, a Factor17 placed in charge
of a few stores in Fairfax County, Virginia. During 1758–1765, Henderson imported
250 yards of tartan in three different qualities, ranging in price from 12 pence to 22
pence per yard.18

Plaid
Along with detailing a tiered price in imported tartan, Alexander Henderson’s papers
also contained information on the different qualities of plaid that he was importing
into northern Virginia. In his letter book, he imported 2000 yards of plaiding over
seven years. This was divided into different qualities as evidenced by three different
price points: 1300 yards of six pence per yard quality; 600 yards of milled plaiding at
seven pence per yard; and 100 yards of nine pence per yard, striped plaiding.19 Not
only does this record show a range in quality of the textile being imported, but it also
indicates a pattern woven into the most expensive plaid.

Linda Baumgarten, former curator with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation,

explored the various possibilities of what the plaid used by the colonies’ enslaved may
have looked like. While she admits that the scant evidence is ambiguous, ultimately
Baumgarten arrived at the conclusion that the vast majority of the plaid used for
clothing worn by slaves, particularly those who worked as field hands, was made of a
white or blue solid coloured cloth.20 Evidence of Baumgarten’s conclusion can be seen
in runaway advertisements like the one for Stephen who, when committed to a
Virginia jail in 1774, “had on white plaid breeches [and a] blue plaid jacket.”21 While
this might be a listing of two patterned garments where only the ground colour is

16
Robert Hogg Account Books, 1762–1787, Folder 1a, Oversized Volume SV–343/1, Volume 1:
Invoice Book 1762–1766, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States.
17
The eighteenth century definition of a factor is “an agent for a merchant.” Alexander Henderson
was a representative of a Glasgow merchant firm placed in charge of a few stores in Fairfax County,
Virginia.
18
Charles and Virginia Hamrick, Virginia Merchants: Alexander Henderson, Factor for John
Glassford at his Colchester Store, Fairfax County, Virginia, His Letter Book of 1758–1765, Iberian
Publishing Company, Athens, Georgia, United States, 1999, pp. 50, 138, 268.
19
Ibid., pp. 10, 48, 64, 218, 264.
20
Baumgarten, op cit., pp. 210–212.
21
The Virginia Gazette, 7 April 1774, Number 413, Rind, p. 3, Column 2, Accessible Archives,
[Link], Accessed 7 September 2017.

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mentioned, it is just as likely that Stephen’s jacket and breeches looked similar to the
examples in the The Old Plantation (Figure 3).

Figure 3:
The Old Plantation, John Rose, circa 1785, Watercolour on laid paper,
29.7 x 45.4cm, © The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation,
Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, 1935.301.3, A&B.

There are a number of references that further support Baumgarten’s conclusion that
the plaid worn by slaves was made of a solid coloured cloth. Tobias Smollett’s 1768
book, The present state of all nations, stated that plaids are “worn either plain or
variegated.”22 Merchants advertising the importation of new stock into the colonies
offer additional weight to Baumgarten’s argument. In 1753, Abraham Usher and
James Wharton advertised in The Pennsylvania Gazette that they were selling

22
Tobias George Smollett, The present state of all nations. Containing a geographical, natural,
commercial, and political history of all the countries in the known world..., By T. Smollett, M.D.
Volume 2, London, MDCCLXVIII, [1768]–69, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale,
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, pp. 52–53, Accessed 4
May 2018.

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“Turkey plads.”23 These turkey plaids were likely a solid red textile, much prized for
its durability and fade resistance.24

In South Carolina, at the end of the 1750s, a merchant advertised he was selling “white
and coloured plaids.”25 Unfortunately, the coloured plaids are not described further,
so whether they were a variety of different plaids featuring a single colour, or a single
plaid featuring a tartan pattern using a variety of colours, is debatable. John Stoney
published in a 1774 issue of The Virginia Gazette that he was selling a variety of
woollens, among which was “white plaiding.”26 Additionally, in the late 1770s, John
Ferrie advertised he was selling from his store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania a variety
of readymade “White plaiding jackets, breeches, and drawers.” 27 However,
Baumgarten’s assertions that the majority of plaid in the colonies was a single coloured
textile is questionable when considering several types of plaid descriptions.

The runaway advertisements also include instances where tartan and plaid were used
as interchangeable terms. For example, an advertisement submitted for English
servant George Harris indicates that Harris ran away wearing a “country cloth jacket
pladed about one inch square black and white.”28 In this case, the term plaid indicates
a simple pattern of alternating black and white squares and the addition of the size of
the pattern is a vivid detail that is generally omitted. Like the runaway advertisements
describing tartan, the records of plaid included garment descriptions with rich details,
albeit not of the textile in question. Among this sampling is the runaway advertisement
for John Butler. An advertisement in The Maryland Gazette in August 1755 recorded
that Butler had worn a “Plaid lapell’d Jacket, faced with Velvet.”29 Unfortunately, more
details of the plaid were not provided, but the jacket’s velvet facing suggests that the

23
The Pennsylvania Gazette, 27 September 1753, Number 1292, p. 3, column 1, Accessible
Archives, [Link], Accessed 15 November 2017.
24
Stana Nenadic and Sally Tuckett, Colouring the Nation: The Turkey Red Printed Cotton Industry
in Scotland, c. 1840–1940, NMS Enterprises Limited–Publishing, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2013, p. 1.
25
Supplement to The South Carolina Gazette, 17 November 1759, Number 1317, p. 1, Column 2,
Accessible Archives, [Link], Accessed 2 May 2018.
26
The Virginia Gazette, 1 September 1774, Number 1204, Purdie and Dixon, p. 3, Column 2,
Accessible Archives, [Link], Accessed 13 July 2018.
The Pennsylvania Ledger or The Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New–Jersey Weekly
27

Advertiser (Published as The Pennsylvania Ledger or the Philadelphia Market–Day Advertiser), 17

January 1778, Number CXVI, p. 3, Column 2, America’s Historical Newspapers, Accessed 29 May
2019.
28
Joseph Lee Boyle, “Sly and artful rouges:” Maryland Runaways, 1775–1781, Clearfield, Balimore,
Maryland, United States, 2014, pp. 409–410.
29
Boyle, 2013, op cit., p. 361.

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plaid used to make the jacket was of a higher quality. Butler’s jacket may have been
similar to one now found in the collections of National Museums Scotland.30 Although
there has been some debate about the dating of this artefact, the silhouette of this
garment is consistent with the middle of the eighteenth century.31 Details of this jacket
such as the velvet lapels, collar and the cuffs, as well as the buttonhole trimmed with
metallic thread wrapped vellum strongly suggest that this particular garment was
probably not owned by a servant, but someone of a higher social station. With these
differences in mind, the extant jacket provides an approximation of what John Butler
wore as he fled his captivity.

Additional references to plaid that possibly featured a pattern are those described with
a regional modifier. An advertisement placed for the Irish indentured servant,
Richard Heaney, states he ran away wearing a coat “lined with a kind of highland
plaiding.”32 While the appearance of the coat lining is unclear, the use of the regional
modifier indicates that the lining was similar to the patterned textiles so often
associated with the highlands of Scotland. In fact, seventeen of the entries listing plaid
also use a regional modifier such as Scotch, Highland, English, or Welsh, and it is
possible that this is merely meant to convey where the plaid was woven. However,
John Jamieson provides some contrary evidence in an advertisement he placed in
The South Carolina Gazette in October of 1758 where he told customers that he had
“imported in the last vessels from Scotland…Tartan or Scotch plaid.”33 It seems that
the addition of a regional modifier was meant to convey that there was a pattern to the
textile.

Further support for this supposition is provided by a 1725 reference work that defined
cool–crape as “a slight, chequer’d Stuff, made in Imitation of Scotch Plad.”34 Perhaps

30
Coat, Frock, Maker Unknown, circa 1750, National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland,
K.2002.1031.
31
The tartan historian Peter MacDonald recently examined this artefact and has suggested that this
coat more likely dates to the period of 1820–1840 because of the details specific to the tartan used
in the garment. While his analysis and the related debate over the dating of this garment is currently
unpublished, the author of this article was made aware of this finding during the peer review process.
32
Joseph Lee Boyle, “Much addicted to strong drink and swearing:” Pennsylvania Runaways, 1769–
1772, Clearfield, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 2016, p. 15.
33
The South Carolina Gazette, 20 October 1758, Number 1253, p. 4, Column 2, Accessible
Archives, [Link], Accessed 1 May 2018. Ellipses added by author of this
article.
A New Canting Dictionary: Comprehending All the terms, Antient and Modern, Used in the
34

Several tribes of Gypsies, Beggars, Shoplifters, Highwaymen, Foot–Pads, and all other Clans of

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the most compelling evidence is contained in the pages of a swatch book compiled by
Marc Morel and John Holker from 1750 and commonly referred to as the Holker
manuscript that is now housed in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Morel was
an inspector of cotton manufactured in Rouen, France; and Holker was a former
English Jacobite turned industrial spy. Taken prisoner in the latter months of the
Jacobite Rebellion of 1745–1746, Holker escaped captivity in 1747 and fled to
France. Holker’s knowledge of English textile manufacture gained from his time
working in the industry before the rebellion coupled with his efforts at espionage in
1750 and 1751 helped to develop the textile manufactory in Rouen.35 Not only was
Holker able to recruit master craftsmen from several branches of the textile
manufacturing industry, but he also started his first mill in 1752 that would quickly
grew to employ 200 workers. The swatch book produced by Morel and Holker shows
a variety of textiles collected from Lancashire County, Norwich, or Spitalfield. 36
Among the samples is one entry labelled scotch plaid (Figure 4). This labelled swatch
clearly indicated that the term, scotch plaid, is indicative of a coloured variegated
pattern on the textile, and additionally, it suggests that other regional descriptors such
as Highland, Welsh and “English Pladd” may indicate the same. 37 This idea is
supported by Andrew Brown, who wrote during the 1790s that Norwich was
unsuccessful in its attempt to counterfeit the quality of the tartan plaids produced in
Glasgow.38

Cheats and Villains, London, England, 1725, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale,
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, Accessed 14 May 2018.
35
Florence M. Montgomery Collection, Collection 107, Boxes 3 and 4, 1956–1986, The Winterthur
Library, Winterthur, Delaware, United States.
36
Florence M. Montgomery, “John Holker’s Mid–Eighteenth–Century Livre d’Échantillons,” In
Studies in Textile History in Memory of Harold B. Burnham, edited by Vernika Gervers, 1977,
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, pp. 214–231.
37
Joseph Lee Boyle, “Lazy, loves strong Drink, and is a Glutton:” White Pennsylvania Runaways
1720–1749, Clearfield Company, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 2015, p. 311.
38
Andrew Brown, History of Glasgow; and of Paisley, Greenock, and Port–Glasgow;
Comprehending The Ecclesiastical and Civil History of these Places, From the earliest Accounts to
the present Time: And including An Account of their Population, Commerce, Manufactures, Arts,
and Agriculture; Here, while around, the wave–subjected soil Impels the native to repeated toil,
Industrious habits in each bosom reign, And industry begets a love of gain. Hence all the good from
opulence that springs, With all those ills superfluous treasure brings, Are here display’d. Their much
lov’d wealth imparts Convenience, plenty, elegance, and arts. Goldsmith. Volume 2, Glasgow,
Scotland, [Link], [1795]–97, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale, Colonial
Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, Accessed 4 May 2018.

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Figure 4:
Swatch No. 115, Textile Sample Book, John Holker, circa 1750,
© Musée des Arts Décoratifs and Jean Tholance, Paris, France, BAD 6752 (GG 2).

Along with the swatch, Holker included general quantity and pricing information, but
more importantly he wrote of its overall popularity in the Scottish Highlands. Holker
also noted that outside of that region, plaid was most commonly found in either the
British Highland regiments or in civilian wrapping gowns (Figure 5).39

39
John Holker, Holker Manuscript, BAD 6752 (GG 2), Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France,
[Link] Accessed 11 March 2019.

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Figure 5:
Wrapping Gown, Maker Unknown, circa 1770–1810, Great Britain,
Museum Purchase, © The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation,
Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, 2009–123.

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There is another element to consider regarding the definition for cool–crape. The
use of the term slight might be indicative of the weight of the textile; however, it might
also be commentary of the simplicity of the design. In 1759, The Pennsylvania
Gazette advertised an assortment of plaid saddle clothes in “blue and white, blue and
pink, and pink and white.”40 In this case, plaid with two colours indicates designs that
are simpler in comparison to some of the more intricate extant tartans from the
eighteenth century, such as the swatch in the Holker manuscript. The advertisement
does not offer any other details about the design of these plaids, but it is possible that
they are similar to the ones worn by the family in A Poor Edinburgh Father of Twenty
Children (Figure 6).

One of the examples of tartan and plaid recorded in the colonial runaway
advertisements had to be counted in both categories. Peter, an enslaved man, ran in
1769 carrying some of his wife’s clothes, including a “Tarlton plaid gown.” 41 It is
possible that this is a reference to tarlaton which is a “thin open muslin” possibly
similar to the cool–crape previously discussed.42 However, the decision to place Peter
into both categories was made because Tarlton plaid is just as likely to be a misspelling
of tartan by either the printer or William Gregory, the subscriber. This assertion is
further strengthened by the many shop advertisements listing tartan plaid among the
textiles being sold.43 Using these two terms in combination suggests that tartan and
plaid are two standalone terms that refer to two distinct aspects of the textile.

40
The Pennsylvania Gazette, 6 December 1759, Number 1615, p. 3, column 2, Accessible Archives,
[Link], Accessed 15 November 2018.
41
The Virginia Gazette, 4 May 1769, Number 937, Purdie and Dixon, p. 3, column 3, Geography
of Slavery in Virginia, Accessed 15 March 2018.
42
John Butt and Kenneth Ponting, Eds., Scottish Textile History, Aberdeen University Press,
Aberdeen, Scotland, 1987, p. 171.
43
The Pennsylvania Gazette, 5 July 1759, Number 1593, p. 4, Column 1, Accessible Archives,
[Link], Accessed 15 November 2017.

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Figure 6:
A Poor Edinburgh Father of Twenty Children, David Allan, circa 1785,
Work on paper, 25cm x 18.4cm,
©National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, D398.

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Checked/Checkered
It is important to consider the various examples that may have been attempts to
describe tartan or plaid without using those terms. The first descriptor to investigate
is the term, checked. Often there is some level of ambiguity in runaway advertisements
that only describe garments as checked or checkered. An example of this type is the
convict servant, John Raner, who fled from Maryland. Among a number of woollen
garments that he was wearing was a “checkered jacket.”44

Advertisements like this leave ample room to argue whether or not the subscriber
intended to indicate that the runaway was wearing something made of tartan or plaid.
However, there are a few advertisements that illustrate the garments more clearly. In
April 1771, Candlemas, an enslaved man, escaped captivity wearing a “Virginia Cloth
Jacket without Sleeves checked with blue and red.”45 This advertisement lists the jacket
as made of Virginia Cloth, which is commonly considered a “homespun or
homewoven cloth made in Virginia…[comprised of a] mixture of tow and cotton.”46
However, some runaway advertisements detail Virginia Cloth being “made of cotton
and wool.”47 Virginia Cloth might be confused with some of the coarser plaids and
tartans being imported to the colonies. Regardless, Candlemas wore a jacket that has
a plaid–like pattern in colours that are common among tartan in the eighteenth
century (Figure 7). Additionally, it is important to remember that the term, check,
frequently appears in eighteenth century travel journals and reference works that are
attempting to create early definitions of tartan and plaid. Thus, this term finds its way
into descriptions of clothing in the runaway advertisements that potentially depict
garments made with those textiles.

44
Boyle, 2013, op cit., pp. 337–338.
45
The Virginia Gazette, 18 April 1771, Number 1028, Purdie and Dixon, p. 3, Column 3,
Geography of Slavery in Virginia, Accessed 7 September 2017.
46
Montgomery, op cit., p. 372. Ellipses added by the author of this article.
47
The Virginia Gazette and General Advertiser, 13 February 1793, Davis, Geography of Slavery in
Virginia, Accessed 10 August 2019.

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Figure 7:
An Incident in the Rebellion of 1745, Attributed to David Morier,
circa 1745–1785, Oil on canvas, 60.5 x 99.5 cm,
© Royal Collection Trust, Edinburgh, Scotland, RCIN 401243.

Striped
Another descriptor to consider is striped, because it too is used in early descriptions
of tartan and plaid. The vast majority of striped clothing in runaway advertisements
are probably garments featuring stripes running a single direction on a textile; there
are certainly advertisements that use the term stripe to indicate tartan or plaid patterns.
Elizabeth Cowan’s runaway advertisement, published in 1773, uses language that
could be a description of tartan or plaid by someone who either never (or rarely) had
contact with it before. Cowan ran from a plantation in Virginia wearing a “Bed Gown
of different Stripes and Colours.”48 Additionally, in the year 1762, an English convict
servant ran away in Kent County, Maryland in a woollen flannel waistcoat that was
“striped both ways.”49 This is not a definite reference to a plaid design, but it clearly
shows the formation of a tartan or plaid–like pattern.

48
The Virginia Gazette, 2 December 1773, Number 1166, Purdie and Dixon, p. 3, column 1,
Geography of Slavery in Virginia, Accessed 7 September 2017.
49
Boyle, 2013, op cit., p. 535.

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There are other advertisements that describe striped garments that clearly have a plaid
pattern. In 1755, William Thomas, another English convict servant, fled from a
manor house in Cecil County, Maryland wearing a “striped jacket, much like a plad.”50
The comparison to a plaid suggests that the stripes ran perpendicular across the
garment. Another fugitive from Maryland named Peggy Buchanan ran away in 1775
wearing a “Scotch plaid petticoat blue and red striped.”51 Though this advertisement
does not clearly state that the stripes run in both directions, as discussed earlier the
presence of a regional modifier strongly suggests the presence of a tartan or plaid
pattern.

Striped and Checked

There are instances of the terms, striped and checked, used together. Eve, an enslaved
woman, ran in 1782 with a “variety of striped and checked Virginia cloth cloathes.”52
While the various garments taken by Eve leaves room to argue that some of her
garments featured stripes while others featured checks, a pair of servant tradesmen
fled from the city of Williamsburg in 1775 wearing “striped and checked trousers.”53
The presence of these two details together in a single garment potentially indicates
intersecting stripes woven over a checked ground, creating a tartan or plaid pattern.

On the other hand, it is possible that textiles described as striped and checked can be
considered as a category entirely their own. A merchant’s sample book dated 1764
now in the collections of The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London, may shed
some light on the matter.54 Written above the swatches numbered 97–107 is a short
description, labelling them as striped and checked. These eleven swatches feature
patterns of stripes of one colour running down the warp and a second colour down
the weft. This creates a pattern with one series of stripes appearing more dominant
than the other. This type of asymmetrical pattern does not appear in any known extant
samples of tartan or plaid.

50
Ibid., p. 368.
51
Boyle, 2014, op cit., pp. 20–21.
52
The Virginia Gazette or American Advertiser, 2 February 1782, Hayes, Geography of Slavery in
Virginia, Accessed 5 February 2019.
53
The Virginia Gazette, 2 September 1775, Number 1256, Dixon and Hunter, p. 4, Column 3,
Accessible Archives, [Link], Accessed 5 February 2019.
54
Swatch Book, Lyon, France, 1764, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England,
T.373−1972, [Link]
See also, Lesley Ellis Miller, Selling Silks: A Merchant’s Sample Book 1764, V&A Publishing,
London, England, 2014, p. f.4v.

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However, it is unclear that these swatches are representative of the garments described
in these runaway advertisements. It is important to note that all the samples contained
in the V&A swatch book are silk. The advertisement placed for Eve describe her
clothing as made of Virginia cloth, which has been previously defined as a woollen
textile mixed with either cotton or linen. The two servants who fled Williamsburg
were a blacksmith and a wheelwright, who wore trousers of unknown fibre content,
but their other garments are either made of leather or wool. The fact that their other
garments were made of utilitarian textiles suggests that their trousers were protective
garments possibly made of canvas or wool. Because of these differences, it cannot be
confidently determined whether the garments featured a pattern similar to the above
swatches or were another attempt to describe plaid or tartan.

Diced
Diced is a term intended to convey a two colourway pattern of interlocking squares
such that the finished textile presents a pattern with squares of three distinct colours
with the two primary yarn colours and a third mixed colour created during the weaving
process. This cloth is illustrated in Sir Henry Raeburn’s portrait of violinist and
composer Niel Gow (Figure 8).

Some of the runaway adverts in the colonies evidence garments made of diced cloth.
Catherine Waterson, a fugitive of Philadelphia, ran wearing a “diced woolen gown.”55
Mary Sharp, an Irish indentured servant fled from Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1768
wearing a “stuff gown, green and white, striped and diced.”56 Philip Powers, a bound
servant, ran away wearing a pair of “red diced everlasting breeches.”57 It would appear
that Gow was not the only man to wear breeches of that type.

55
Boyle, 2016, op cit., pp. 421–422.
56
Ibid, p. 445.
57
Ibid, p.178.

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Figure 8:
Niel Gow (1727–1807) Violinist and Composer,
Sir Henry Raeburn, 1787, Oil on canvas, 123.20 x 97.80 cm,
© National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, PG 160.

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Cross Bar
Cross bar is another term found in advertisements that may be an attempt to
contextualise tartan and plaid. The name alone implies bars of an unknown width
crossing over one another to create the pattern seen in tartan and plaid. This idea is
shown in varying degrees by a number of runaway advertisements. Mary Brown ran
from her position in the city of Philadelphia wearing a “brown and white cross barred
Worsted Gown.”58 Nothing is mentioned about the size of the checks created by the
cross bar pattern, but the fact that it only features two colours could indicate that the
gown is visually similar to examples previously discussed such as figures 6 and 8. It is
also important to note that worsted is a “lightweight cloth made of long–staple combed
wool yarn.”59 Alternatively, a fugitive Irish servant named Michael Brannan ran away
with a “cross bar’d jacket of red, blue, black, and yellow narrow stripes.”60 Brannan’s
jacket containing such colour diversity suggests that it was made of a more intricate
tartan or plaid. In fact, it might be one similar to one on display at the Kelvingrove
Museum and Gallery (Figure 9).

Figure 9:
Coat, Maker Unknown, circa 1740–1746,
Scotland, Inverness–shire, Culloden
(Place Associated),
© Kelvingrove Museum and Gallery,
Glasgow, Scotland, E.1990.59.1.

Joseph Lee Boyle, “Apt to get drunk at all opportunities:” White Pennsylvania Runaways, 1750–
58

1762, Clearfield, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 2015, p. 332.

59
Montgomery, op cit., pp. 375–377.
Joseph Lee Boyle, “Much given to Liquor, and chewing Tobacco:” White Pennsylvania Runaways,
60

1762–1768, Clearfield, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 2016, p. 166.

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Furniture Check
The last textile term considered in this article is furniture check. Art and textile
historian Florence Montgomery defines check as a “fabric made of any fibers in a
plain weave with coloured warp and weft stripes intersecting at right angles.” 61
Examples of this term used in runaway advertisements are rare, but furniture check
can be seen in the runaway adverts, like those for Hannah (an enslaved woman) and
Charles M’Cormick (an indentured Irishman). In 1761, Hannah ran away from
captivity in South Carolina, wearing a “blue and white furniture check petticoat.”62
Eleven years later, M’Cormick fled from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania wearing a
“red and white barred furniture [jacket].”63 The fact that these references are so few
suggests that furniture check is something separate and distinct; however, it is possible
that these runaways are taking flight adorned in tartan or plaid being exported out of
Scotland. The use of furniture checks in servant’s clothing is peculiar, because as the
textiles name suggests it is one typically used in making furniture. There is visual
similarity between textiles used for furniture like the upholstered armchair shown in
Figure 10 and clothing as illustrated by the breeches worn by Niel Gow in Figure 8.
This assertion is also supported by the fact that “Plad Curtains and Vallens” are listed
on the probate for Richard King of Williamsburg,64 since this document shows that
plaid was being used as a furnishing textile in Virginia.

61
Montgomery, op cit., p. 197.
62
The South Carolina Gazette, 19 December 1761, Number 1429, p. 4, Column 3, Accessible
Archives, [Link], Accessed 10 January 2019.
63
Boyle, “Much addicted to strong drink and swearing,” 2016, op cit., p. 308.
An Inventory and Appraisment of the Estate of Richard King late the the City of Williamsburg
64

and County of York, 17 March 1929, Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library, Williamsburg,
Virginia, United States,
[Link]
plad, Accessed 5 December 2017.

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Figure 10:
Mr. Scuttle, Mr. Beard & Mr. Dunstall, in the Characters of Justice Woodcock,
Hawthorn & Hodge, John Finlayson, 1768, Paper, 44 x 55.6 cm,
© The British Museum, London, England, 1902,1011.2098.

Another element to consider is the weave structure of the textile. The majority of
extant tartan and plaid is twill woven; however, that is not always the case.65 In his
examination of pieces of the MacDonald of Borrodale tartan, Peter MacDonald
describes the textile as plain woven, which is a feature common to extant textiles
produced in the northwestern Highlands made during the eighteenth century. 66
Finally, the 1771 swatch book of Robert and Nathan Hyde lists worsted furniture
check among the textiles exported by their firm.67 Considering all of these factors, it is
reasonable to see how the term, furniture check, could serve as a standin for tartan or
plaid.

65
Faiers, op cit., p. 17.
66
Peter MacDonald, “Reconstructing the MacDonald of Borrodale Tartan,” 2014,
[Link] Accessed 9 October 2018.
67
Florence M. Montgomery Collection, Collection 107, Box 4, 1956–1986, The Winterthur
Library, Winterthur, Delaware, United States.

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Conclusion
In conclusion, this article illustrates that tartan and plaid were two separate textiles
and that the colonial consciousness interpreted these textiles in various ways. It is
difficult to quantify the popularity of tartan and plaid in colonial North America, but
the records show that they were imported regularly in substantial quantities. This
difficulty in understanding is, in part, due to the fluid nature of these textiles’
taxonomy. At times the colonial lexicon uses the terms, tartan and plaid,
synonymously. Nonetheless, there is strong evidence to indicate they are two textiles
that are both separate and distinct. The records also show that the distinction between
tartan and plaid was not in whether there was a pattern woven into the textiles or the
presence of specific colours. However, more research is needed to fully understand
those differences.

Additionally, eighteenth century consumers were often far better informed about the
textiles they consumed than their modern counterparts. The alternate terms used in
the runaway advertisements that were meant to indicate tartan or plaid were all printed
between the early 1740s and the late 1780s. It may be significant that with few
exceptions, these terms fall within the timeframe when tartan was banned for most
applications in highland dress within Scotland. It is possible that those alternate terms
might be textiles completely separate from tartan or plaid, but it is more likely that
these advertisements are various attempts to reframe the meanings of tartan and plaid
in the North American colonies.

These textiles were also used to make a wide range of garments in order to fill the
sartorial needs of the servant and labouring class. Whether they were freely chosen
or forced on the colonial workforce, these garments included women’s gowns, jackets,
and petticoats; as well as men’s jackets, waistcoats, and breeches; practically every
garment common to European dress throughout the eighteenth century. As John
Holker noted, within Scotland tartan and plaid were primarily the regional dress of a
sub–sect of Scottish culture. In some ways the logical connection between these
textiles and Scottish immigrants was mirrored as tartan and plaid were incorporated
into some of the clothing of Scottish servants, Scottish merchants sometimes imported
these textiles, and Scottish plantation owners sometimes purchased them in large
quantities. However, that is not the entirety of the story.

Using runaway advertisements as a means to better understand the clothing choices

of the servant class has shown that tartan and plaid were popular textiles among the
labouring poor. Immigrants from Scotland, Wales, England, and Ireland, as well as
those from continental Europe and Africa interacted with these textiles. More
research is needed to fully comprehend to what extent these interactions were forced
in terms of the large quantities being purchased by the wealthy for clothing the
enslaved or were evidence of the wearer’s style and purchasing power. Despite the

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cultural variety that interacted with these textiles, there is no indication that these
differences in linguistic understanding appeared colloquially from one colony to the
next. It is probable that the fluidity was observable on a smaller basis, either
regionally/ethnically, or perhaps even on a personal level within a single community.
At its core, this article shows there is a gap in the historiography of tartan and plaid as
well as colonial North American dress. It also helps to re–visualise the role that these
inherently Scottish textiles played in colonial North America.

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Bibliography

Primary Sources: Archival Documents

Florence M. Montgomery Collection, Collection 107, Boxes 3 and 4, 1956–1986,

The Winterthur Library, Winterthur, Delaware, United States.

Robert Hogg Account Books, 1762–1787, Folder 1a, Oversized Volume SV–343/1,
Volume 1: Invoice Book 1762–1766, Wilson Special Collections Library, University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States.

John Holker, Holker Manuscript, BAD 6752 (GG 2), Musée des Arts Décoratifs,
Paris, France, [Link] Accessed 11 March 2019.

An Inventory and Appraisment of the Estate of Richard King late the the City of
Williamsburg and County of York, 17 March 1929, Colonial Williamsburg Digital
Library, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States,
[Link]
ml&highlight=plad, Accessed 5 December 2017.

The Pennsylvania Gazette, 9 August 1750, Accessible Archives, [Link]-

[Link], Accessed 15 November 2017.

The Pennsylvania Gazette, 27 September 1753, Number 1292, p. 3, column 1,

Accessible Archives, [Link], Accessed 15 November 2017.

The Pennsylvania Gazette, 5 July 1759, Number 1593, p. 4, Column 1, Accessible

Archives, [Link], Accessed 15 November 2017.

The Pennsylvania Gazette, 6 December 1759, Number 1615, p. 3, column 2,

Accessible Archives, [Link], Accessed 15 November 2018.

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The Pennsylvania Ledger or The Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New–Jersey

Weekly Advertiser (Published as The Pennsylvania Ledger or The Philadelphia
Market–Day Advertiser), 17 January 1778, Number CXVI, p. 3, Column 2,
America’s Historical Newspapers, Accessed 29 May 2019.

The South Carolina Gazette, 20 October 1758, Number 1253, p. 4, Column 2,

Accessible Archives, [Link], Accessed 1 May 2018.

The South Carolina Gazette, 19 December 1761, Number 1429, p. 4, Column 3,

Accessible Archives, [Link], Accessed 10 January 2019.

Supplement to The South Carolina Gazette, 17 November 1759, Number 1317, p.

1, Column 2, Accessible Archives, [Link], Accessed 2 May
2018.

Swatch Book, Lyon, France, 1764, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
England, T.373 1972, [Link]
unknown/.

The Virginia Gazette, 14 August 1746, Number 524, Parks, Williamsburg, Virginia,
p. 4,
[Link]
/ads/[Link]&style=/xml_docs/slavery/ads/display_ad.xsl&ad=v1746081417,
Accessed 7 September 2018.

The Virginia Gazette, 4 May 1769, Number 937, Purdie and Dixon, p. 3, column 3,
Geography of Slavery in Virginia, Accessed 15 March 2018.

The Virginia Gazette, 18 April 1771, Number 1028, Purdie and Dixon, p. 3, Column
3, Geography of Slavery in Virginia, Accessed 7 September 2017.

The Virginia Gazette, 2 December 1773, Number 1166, Purdie and Dixon, p. 3,
column 1, Geography of Slavery in Virginia, Accessed 7 September 2017.

The Virginia Gazette, 7 April 1774, Number 413, Rind, p. 3, Column 2, Accessible
Archives, [Link], Accessed 7 September 2017.

The Virginia Gazette, 1 September 1774, Number 1204, Purdie and Dixon, p. 3,
Column 2, Accessible Archives, [Link], Accessed 13 July 2018.

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The Virginia Gazette, 2 September 1775, Number 1256, Dixon and Hunter, p. 4,
Column 3, Accessible Archives, [Link], Accessed 5 February
2019.

The Virginia Gazette or American Advertiser, 2 February 1782, Hayes, Geography

of Slavery in Virginia, Accessed 5 February 2019.

The Virginia Gazette and General Advertiser, 13 February 1793, Davis, Geography
of Slavery in Virginia, Accessed 10 August 2019.

Primary Sources: Contemporary Books

Bailey, N. (Nathan), An universal etymological English dictionary: Comprehending

The Derivations of the Generality of Words in the English Tongue, either Ancient
or Modern, from the Ancient British, Saxon, Danish, Norman and Modern French,
Teutonic, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, as also from the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew
Languages, each in their proper Characters. The third edition, with large additions.
By N. Bailey, London, England, MDCCXXVI, [1726], Eighteenth Century
Collections Online, Gale, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg,
Virginia, United States, Accessed 17 May 2018.

Brown, Andrew, History of Glasgow; and of Paisley, Greenock, and Port–Glasgow;

Comprehending The Ecclesiastical and Civil History of these Places, From the
earliest Accounts to the present Time: And including An Account of their Population,
Commerce, Manufactures, Arts, and Agriculture; Here, while around, the wave–
subjected soil Impels the native to repeated toil, Industrious habits in each bosom
reign, And industry begets a love of gain. Hence all the good from opulence that
springs, With all those ills superfluous treasure brings, Are here display’d. Their
much lov’d wealth imparts Convenience, plenty, elegance, and arts. Goldsmith.
Volume 2, Glasgow, Scotland, [Link], [1795]–97, Eighteenth Century
Collections Online, Gale, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg,
Virginia, United States, Accessed 4 May 2018.

Dyche, Thomas, A new general English dictionary; peculiarly calculated for the use
and improvement of such as are unacquainted with the learned languages, The sixth
edition, with the addition of the several market towns, London, England, MDCCL,
[1750], Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale, Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, Accessed 4 May 2018.

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Faujas–de–St.–Fond, cit. (Barthélemy), Travels in England, Scotland, and the

Hebrides; undertaken for the purpose of examining the state of the arts, the sciences,
natural history and manners, in Great Britain:...In two volumes with plates, Translated
from the French of B. Faujas Saint–Fond,...Volume 2, London, England, 1799,
Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation,
Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, p. 67, Accessed 4 May 2018.

Garnett, Thomas, Observations on a tour through the Highlands and part of the
Western Isles of Scotland, particularly Staffa and Icolmkill: ...In two volumes, By T.
Garnett,...Illustrated by a map, and fifty–two plates, engraved...from drawings...by
W.H. Watts, ...Volume 2, London, England, 1800, Eighteenth Century Collections
Online, Gale, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, United
States, p. 88, Accesssed 8 May 2018.

MacDonald, Alexander, A Galick and English vocabulary, with an appendix of the

terms of divinity in the said language. Written for the use of the charity–schools,
founded and endued in the Highlands...By Mr. Alexander MacDonald...Edinburgh,
Scotland, 1741, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale, Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, Accessed 9 May 2018.

A New Canting Dictionary: Comprehending All the terms, Antient and Modern,
Used in the Several tribes of Gypsies, Beggars, Shoplifters, Highwaymen, Foot–Pads,
and all other Clans of Cheats and Villains, London, England, 1725, Eighteenth
Century Collections Online, Gale, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg,
Virginia, United States, Accessed 14 May 2018.

Smollett, Tobias George, The present state of all nations. Containing a geographical,
natural, commercial, and political history of all the countries in the known world...,
By T. Smollett, M.D. Volume 2, London, England, MDCCLXVIII, [1768]–69,
Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation,
Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, Accessed 4 May 2018.

Walker, John, A critical pronouncing dictionary and expositor of the English

language. In which Not only the Meaning of every Word is clearly explained, and the
Sound of every Syllable distinctly shown, but where Words are subject to different
Pronunciations, the Authorities of our best Pronouncing Dictionaries are fully
exhibited, the Reasons for each are at large displayed, and the preserable
Pronunciation is pointed out. The second edition; with considerable improvements
and large additions, London, England, 1797, Eighteenth Century Collections Online,
Gale, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States,
Accessed 15 May 2018.

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Secondary Sources: Articles

Baumgarten, Linda, “Plains, Plaid and Cotton: Woolens for Slave Clothing,” Ars
Textrina, Volume 15, 1991, pp. 203–222.

Fifield, Rebecca, “‘Had on When She Went Away…:’ Expanding the Usefulness of
Garment Data in American Runaway Advertisements 1750–90 through Database
Analysis,” Textile History, Volume 42, Issue 1, May 2011, pp. 80–102.

Montgomery, Florence M., “John Holker’s Mid–Eighteenth–Century Livre

d’Échantillons,” Studies in Textile History, in Memory of Harold B. Burnham,
Vernika Gervers, Editor, 1977, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, pp. 214–
231.

Secondary Sources: Books

Boyle, Joseph Lee, “Given to drinking and whoring:” White Maryland Runaways,
1720–1762, Clearfield, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 2013.

Boyle, Joseph Lee, “Sly and artful rouges:” Maryland Runaways, 1775–1781,
Clearfield, Balimore, Maryland, United States, 2014.

Boyle, Joseph Lee, “Lazy, loves strong Drink, and is a Glutton:” White Pennsylvania
Runaways 1720–1749, Clearfield Company, Baltimore, Maryland, United States,
2015.

Boyle, Joseph Lee, “Apt to get drunk at all opportunities:” White Pennsylvania
Runaways, 1750–1762, Clearfield, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 2015.

Boyle, Joseph Lee, “Much given to Liquor, and chewing Tobacco:” White
Pennsylvania Runaways, 1762–1768, Clearfield, Baltimore, Maryland, United States,
2016.

Boyle, Joseph Lee, “Much addicted to strong drink and swearing:” Pennsylvania
Runaways, 1769–1772, Clearfield, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 2016.

Butt, John and Ponting, Kenneth, Eds., Scottish Textile History, Aberdeen University
Press, Aberdeen, Scotland, 1987.

Faiers, Jonathan, Tartan, Berg, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, 2008.

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Hamrick, Charles and Virginia, Virginia Merchants: Alexander Henderson, Factor

for John Glassford at his Colchester Store, Fairfax County, Virginia, His Letter Book
of 1758–1765, Iberian Publishing Company, Athens, Georgia, United States, 1999.

Miller, Lesley Ellis, Selling Silks: A Merchant’s Sample Book 1764, V&A Publishing,
London, England, 2014.

Montgomery, Florence M., Textiles in America 1650–1870, W.W. Norton &

Company, New York, New York, United States, 1984.

Nenadic, Stana and Tuckett, Sally, Colouring the Nation: The Turkey Red Printed
Cotton Industry in Scotland, c. 1840–1940, NMS Enterprises Limited–Publishing,
Edinburgh, Scotland, 2013.

Simmons, Andrew, Burt’s Letters from the North of Scotland as Related by Edmund
Burt, Birlinn Limited, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1998.

Internet Sources:

MacDonald, Peter, “Reconstructing the MacDonald of Borrodale Tartan,” 2014,

[Link] Accessed 9
October 2018.

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Acknowledgments
I would like to extend a special thank you to those at Winterthur Museum, Garden,
and Library, the University of Glasgow, Glasgow Museums, National Museums
Scotland, and The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation who have helped along the
way. Additional thank you to the various reviewers and editors who have helped to
strengthen this article. A final thank you to my family for your never–ending well of
patience and support.

Copyright © 2019 Michael Ballard Ramsey

Email: mramsey@[Link]

Michael Ballard Ramsey is a historic costume and accessories specialist in the

Costume Design Center of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a historical
landmark, eighteenth century living history museum in Williamsburg, Virginia,
United States. He is also Owner of Michael B. Ramsey, Historic Tailoring and
Consulting. There he specialises in the accurate reproduction of tailored garments
and accessories of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, down to the
finest detail, including hand–stitched seams. In addition to the Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation, he has professional experience at a number of museums and historic
sites, including Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville, Tennessee, a circa 1807
educational resource dedicated to the preservation of Tennessee’s Victorian
architecture and history.

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Book Reviews

Elizabeth Bucar, Pious Fashion: How Muslim

Women Dress, Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, Notes,
Bibliography, Index, 21 Colour Illustrations, 248
pages, Hardback, £23.95.

The tension in the title, Pious Fashion, rests on the

often assumed contradiction of being “modest” and
“fashionable” at the same time. The first adjective
plays to the conservative direction, which defines
modesty as a given range of behaviours or auto–
display; one that cannot possibly be subject to
question or subversion. The second adjective,
fashionable, emphasises the constant change of the
latest fashion. How do they play together in this
book? This review resists the temptation to go
through this exciting read line by line with another close look at the subtitle, How
Muslim Women Dress. The tension is calmed here. The “fashion” has been scaled
down to the “dress,” which in turn becomes an occupation of modesty, which without
questioning appears as a function of Islam. However, despite the excellent research
that provides a comparative study of Islamic choices of dress, this is a book about
some women in some countries.

Turkey, Indonesia, and Iran are among some of the most prominent Islamic states.
Turkey remains a political, military, and much westernised element of this
triumvirate. It’s also the setting of a strong renaissance to more conservative attitudes,
as exemplified by the gradual changes to the Turkish Airlines uniforms. Indonesia
alone is home to 225 million Muslims——90% of the population——although, the

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distribution of belief systems in the country is variable. Although Iran is still

considered by some as a focus of conservative Islam, Tehran is also known for its
women, shaping their dress in a subversive way, testing the limits and expanding them
constantly. For good reason, this book presents research from the urban world of
pious fashion. Tehran, Yogyakarta, and Istanbul provide the background. Elizabeth
Bucar addresses this in her book. However, the focus remains and each of the
metropolises is atypical for their respective country and, in this case, they are
represented due to their international prominence and visibility. And fashion is all
about visibility——one that can be advanced, shaped, restricted, or subdued. The book
gives an excellent account of the three cases.

Nuances and individuality are as much subject to fashion as the human drive to
conform. This book takes a look at the way women dress as an expression of these
forces; the individuality that has to be bargained against others, their own degree and
acceptance of conformity, and the sheer endless possibilities that can develop between
the two poles of dress codes. The white gazelle in the room here is the surprising
variety of headscarfs, coats, manteaus, shoes, and bags that remain within whatever
limits imposed or adopted. Each one of the many photos in the book leaves the
reader——like this reviewer——with the impression of, yes, this is how Muslims dress.
But then the next image recalls this impression.

Finally, having gone through the plethora of colours, shapes, and qualities, this reader
still labours over the kind of dress he has seen in many years in sub–Saharan Africa.
Muslim women there have been resistant to even attempted or suggested regulations
that were dictated by rules other than aesthetic. The politics of fashion, a topic deeply
interrogated in this book (and of which one is aware in an era where burkas have
become illegal in one country yet obligatory in another) would not play out among
these women. Boko Haram would have to use utter violence to achieve such rules
only for the duration of closest control. Follow up research on Muslim women in
Africa and Europe would be appreciated. How much of their dress preceded current
understanding of modesty? And, how much did the existing culture of non–verbal
communication influence the boundaries of modesty? To be honest, in Burkina Faso
or Gabon a woman in plain black would be considered attention–seeking in the
negative meaning of the concept.

This book is highly informative and entertaining, something one cannot say about
much of academic writing. The author, Elizabeth Bucar, teaches at Northeastern
University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Her courses include “The Islamic
Veil: Islam, Gender and the Politics of Dress” and “Sex in Judaism, Christianity and
Islam.” Having a broad background qualifies her for this enquiry. Throughout,
Elizabeth Bucar maintains academic rigour and a well thought through structure,
which binds the three main cases together. It is obviously this professional firmness

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that allows Elizabeth Bucar to discuss values of Muslim women and how they present
them in their dress and dress codes. She backs up her statements by valid examples
and simultaneously tests them against suggested counter evidence. Discussing values,
especially if they are under strain and sometimes even fall victim to misunderstanding,
is a difficult task. Elizabeth Bucar masters this in a spectacularly readable way. The
book belongs at university libraries across the world, and it is a welcomed addition to
my list of gifts for the coming festive season.

Copyright © 2019 Olaf Bachmann

Email: [Link]@[Link]

Dr. Bachmann holds a PhD in War Studies (King’s College London) and an MA
(Distinction) in War in the Modern World. As a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at
King’s College, the focus of his research is on the African Peace and Security
Architecture, and the history and contemporary state of African military and warfare.
He is a member of the Royal African Society and of the War Studies Africa Research
Group at King’s College, where he teaches at the African Leadership Centre on
Governance of Security and State Formation. He is also currently Visiting Research
Fellow at the German Armed Forces Research Service and is working on a book
about acculturation through warfare and how this finds expression in dress.

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Tamara J. Walker, Exquisite Slaves: Race,

Clothing, and Status in Colonial Lima, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire,
England, 2017, Acknowledgements, Endnotes,
Bibliography, Index, 17 Black–and–White
Illustrations, 240 pages, Hardback, £78.99.

Tamara Walker’s Exquisite Slaves: Race, Clothing,

and Status in Colonial Lima focuses on the
dressing practices of free and enslaved people of
African descent during the late colonial period in
Lima, Peru. Using a collection of visual and
archival materials that range from drawings and
paintings to criminal and civil cases, manumission
letters, bills of sale, wills, inventories, and travel
accounts written in different languages, Walker
identifies the ways in which people of African
descent in colonial Lima used dress as a form of creation of their subjectivities.
Throughout her book, Walker argues that the clothing practices of free and enslaved
people of African descent in colonial Lima challenged “the established order by
shaping and negotiating their own ideas about beauty, status, and selfhood” (p. 4) in
an increasingly hierarchical society that based itself on the notion of calidad [quality].
At the same time, control over dress was essential to the Spaniards’ assertion of power,
wealth, and racial domination in this colonial society. Walker weaves these two
assertions in her book to create her main argument that dress, as a central aspect of
elite Spaniards’ assertion of racial dominance, wealth, and status, became an emblem
of both the reach and the limits of slavery in colonial Lima (pp. 18–19).

Walker introduces the concept of “aesthetics of mastery” in the first chapter of her
book to explain the convergence of practices in which Spaniards in Lima used their
slaves as objects for elegant display in a variety of occasions, ranging from everyday
activities to royal ceremonies, religious festivals, and rites of passage. Thus,
slaveholders in Lima, like their peninsular counterparts, incorporated their slaves into
a variety of spectacles and rituals such that enslaved Africans became powerful
symbols of status for their owners. These practices resulted in sumptuary legislation
aimed at controlling luxurious display and raised criticism and questions about the
differentiation and control over the bodies of enslaved people, which remained valid
even as sumptuary law became less effective as a tool for social control. Yet, at the
same time, people of African descent also assigned their own meanings to dress. In
the second chapter of her book, Walker identifies how jornaleros [hired–out slaves]
who were tried for theft, were able to expand their social networks, advance their

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status, and simultaneously communicate and challenge ideas about legal status,
gender, family, and honour by accessing a variety of material goods, including
luxurious dress. Similarly, free people of African descent——whose material
belongings might at times have surpassed those of Spaniards——also used clothing to
challenge ideas about race in Peru. As a result, clothing became a tool that permitted
the blurring of boundaries between slavery and freedom, and the lines of racial
identity and racial privilege. This, in turn reveals the importance of the notion of
calidad, which signified “one’s Spanish ancestry, limpieza de sangre, and freedom
from racial stigma” (p. 82) and which could be communicated through honourable
status, dress practices, and behavioural attributes or manners.

However, despite the apparent fluidity in calidad offered by dress——especially to

people of African descent——colonial officials in Lima seemed invested in maintaining
the fixed bounds of racial identity and privilege. In the fourth chapter of the book,
Walker studies the only known examples of casta [caste] paintings created in Peru
and argues that they were used as a tool for colonial officials to maintain a clear–cut
racial differentiation between Spaniards and people of African descent. According to
Walker’s reading, these casta paintings “sought to preserve a sense of racial difference
and hierarchy” and “insisted on the idea that Spaniards wielded ultimate control over
luxury and that Spanish men were the primary channels through which it was
distributed” (p. 127). The paintings reveal consistent markers of racial differentiation
in the use of specific objects of dress in the representation of subjects of African
descent: women appear wearing white headscarves across the foreheads and facial
markings on their temples as symbols of racial improvement. Mestizo [someone who
is a descendant of a Spanish person and an Indigenous person] and African–descent
men are shown wearing unbuttoned white shirts (p. 106). However, although the casta
paintings provided a sort of visual companion to sumptuary legislation and illustrate
what people of different races were supposed to wear, the written documents of the
1771 census reveal that the racial hierarchy was much more fluid and African–descent
people’s access to material goods was much broader than the paintings reveal. Print
culture and newspapers also contributed to the discourses about racial difference and
hierarchy in eighteenth century Lima, according to Walker’s interpretation of the
coverage of slavery in the Diario de Lima and the Mercurio Peruano, which are the
main subject of the fifth chapter of the book. These newspapers offered a view of
racial and social degeneration that opposed the idealised representation in casta
paintings.

Finally, Walker studies the ways in which slaves and free castas “found ways to assert
their ideas about and claim their place within a changing world” (p. 146) during the
period of independence through dress and self–presentation. Enslaved men and
women were affected by the revolutionary cause in different ways. For example,
enslaved men’s participation in the independence war allowed them to access

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weapons formerly prohibited by sumptuary legislation and racial markers were

replaced by political ones, thus opening a potential path for socio–economic mobility.
However, visual sources and travel accounts of the time reveal the tension between
these new ideas and the reality of the persistent associations of dress to notions of
status. Walker uses a series of watercolours, created in the mid nineteenth century by
Pancho Fierro, to advance the claims of her book. She argues that these convey “a
more complex image of their humanity and aesthetic practices” of limeños
[inhabitants of Lima, Peru] who “endowed the city’s sartorial landscape with a unique
flavour all their own” (p. 164).

Walker closes her book with an epilogue in which she insists on the fact that, by the
nineteenth century, limeños were well aware that clothing could no longer enable
racial deception, for Afro–Peruvians’ engagement with fashion made them look
nothing but foolish. By providing some examples of the ways in which manners and
speech patterns were used to ridicule Afro–descendants and set them apart from
people of calidad in written stories, novels, and plays——a trend that was also be found
in the (former) British American colonies——Walker opens the way for a possible
study of the connections between the experiences of people of African descent
throughout the Americas.

In short, Walker’s book provides a novel account on the contradictory dressing

practices of people of colour in colonial Lima as a tool that both submitted them to
the colonial regime and allowed them to challenge the norms. While the book would
have benefitted greatly from the use of colour illustrations and a more thorough study
of fashion in colonial Spanish America——particularly in comparison to the dressing
practices of people of African descent——the book is an important approximation for
the advancement of fashion studies and dress history in Latin America.

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Copyright © 2019 Laura Beltran–Rubio

Email: info@[Link]

Laura Beltran–Rubio is a PhD candidate in American Studies at The College of

William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, and holds an MA in
Fashion Studies from Parsons School of Design, New York. In her Master’s
dissertation, titled, Fashioning Femininity: Gender, Dress, and Identity in Nineteenth
Century Colombia, she studied the creation of feminine ideals through art and
literature in a recently–independent Colombia. Her broader research explores the
role of fashion and the decorative arts in the creation of national, gender, racial and
class identities, with a particular interest in the Spanish World from the seventeenth
century through the early twentieth century, when the process of independence of
Latin American nations and the establishment of new national identities culminated.

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Moscow Design Museum, Designed in the USSR:

1950–1989, Phaidon, London, England, 2018,
Foreword, Biographies, Index, 350 Illustrations,
240 pages, Hardback, £24.95.

A great deal of the anti–Soviet propaganda during

the Cold War was focused on expounding the
West’s dominance in the consumer goods sector.
Although there were often shortages in particular
goods and industries, it is wrong——as many may
assume——to say that the Soviet Union was devoid
of consumer commodities and lacked a system
within which design existed. Through a primarily
image–based examination of objects, Designed in
the USSR: 1950–1989 seeks to challenge these long–standing notions that have
survived through to the present day. Of even greater note, perhaps, it serves as proof
and validation of the numerous, previously publicly–unidentified “artistic engineers”
who brought to life the many varied products that enhanced life in the Soviet Union.

The book was published in 2018 by the Moscow Design Museum, a private museum
founded in 2012 to collect and preserve Russian design. Due to their current lack of
a permanent home, the Moscow Design Museum holds temporary exhibitions in
conjunction with various local and international institutions. As such, the book is
undeniably a permanent manifestation of their interim displays.

As is usually the case with Phaidon publications, this is an aesthetically pleasing book.
Composed almost entirely of high–quality, colour photographs, interesting details
such as the wrinkles on a souvenir paper bag (p. 32) and the unevenly cascading tufts
of fur on stuffed animals (p. 83) are clearly visible. In terms of organisation, it begins
with a foreword written by the chief curator of the Design Museum in London, Justin
McGuirk. To highlight the driving force behind the publication, McGuirk states,
“Indeed, it may be a consequence of how assured we are in our opinions of ‘Soviet
design’ that the subject has been so little studied” (p. 6). In the following brief but
informative explanation about the socio–economic history of design in the Soviet
Union, and the founding of the museum, curator Alexandra Sankova explains why
the book is divided into three main sections, “‘Citizen’ celebrates the everyday,
domestic and consumer products that relate to an individual’s wants or needs… ‘State’
focuses on items that reveal something about the state–controlled system of design…
and ‘World’ takes the Soviet Union out of the Eastern Bloc and on to the international
stage” (p. 9).

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Researchers searching for fashion and dress–related sources will find the longest
chapter, “Citizen,” the most fruitful. An array of fabric swatches (pp. 46–49) are
accompanied by valuable information about various designers and manufacturers.
The covers of fashion magazines (pp. 55–59) serve as excellent companion pieces to
Djurdja Bartlett’s discourse on the topic in her monumental, and largely text–based
book FashionEast: The Spectre that Haunted Socialism (MIT Press, 2010). Various
perfumes, including the ubiquitous “Natasha” and “Sasha,” give discerning readers a
hint as to whom the idealised Soviet woman and man were. Additionally, a blow dryer,
purse, and selection of shoes provide further insight into products that aided sartorial
action. Aside from an ensemble created for the Soviet Olympic team when the games
were held in Moscow in 1980, and a rather broad selection of photographic
equipment that one may argue was fundamental to creating fashion imagery, few other
objects in the second and third chapters are noteworthy. Despite the fact that only a
fraction of the pages of this book are devoted specifically to fashion and dress, those
few pages make it a great resource for such critical, but otherwise difficult to find
material; its inclusion is a victory in and of itself, considering the casualness with which
articles of dress are still excluded from certain historical studies.

Although it is not the only book about design history in the Soviet Union, it is one of
just a handful. Due to its scope and emphasis on providing a visual representation of
material culture, this book is comparable to Made in Russia: Unsung Icons of Soviet
Design (Rizzoli, 2011), albeit with more sartorial content. From an academic
standpoint, further analysis, including an explanation of how the objects were selected
and grouped, would be a welcomed addition to the museum’s future publications.
Aside from the caption and occasional didactic text to accompany the objects, the
absence of longer explanations will prompt those seeking to expand their research to
turn to more in–depth studies, such as Bartlett’s. It seems, however, that this was part
of the curators’ goals. By presenting a well–curated, visually enticing overview of five
decades of design history, Designed in the USSR: 1950–1989 not only introduces new
audiences to——but also encourages further investigation into——this compelling
topic.

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Copyright © 2019 Doris Domoszlai–Lantner

Email: [Link]@[Link]

Doris Domoszlai–Lantner is an historian and archivist focused on fashion, dress, and

textiles. Doris holds an MA in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum
Practice, from FIT, New York, and a BA in History and East European Studies from
Barnard College, Columbia University, New York. As an archivist, Doris has worked
for various notable private clients and brands. Doris has presented her research at
several major scholarly conferences, including Fashion: Exploring Critical Issues
(Oxford University), Fashion Then and Now: Fashion as Art (LIM), and The
Costume Society of America. Her essay, “Fashioning a Soviet Narrative: Jean Paul
Gaultier’s Russian Constructivist Collection, 1986,” was recently published in
Engaging with Fashion: Perspectives on Communication, Education and Business
(Brill, 2018).

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Anne Grosfilley, African Wax Print Textiles,

Prestel, London, England, 2018, Bibliography,
Glossary, Credits, 380 Colour Illustrations, 3
Black–and–White Illustrations, 264 pages,
Hardcover, £45.00.

African Wax Print Textiles focuses mainly on the

so–called Dutch wax prints of European origin,
which can be found mainly in West and Central
Africa. It also covers a very short description of
other versions of printed textiles in East and South
Africa that are not only influenced by European,
but also by Asian and Arab countries. In order to
make the complexity of the subject better accessible, the six main chapters are printed
like interleafs in a smaller format than the actual book. The rest of the book covers
25 various topics related to the subject.

The first chapter covers the history of Dutch wax; from the early nineteenth century
European–made machine copies of Indonesian batik made for the Indonesian
market. When sales stagnated around 1880, exports were directed to West Africa
where motifs and designs gradually were adapted to the African taste and quickly
became very successful. Many of these designs have become classics and are still in
print.

In the following chapter this adaptation of original batik to the African taste is
analysed. Where the Indonesians tried to minimise the crackling and bubbling, which
is almost inevitable with the traditional way of making batik, the Africans appreciated
just this very aspect.

The next chapter takes a closer look at the marketing of this cloth; initially produced
in Europe, for the African market, with in particular the phenomenon of the Nana
Benz [female merchants who had become so wealthy with their trade in the 1950s
and 1960s, that they were able to buy themselves a German car]. The trade of Dutch
wax had always been dominated by women, who were best informed in what the
customers wanted. It was these women who gave the essential market insight to the
producers. They also could push the sales of a popular design by giving it a name and
a meaning that could vary from region to region and which would add to its prestige.

After the independence of many African countries in the 1950s and 1960s,
production from Europe was gradually transferred to Africa. Now all European
production has ceased except by Vlisco in Helmond, Netherlands. Nowadays, Vlisco

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is considered to produce the best quality wax prints on the market. The biggest
producer at the moment is China, which also currently own a large portion of the wax
printing companies in Africa.

The fourth chapter describes the transition of the pagne [the six yards piece of wax
print]. Initially the pagne was draped around the body but gradually it has been
transformed into a unique piece of cloth made by a tailor. This paved the way for
fashion designers——including western designers——to use wax prints for their
creations that are very in vogue at the moment.

A chapter is dedicated to new marketing strategies that are employed to challenge the
Chinese competition. Special brands and wax qualities are created in order to attract
especially the younger clientele, but there seems also to be a revival of printed versions
of traditional fabrics. The final chapter is dedicated to printed cloth in other areas in
Africa like kangas in East Africa and shweshwe in the south.

Alongside the chapters that discuss the main topics of Dutch wax, the book contains
the description of various themes related to wax; from its production to the various
subjects it can represent in its designs. An extensive bibliography and glossary are
included at the end of the book.

The author of this book, Anne Grosfilley, is an anthropologist, who has previously
published on African textiles. She is an excellent ambassador of Dutch wax. Although
the book is aimed at the general public, it reflects her thorough knowledge of the
subject. For the publisher it was a bestseller, which resulted in a second book with a
chronological overview, Wax: 500 Designs (Éditions de la Martinière Paris, 2019).
The interest in Dutch wax is relatively recent but already several other publications
have emerged. A comparable French publication worth mentioning is Wax by Anne–
Marie Bouttiaux (Hoëbeke Paris, 2017). Based on existing literature and very well
illustrated, it also provides good insight. The most in–depth publication is definitely
the catalogue of the exhibition African–Print Fashion Now! A Story of Taste,
Globalization and Style by the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles, California (2017).
Edited by Suzanne Gott, et al., the book features essays and contributions by 19
different authors, all specialists in their own field. Although Dutch wax received
attention in various exhibitions, this more academic publication was long overdue.

Grosfilley shows the results of her own research (carried out in Europe as well as
Africa), literature, and the information she accumulated by passionately following the
various developments on the subject. Slightly disappointing is the fact that her
description of the history of wax is based on limited and dated historical research.
The last chapter on mainly kangas and shweshwe, both printed without wax, seems to
have been added to make the book as complete as possible on African prints based

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on a foreign influence. However, both varieties of cloth deserve more attention; these
could and should be the subject of a publication in its own right. Although the book
is lavishly illustrated with photos of fabrics, in most cases only a part of the design——
and not the whole repeat——is visible. Dutch wax is known for its big and bold designs
and deserves a better representation to be fully appreciated. In Anne–Marie
Bouttiaux’s book, the whole repeat is shown, or the fabric worn by a person, which
enables the reader to see the variations in dress. However, Grosfilley’s book——written
with passion and mainly based on the results of her own research——still offers, in my
view, a better, more complete overview and introduction of the subject. The book
offers a good and accessible introduction in the various aspects of Dutch wax.

Copyright © 2019 Helen Elands

Email: helands@[Link]

Helen Elands obtained her MA in History of Art and Philosophy in 1984. Under her
maiden name, Helen Boterenbrood, she carried out extensive research of Weverij
De Ploeg in Bergeijk (Netherlands), 1982–1898, which resulted in a company archive
of its collection and several exhibitions and publications, including Weverij De Ploeg
(010 Rotterdam, 1989) and 14 Ontwerpen voor Weverij de Ploeg (Stedelijk Museum
Amsterdam, 1989). In recent years she has carried out extensive research of the
history of European produced wax prints for the export to West Africa, in particular
the adaptation of style and designs to the African taste and the development of specific
designs that have become classics over time.

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Clair Hughes, Hats, Bloomsbury, London,

England, 2017, Acknowledgements, Endnotes,
Bibliography, Index, 106 Colour Illustrations, 64
Black–and–White Illustrations, 287 pages,
Hardback, £30.00.

Hats is a delightful examination of the hat as a

social and cultural object. A deeply researched
volume, it is the first in Bloomsbury’s “Elements of
Dress” series and was written by Clair Hughes,
currently an independent scholar. She previously
served as the Professor of English and American
Literature at the International Christian University
in Tokyo, Japan. In Hats, she answers various
questions including: what is the significance of the chef’s hat? How did religious
turmoil affect liturgical hats? How did the fashionable turban develop during the
Second World War?

Firstly, this book is not a chronological history of hats. It does not attempt to trace the
hat in a traditional historical approach, but rather examines the cultural and social
context that surrounds hats, what they signify in various forms, their use, and the
experience of hat–wearing. It is thus divided into thematic chapters, such as “Hats and
Power,” “Affiliations and Occupations,” and “Entertaining Hats.” The book mostly
focuses on Britain, but does include considerations of the United States, Europe, and
Australia sprinkled throughout.

The first chapter “Hat–making, Makers and Places” is an admirable overview of the
history of hat–making in Britain, particularly the industry sector in Stockport and
Luton, and the millinery creators in London. For example, it highlights the difficult
and dangerous process of creating hat forms in the eighteenth century. The chapter
concludes with a discussion of the famous hat shop, Lock & Co. in London, one of
the last remaining old–fashioned hatters (pp. 34–35).

Two outstanding chapters are “Etiquette and Class” and “Bowlers and Bergères.” The
first examines the utmost importance the hat held as a signifier of class and the
complex manners surrounding hat–wearing. Hughes approaches this topic by first
examining different types of men’s hats and their shifting class associations throughout
time, and then discussing women’s hats through the occasions to which they were
worn. The most fascinating section of this chapter deals with hat honour, the
dizzyingly complicated set of rules regarding when a man should raise his hat.

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“Bowlers and Bergères” stands out for its in–depth look at just two hats: their origins,
development, various associations, and current iterations. Hughes chose these hats
because they took on a myriad of identities of their own, instantly recognisable and
never fully abandoned. She traces the bowler from its invention as a gamekeeper’s
protective head–covering in the 1850s to its ascent through the social classes to
become a symbol of British business and finance. The analysis culminates with an
examination of the bowlers worn by the Household Brigade in London’s annual
Memorial Parade, where the hat signifies many meanings at once (p. 128). Similarly,
Hughes follows the bergère from its origin as both a work item and a fashion hat, the
association with pastoral fantasies in the eighteenth century, the many literary
meanings it acquired, and its unfortunate decline into cliché alongside hats generally
in the 1960s. Her discussion ends on an uplifting note, however, with a photograph
of Stephen Jones’ RHS hat of 2005, a breath–taking modern bergère to rival any
glories of the past (p. 147). The exploration of the instances in which the bowler and
bergère take on subversive meanings, such as the threatening bowler worn by the
character of Alex in Stanley Kubrick’s film, A Clockwork Orange, is a particularly
fascinating aspect of the chapter (pp. 132–133).

Hats is immersed in primary source research. While Hughes consulted a wide range
of dress histories, the strength of her research is in her use of period advice manuals,
newspapers and trade journals, and a plethora of images. Beyond the expected, and
well chosen, court and society portraits or fashion plates and photographs, she
highlights everyday imagery of the past. For example, she includes a set of nineteenth
century playing cards depicting cartoonish images of a butcher, brewer, and carpenter
to illuminate her review of occupational headwear (p. 83).

By far, the best aspect of Hats is Hughes’ use of literary references to dress. Hughes
is a literature expert, having previously authored Dressed in Fiction, and Henry James
and the Art of Dress. Her expertise shines throughout Hats as she incorporates
innumerable references to novels to substantiate and illustrate her points. For
example, Hughes wove analysis of hat–wearing in John Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga
throughout many of her chapters to great effect. The novel spans forty years in an
English family (1890–1930) and thus, provides a fantastic window into changing
cultural codes and manners, often using hats as symbols. Hughes also uses minor
references to hats in novels, such as the villain’s “flapped slouched hat” in the 1745
novel Clarissa by Samuel Richardson to support her assertion that soft hats could
represent dark, anarchical figures in the eighteenth century (p. 62). The sheer number
and variety of novels referenced by Hughes is impressive and expansive. These
literary notes bring attitudes about hats to life, allowing Hughes’ reader to acquire a
better sense of how people regarded hats during various periods of the past.

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Interestingly, Hughes leaves her chapter “Fashion Hats” for last. While she takes care
to explain the difference between fashion and dress, and a great deal of the book deals
more closely with dress, one wonders why she relegated fashion to the last chapter.
The connections between fashion and many of the hats she discusses earlier in the
book are intimate; the sporty straw boater of the 1890s, the Merry Widow hat of the
Edwardian era, and the headwear of flight attendants, to name a few. She does address
the links to fashion throughout the book, but she waits until the last chapter to build
an overview of significant designers and moments in millinery fashion. The choice
seems to underscore that Hughes approached the topic first and foremost as a social
and cultural study, not a fashion one.

Due to the thematic approach, this book sometimes suffers from sweeping jumps in
timelines that, at times, can seem jarring to the reader. However, overall, Hughes
navigates this challenge well. Indeed, Hughes’ adept writing style keeps the story
flowing, and the book is a pleasure to read. Her passion is obvious, especially when
she diverts to share personal anecdotes about the topic at hand. While sometimes it
is discordant with traditional academic writing, the personal notes are usually effective.
The story of her husband’s Aunt Diana as a chorus girl in the 1920s highlights the
elaborate hats of early twentieth century musicals (p. 169). The best anecdote is one
she shares to conclude the chapter covering hat etiquette. She briefly describes an
exchange between her, wearing a hat, and a stranger wearing a bowler, who tapped his
brim and wished her good morning. “Hat spoke to hat in an exchange of courtesies
between strangers” (p. 118).

Hats is a compelling, enjoyable read that illuminates different perspectives. In

conclusion, Hats would be an excellent choice for any reader interested in the social
aspects of dress history. One should note that those looking for a detailed chronology
of the development of the fashionable hat should look elsewhere. This book’s
strength is in its in–depth analysis of the hat as a cultural and social object. This focus
gives it a worthy place on the dress historian’s bookshelf alongside any other number
of fashion–oriented hat histories.

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Copyright © 2019 Harper Franklin

Email: harper_franklin@[Link]

Ms. Franklin became fascinated with fashion and costume history during her
undergraduate studies at James Madison University in Virginia, United States, where
she earned a bachelor’s degree in Theatre, with a focus on costume design. Soon
after, she attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City.
There she received her master’s degree in Fashion and Textile Studies: History,
Theory, and Museum Practice with a curatorial concentration. At FIT, she focused
on late nineteenth century fashion and millinery history. She completed her master’s
thesis in May 2018, covering women’s theatre hats from 1875 to 1915. She is currently
serving as a Digital Archivist at Condé Nast in New York City.

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Anaemic Pathak, Abeer Gupta, and Suchitra

Balasubrahmanyan, Unbroken Thread: Banarasi
Brocade Saris at Home and in the World, The
National Museum of India, New Delhi, India,
2016, Notes, Bibliography, Credits, 186 Colour
Illustrations, 9 Black–and–White Illustrations, 130
pages, Softback, £30.00.

“The sari is an iconic garment of India. The sari is

an enduring symbol of Indian tradition and
craftsmanship. Functioning simultaneously as the
repository of shred cultural aspirations and
innovative regional inflections, the sari is a garment
of diversity, presenting a range of techniques in
weaving and draping, as well as a rich vocabulary of
motifs. With evolving usages and contemporary adaptations into other forms of
clothing such as gowns and dresses, the sari has sustained its cultural relevance without
compromising on its quintessential appeal” (p. 5).

The above quote, by the Director General of the National Museum of India, Sanjor
Mittal, in the foreword of this exhibition catalogue, serves to highlight the importance
of the sari in India as a textile for adornment as well as a cultural artefact. Unbroken
Thread: Banarasi Brocade Saris at Home and in the World was an exhibition held at
the National Museum of India that displayed its diverse collection of exquisite
brocade saris, with emphasis placed on saris that were produced in Banaras. The
exhibition set saris into social context with displays of the physical garment, as well as
representations of the Banarasi sari in popular culture, media, and film posters.

The accompanying catalogue is divided into three sections. The first chapter, “Sari,
The Attire of Grace” addresses the materiality of the sari, including: the materials of
varying types of silk and cotton with zari [gold thread], the embellishments of
embroidery, printing and painting, the techniques of production in weaving and the
design of the anatomy of a traditional sari into its characteristic components. The
etymology of the term sari is elucidated upon with literary, epigraphic, numismatic,
graphic, and sculptural references illustrating the evolution of the sari with Pathak
describing early terracotta sculptures from the Sunga period dated to second century
BC of a female figure adorned with langavali dhoti [cloth draped between the legs]
with the pallu draped over the left shoulder (p. 11).

The second chapter, “The Life and Many Lives of the Banarasi Brocade Sari” focuses
on the core of the exhibition in the form of Banarasi brocade saris——brocading being

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a technique of woven patterning that Balasubrahmanyan and Gupta describe as

“embroidery on the loom” (p. 17) due to the insertion of an extra patterning of gold
and silver threads into the woven fabric to produce the sophisticated, delicate zari
brocaded motifs of flora and fauna, geometric patterns, and Indic scripts.

Cataloguing descriptions of the exhibits ensues in the next chapter, which is divided
into three sub–sections, “The Family of Brocades,” “The Banaras Repertoire,” and
“The Banarasi Sari.” Lavishly illustrated with the addition of a detailed illustration of
a particular motif of each sari such as the konia [the Indian paisley design element in
the corners]. Whilst the latter two sub–sections present a rich variety of Banarasi
brocaded saris from the National Museum of India’s collections, the first sub–section
illustrates saris woven with brocaded patterns from all corners of India from the
museum’s collections as comparative examples. These include a Baluchari mulberry
silk sari from Bengal in eastern India, Ashvali sari from Gujarat in western India,
Kanjeevaram sari from Kanchipuram in southern India, and Paithani sari from Pune,
Maharashthra in central India, with the accompanying catalogue descriptions
describing their identifying characteristics.

Dress historians should adopt a holistic approach to the academic study of the history
of dress set into its social context. This approach is deemed to be more
comprehensive rather than analysing one aspect in the form of the dress, theory, or
archival sources in isolation. The chapter, “The Banarasi Sari in Popular Culture,”
highlights the significance of the red–and–gold Banaras brocade sari worn as the
quintessential Indian bridal dress with the addition of objects from Indian popular
culture. For example, it uses film posters and stills from Tapasya and Bend It Like
Beckham, a popular poster printed in Banaras depicting Bharatmata or “Mother
India” and a contemporary art work in the form of installation studio photographs
by and of the artist Pushpamala N. as “Mother India,” illustrating Banarasi red–and–
gold–wedding saris in these graphic forms of media, setting them into its social
context.

“Indian” Barbie sari dolls form an important aspect of popular culture with the
fashionable clothing that adorn them, illustrating the traditional sari patterns, materials
and form of drapery that were worn in particular regions of India. An “Indian” Barbie
wedding doll is included in the catalogue wearing the red–and–gold Banarasi brocade
sari, adorned with golden coloured bridal jewellery.

The chapter titled, “At the Weaver’s Home and In Ours,” illustrates Banarasi saris
owned and worn by the public with evocative accounts of the personal meanings of
these saris to the wearers and an illustrative account of the production of Banarasi
woven saris.

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The final chapter, “Contemporary Adaptations and Interpretations,” illustrates how

international fashion designers like the American couturier Mainbocher have been
inspired by and have adapted brocade saris into western “sari dresses” in the 1950s.
Also, this chapter demonstrates how Indian fashion designers, including Ritu Kumar
and Rahul Mishra, have been inspired by these traditional techniques to create
innovative forms of dress such as the Paramveer Sari and the Bomber jacket and
utility dress, respectively.

This publication serves as a comprehensive tome on Banarasi brocaded saris as well

as an effective illustrated catalogue to the National Museum of India’s exhibition,
Unbroken Thread: Banarasi Brocade Saris at Home and in the World. This book
would appeal to students and historians of dress and fashion as well as those
conducting research into the dress, fashion, material, and popular culture of India.

Copyright @ 2019 Jasleen Kandhari

Email: [Link]@[Link]

Of Kenyan–Sikh origin, art and dress historian Jasleen Kandhari’s research interests
focus on Sikh art and textiles, specialising on the visual and material culture of the
Punjab and the anthropology of art and dress. She devises courses and lectures on the
history, design, and anthropology of Indian, Asian, and World textiles, as well as dress
and fashion at the University of Oxford. Kandhari is also editor of Indian textiles for
Textiles Asia journal and is the first Asian female antiques expert to appear on the
popular BBC1 Antiques Roadshow specialising on textiles. Previously, she worked in
research and curatorial roles at The British Library, The British Museum, and The
Museum of Anthropology. Her forthcoming publication is the Thames and Hudson
World of Art series book, Sikh Art & Architecture, which includes a chapter on
textiles of the Sikhs and the Punjab.

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Andrew Bolton, Camp: Notes on Fashion, The

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New
York, United States, Distributed by Yale University
Press, New Haven, Connecticut, United States,
2019, Volume I, 184 pages; Volume II, 179 Colour
Illustrations, 162 pages, Hardback, £35.00.

Camp is an elusive concept that isn’t easy to define

neatly. To that end, this two–volume catalogue,
published in conjunction with the exhibition of the
same title held at The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, from 9 May 2019 to 8 September 2019,
explores the meaning of Camp with particular
reference to its manifestations in fashion and art.

The first volume examines the semiotics of Camp. A substantial section focuses on
camp’s trademark, the gesture known as the “camp pose.” Molière’s play, Les
fourberies de Scapin, which he wrote in 1671, boasts Camp’s first usage, se camper,
meaning to strike an exaggerated pose. Camp flourished in the flamboyant posturing
at the court of Louis XIV at the Château de Versailles. Louis XIV wore ostentatious
clothing and adopted theatrical poses when he danced in Molière’s comédies–ballets.
Indeed, Louis XIV set the tone for the exhibition itself with his swaggering portrait in
his coronation robes, painted by Hyacinthe Rigaud in 1701. His pose showed off his
accomplished balletic training. In what is arguably the most famous portrait of Louis
XIV, Rigaud depicted all the trappings in detail, such as his huge wig, and his ornate
shoes bedecked with ribbons, shoe buckles, and red heels. A rare, extant pair of shoes
of the period were displayed in the exhibition. Louis XIV used court ritual, art and
dress to glorify and perpetuate his royal image. It would have been interesting to have
included tapestry, as this was another art form Louis XIV used to exalt himself. More
about Marie–Antoinette would also have been welcomed. She participated in amateur
theatricals, and fashion plates were published depicting ladies showing off their finery
with a flourish of theatrical poses. But it was her fashion statements on the backdrop
of the French Revolution which have had an enduring influence on the meaning of
sartorial excess and extravagance.

For the nineteenth century, there is a scintillating presentation on Oscar Wilde. In

1882 he went to America to deliver a series of lectures on Aesthetics. Napoleon
Sarony photographed him wearing his “Aesthetic lecturing costume,” which consisted
of a velvet jacket and waistcoat, silk knee–breeches, stockings, and slippers adorned
with grosgrain bows. The exhibition had an entire room devoted to Oscar Wilde
replete with clothes, portraits, photographs, and prints caricaturing him.

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The second volume is structured around Susan Sontag’s ground–breaking essay,

“Notes on Camp,” written for Partisan Review in 1964. She listed 58 principles of
Camp which included irony, humour, parody, pastiche, artifice, theatricality,
exaggeration, excess, extravagance, aestheticism. She dedicated her essay to Oscar
Wilde. This volume includes a wide array of the work of fashion designers who
engaged with Camp. Cristóbal Balenciaga designed an evening dress for his
Autumn/Winter 1965/1966 collection made of shaved ostrich feathers, each
individually applied to silk. They are anchored upward against the grain forming a
field of soft colours that convey the optical effects of an Impressionist painting. A Karl
Lagerfeld dress for his Autumn/Winter 1987 collection for Chanel, influenced by
Versailles, cohabits with the portrait of Louis XIV, as does a dress designed by Jean–
Paul Gaultier with a portrait of the Chevalier d’Éon. A jacket and waistcoat designed
by Yves Saint Laurent for his 1993–1994 collection, included the fashion designer’s
Croquis original d’un ensemble hommage à Oscar Wilde.

Camp: Notes on Fashion is highly recommended for dress historians interested in the
interaction between art and fashion. Through text and image, Andrew Bolton and
Wendy Yu, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, have taken the reader on an illuminating and beautifully illustrated
journey of over 300 years of this fascinating subject.

Copyright © 2019 Alice Mackrell

Email: aamackrell@[Link]

Dr. Alice Mackrell received her MA in the History of Dress with Distinction and her
PhD in the History of Art, both from The Courtauld Institute of Art in London,
England. She is the author of Art and Fashion: The Impact of Art on Fashion and
Fashion on Art. She has contributed entries to The Macmillan Dictionary of Art and
to The Phaidon Fashion Book.

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Margaret Spufford and Susan Mee, The Clothing

of the Common Sort, 1570–1700, Pasold Studies
in Textile History 19, Oxford University Press,
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, 2017,
Acknowledgements, Glossary of Garments and
Accessories, Glossary of Fabrics, Bibliography,
Index, 1 Colour Illustration, 14 Black–and–White
Illustrations, 332 pages, Hardback, £50.00.

The Clothing of the Common Sort, 1570–1700 is

the much–anticipated final book of the late
Margaret Spufford (1935–2014) and Susan Mee.
The book builds on Mee’s 2005 PhD thesis, titled,
Clothing the Common Sort, 1570–1700: A Study
Based on Evidence from Probate Accounts and
Poor Relief Records. It also develops Spufford’s
work on inventories in her landmark book, The Great Reclothing of Rural England
(1984). In The Clothing of the Common Sort, the authors aim to show what
“ordinary” people wore, and how much money they spent on their own and their
children’s clothing. It does this by analysing a range of sources, including probate
inventories, poor relief records, and 8,622 probate accounts from across England,
particularly from Kent and Lincolnshire. The authors wanted to see if probate
accounts can fill gaps in information on the clothing of “non–noble” and “non–gentle”
groups. They decided to use the phrase the “common sort” to refer to their non–elite
research subjects to cover the labourers, husbandmen, yeoman, tradesmen, and
craftspeople included in the records. While it is not apparent from the book title, the
study largely explores the clothing of children and adolescents.

First, the authors test the reliability of the findings in Gregory King’s table, Annual
Consumption of Apparell, from 1688, a rare statistical source on garment
consumption from the seventeenth century that gives the total values and numbers of
each type of garment “consumed” in the country. Information from probate accounts
is analysed alongside King’s figures to test their accuracy. The authors find that King’s
main conclusions were correct in terms of average prices for items and the numbers
of garments consumed. The next chapter of the book analyses the clothing of people
reliant on poor relief. It reveals that parish overseers and charity administrators
considered decent, serviceable clothing and footwear a necessity for the poor.
Significantly, it is argued that from the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, parish
overseers provided new clothing rather than second–hand garments for relief
recipients (p. 58). The authors argue that mantuas were increasingly given to the poor
by the end of the seventeenth century and suggest that this is evidence of some

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fashionability in the dress of the poor (pp. 61–63). Here, and elsewhere in the book,
the analysis of garments is not as strong as it could be. For example, the authors do
not acknowledge that a mantua could be an economical garment made of cheap
fabrics and their loose style ensured that the garment could accommodate growth.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters analyse the probate accounts. The authors
evaluate the accounts by how much money was remaining after the death of an adult,
the “charge value” of the estate, and they divide the accounts into three valuation
categories. These categories included under £100, £100–£300, and over £300, and
the chapters are split by these valuation categories. The depth of analysis of the
probate accounts is impressive and the book demonstrates what can be gleaned from
such a thorough analysis of one type of source. For example, the accounts reveal rich
details of garments, footwear, colours, trimmings, and fabrics used to make clothes,
the variety in quality of apparel, the care and storage of clothing, and the prices of
items during the period under analysis. The authors find that the majority of their
research subjects outside of those on poor relief had sturdy and substantial clothing
and sometimes the odd luxury fabric or garment. While surface decoration and more
fine and expensive fabrics (including lustering, plush, and velvet) are evident in the
clothing of the wealthier individuals analysed, the poor did not always wear the
cheapest fabrics. Indeed, the authors demonstrate that a variety of fabrics were worn
by those living on the margins of poverty; fabrics included kersey, frieze, hamborough,
russet, lockram, canvas, and broadcloth. Additionally, they had trimmings of fringe
and cheap woven lace to adorn their garments, showing that people of different social
levels cared about their clothing.

Chapter 6 explores the clothing of people who left accounts valued at £300 or more,
thus from the “chiefer sort.” The inclusion of this chapter feels misplaced as the book
is supposed to be about the “common sort.” The authors acknowledge that the group
falls outside the remit of the book and state that they examined the group so that
similarities and differences between the clothing of the “chiefer sort” and “common
sort” could be identified (p. 165). However, the authors do not make adequate
comparisons in the chapter and they do not draw out enough of the similarities and
differences between the different social groups. The conclusion of the book could
have been expanded to allow for more comparison. The final chapter of the book
examines the acquisition of clothing from tradesmen, tailors, and local “women with
a needle” who produced clothing and payment for readymade items.

The class and occupational hierarchies sometimes lack nuance, and they could have
been analysed and explained further. The decision to divide the text into financial
bands is not always helpful. Wealth and the type of garments owned by an individual
did not always match up if a person’s occupation required that they wear garments
that were suitable for their job rather than their financial capacity. It is also assumed

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that the clothing of children reflected the status of their parents or guardians, which
does not account for the possibility of social advancement or decline. Additionally,
while the statistical analysis and the exploration of the probate accounts reveal very
valuable information, it does affect the readability of the text. There is a tendency for
a probate account to be described in great detail with little accompanying analysis.
The book would have benefited from more narrowing down of the most pertinent
probate accounts that illustrate the key findings to the reader. The book would also
have benefited from the inclusion of more and better–quality images. Certainly, some
of the included black–and–white images of garments would be more useful to the
reader in colour. Furthermore, the book would have been strengthened by a more
thorough analysis of the images in the main body of text.

Nevertheless, The Clothing of the Common Sort fills a large gap in our understanding
of the clothing of non–elites in early modern England, particularly of the dress of
children and adolescents. In the absence of surviving garments and visual sources for
the social groups under investigation, the statistical work and examination of archival
sources offer a fascinating insight into the clothing and textiles of non–elites in the
period. The analysis of the probate accounts in particular is impressive and unique,
ensuring that this book will be a valuable resource for social and dress historians
interested in early modern and non–elite clothing. Susan Mee and Peter Spufford are
to be commended for completing The Clothing of the Common Sort to the level of
detail achieved. The book is an admirable tribute to Margaret Spufford.

Copyright © 2019 Eliza McKee

Email: emckee10@[Link]

Eliza McKee is currently an AHRC PhD candidate in Irish dress history at Queen’s
University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her thesis examines non–elite clothing
acquisition methods in post–Famine Ireland, c. 1850–1914. Eliza holds a BA in
Modern History and an MA in Irish History from Queen’s University. Eliza is also a
qualified archivist and she holds an MA in Archives and Records Management from
The University of Liverpool. She has worked in a range of archives including The
Parliamentary Archives at The Palace of Westminster, The National Gallery Archive,
and The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Eliza’s research interests centre
on Irish dress, non–elite clothing, and clothing acquisition methods.

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Felicity Chaplin, La Parisienne in Cinema:

Between Art and Life, Manchester University
Press, Manchester, England, 2017, Filmography,
Bibliography, Index, 205 pages, Hardback, £80.00.

Who or what is la Parisienne? In answering this

question, Felicity Chaplin explores the theme of
the Parisienne type on film, discussing how cinema
has attempted to visually capture her essence.
Synonymous with fashion since her inception, the
Parisienne is a fascinating key figure of French
modernity, one who never resembles herself. She
is associated with elegance, seduction,
sophistication, and mystery, but also with
consumerism, ambiguity, sexuality, and danger.
“Chic, sophisticated, seductive and enigmatic, the
Parisienne possesses a je ne sais quoi which makes
her difficult to define’’ (back cover). She belongs to
a world apart, without being confined geographically to Paris, as her global identity is
not necessarily linked to her nationality.

Through an iconographical approach to the Parisienne, this study traces the

evolutions of a specific human type of urban woman, defined as a myth or dogma,
cliché and cultural icon. The book’s six chapters investigate, as case studies, an array
of predominantly French and American movies by auteurs including Carné, Godard,
Wilder, Cukor, Luhrmann, and Ozon. Chaplin leads the reader on an itinerary that
has crossed French culture from the mid nineteenth century to the current age. She
outlines the categories associated with the Parisienne, reflecting on her different
incarnations and representations on film as: muse, cosmopolite, icon of fashion,
femme fatale, courtesan, and star. As the author points out, ‘‘It is important to
remember that la Parisienne is not a stereotype […] but a type in the iconographical
sense; that is, recognisable through certain recurring motifs, yet also constantly being
reinvented’’ (p. 14). These motifs are analysed individually in each chapter.

The first chapter describes the enigmatic figure of the Parisienne as muse, exploring
in detail three of her iconographical elements: she inhabits an artistic milieu; she is a
subject of portraiture; and, as the creator of her own appearance, she embodies the
art of self–fashioning. The Parisienne exists between art and life as a figure “ […] whose
existence is as much determined by art as art is a re–presentation of her material
existence.’’ (p.19). The analysis highlights not only the importance of the practice of

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self–fashioning as artifice; as an intrinsic quality of the woman–muse, but also the

relevant role of clothing in building the character in cinema, and of interior décor as
an extension of the Parisienne’s elegance.

The second chapter focuses on the iconographical motif of cosmopolitanism

personified by the Parisienne. As a transnational figure, she can be anyone and
anywhere. Her identity can be extended internationally, transcending national borders
and class divisions, as in the case of the films in which the actresses playing this
fascinating character are not necessarily French. The author outlines a number of
films in which the Parisienne is more of an American invention than a French one.

The third chapter examines the historical, industrial, and textual contexts of the
relationship between the Parisienne, cinema and fashion. In cinema the Parisienne is
established as a chic icon of fashion and style. The focal point of the analysis is on the
costuming of this fashionable figure in movie scenes. Chaplin enumerates the
relationships between actresses and designers, touching on the collaborations between
cinema productions and couturiers such as Givenchy, Yves Saint–Laurent, Pierre
Cardin, and many more.

In chapter four, Chaplin delves into the representations of the Parisienne type as
femme fatale in the context of French film noir, tracing the historical origins of the
term back to the first appearance of the ‘‘fatal woman’’ trope in nineteenth century
France. Through the analysis of relevant films, the author draws a distinction between
the “intentional” American femme fatale and the “unintentional” French one (p. 96)
with her embodiment of ambiguity, fashion, sexuality and danger.

The fifth chapter scrutinises the two motifs of dress/appearance and prostitution,
delving into the iconography of the Parisienne courtesan, identified with a sexually
available woman, “The prostitute was a ubiquitous figure in art, literature and mass
culture of nineteenth–century Paris […]’’ (p. 122). The core of the analysis is on the
way she is represented in cinema as courtesan, associated with prostitution, both the
object and subject of consumption, as she can be a luxury good or precious
commodity, who can be courted, but not owned by her lovers (p. 140).

In the last chapter, the focus is on the film stars themselves, investigating the
Parisienne iconographical profile of the actresses Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau,
Anna Karina, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The films analysed belong to a cycle of
Parisienne movies in which the stars incarnate the quintessential iconographical
profile of the actress own ‘‘star personae’’. After 1960, France witnessed the emerging
intersection between fashion and cinema, as the stars also began lending themselves
to extra–cinematic enterprises such as advertising and fashion. This led to a
proliferation of exchanges and mutual inspirations between fashion and cinema, as

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the actresses brought in their own signature looks and became style guides, in turn
influencing couturiers and generational fashion. The Parisienne is deciphered as
young, slender, sensual, and white but not always beautiful in a conventional sense. In
Gainsbourg’s case, the author reflects on the concept of jolie laide appearance, a kind
of fascinating ugliness that is also a characteristic of this type.

A substantial part of this research aims to highlight the importance of costume,

clothing, and hairstyles as the tools employed to construct the Parisienne character in
cinema. “Costume is perhaps the most important motif for establishing a Parisienne
iconography.’’ (p. 145). As in many studies on fashion and cinema, the book refers to
the films in which the relationship between the two industries is sealed by the
collaboration between cinematic productions and couturiers, as renowned stylists who
supplied the wardrobe of the stars with their own collections, thus directly contributing
to the films’ success.

This book is an important analysis of the history of fashion, art, media, literature, and
French culture. It is a tool for students and researchers with an interest in discussing
the peculiar theme of the Parisienne, but it also offers insights into a range of different
subjects such as the intricate relationship between fashion and cinema, as well as
further topics such as social mobility, cosmopolitanism, and self–fashioning. The
Parisienne embodies the concepts of visibility, transformation, and metonymy. All of
these underline the notions of ambiguity, elusiveness, and multiplicity at the core of
her fixed yet mutable nature, stimulating further reflections on these subjects.

I would have liked to have found more observations on the socio–cultural conditions
of this time and their influence on the theme of the Parisienne. The analysis of this
type of woman could be linked to present fashion practices, and with the social and
anthropological transformations that invest individuals and the media alike. What I
gathered from the reading of this book is an understanding of how a medium like
cinema looked at the world in its attempt to capture the essence of a type of
femininity——the Parisienne, with all her ambiguous and elusive identity——that has
never been strictly synthesised.

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Copyright © 2019 Mariaemanuela Messina

Email: [Link]@[Link]

Mariaemanuela Messina is a writer and researcher. She has worked in the media
industry, fashion, television, art, and sound curating. She was awarded the
“International Prize Filippo Sacchi” at the 65th Venice Film Festival – La Biennale.
Her practice focuses on critical writing in cross–disciplinary arts. She has published
on contemporary fashion, visual culture, and moving image. Her projects have been
presented on different media, digital magazines, and international symposia. The
subjects of identity, hybrid cultures, and representations of the body are main areas
of interest within her research. In 2011, she published the book, titled,
[Link] Il cinema e la moda tra filmico e sociale. Her website is
[Link].

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Elizabeth Coatsworth and Gale R. Owen–Crocker,

Clothing the Past: Surviving Garments from Early
Medieval to Early Modern Western Europe, Brill,
Leiden, The Netherlands, 2018, Notes, Index, 453
pages, Hardback, £180.00.

This book showcases approximately 100 extant

items of dress from western Europe, dating from
the fifth to the sixteenth century. The authors
credentials are impressive. Elizabeth Coatsworth
BA, MSc, PhD was Senior Lecturer and, until
recently, Honorary Research Fellow in The
Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation
in Art and Design (MIRIAD), Manchester
Metropolitan University. Her books include The
Durham Gospels (with Christopher D. Verey and
T. Julian Brown, 1980); The Art of the Anglo–Saxon Goldsmith (with Michael
Pinder, 2002); and Corpus of Anglo–Saxon Stone Sculpture. VIII. Western
Yorkshire (2008). Gale R. Owen–Crocker BA, PhD, FSA is Professor Emerita, The
University of Manchester, where she was previously Professor of Anglo–Saxon
Culture and Director of the Manchester Centre for Anglo–Saxon Studies. Her books
include Dress in Anglo–Saxon England (1986, 2004); The Four Funerals in Beowulf
(2000); and The Bayeux Tapestry: Collected Papers (2012). She is co–founder and
co–editor of the annual journal Medieval Clothing and Textiles.

The introduction to Clothing the Past discusses the nature of the survivals, whether
by chance, as burial dress, archaeological finds, treasures, or garments of unknown
origins. The artefacts are divided into 10 categories, with 10 items in each. The
categories include headgear, outer garments, priestly outer garments, body garments,
loin and leg coverings, vestments, footwear, and accessories. Each artefact is illustrated
with at least one colour photograph of the whole item, and some feature an additional
one or two photographs showing the back and/or details. The accompanying text
discusses the item, including the geographical location and circumstances of the find
followed by a description of the materials, the cut, construction, and dimensions. A
helpful further reading list is given at the end of the description of each item. At the
end of the book there is an illustrated glossary of terms including stitches and weaving
techniques.

In the preface the authors state that the choices are personal and that artefacts that
made it into the selection often did so because they had stories attached. Many of the
stories are fascinating, such as the fourteenth century Bocksten hood, one of a number

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of garments found by an 11–year–old boy whilst harrowing a field, who thought he

had found the body of a recent murder victim (p. 37); or the fifteenth century
underpants used, along with other textiles items, as insulation under the floor of
Lengberg Castle in Austria (p. 277); and an amazingly well–preserved pair of boots
from a ninth century ship burial, whose occupants were both female (p. 353). The
selection is broad, including functional, defensive, and decorative items of dress.
Many of the garments in the selection are sacred or ecclesiastical, reflecting the
authors’ particular interests. It is interesting to speculate on the choices that other
dress historians, driven by their own personal interests, might have made.

Most of the items are not usually on public display, or if they are, the details are
difficult to see, either because they are in remote museums and churches or because
they are sealed behind glass, or both. With this in mind, it is frustrating that there is a
lot of white space in the book. The photographs always occupy one whole page, and
many of them are reproduced quite small, which means that many of the details
cannot be observed. In order, the photographs always occupy the left–hand side; there
are several entirely blank pages. Presumably it was difficult to obtain good quality
photographs of many of the garments, but where high–quality or additional
photographs might have been possible it would be nice to see more details and close
up images. Alternatively, line drawings of the garment would make it easier to
understand the descriptions, especially of the more fragmentary items, which can be
hard to visualise in their original form.

The book as a whole is informative, interesting, and showcases many artefacts that
have not been made accessible before. It is difficult to see who it is aimed at. The high
price tag puts it beyond the grasp of the average individual reader with a general
interest, and most specialists will have a focus on a particular period or type of
clothing. It may have been better to have published a series of smaller, more
affordable volumes, each with a focus on a period or type.

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Copyright © 2019 Ninya Mikhaila

Email: ninya@[Link]

Ninya Mikhaila is a maker of high–quality reconstructions and replicas of historic

dress for heritage sites and museums. Clients include Historic Royal Palaces, The
Royal Armouries, The National Trust, English Heritage, The National Archives, and
the BBC. Ninya is the co–author of The Tudor Tailor: Reconstructing 16th Century
Dress, (2006), and The Tudor Child: Clothing and Culture, 1485 to 1625 (2013). She
is also co–editor of The King’s Servants: Men’s Dress at the Accession of Henry VIII
(2009) and The Queen’s Servants: Gentlewomen’s Dress at the Accession of Henry
VIII (2011).

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Pam Inder, Dresses and Dressmaking: From the

Late Georgians to the Edwardians, Amberley
Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, England,
2018, Acknowledgements, References, 155
Colour Illustrations, 26 Black–and–White
Illustrations, 96 pages, Softback, £14.99.

As the title suggests, Dresses and Dressmaking:

From the Late Georgians to the Edwardians by
Pam Inder looks at the evolution of dress and
dressmaking during 1770–1914. Previously a
fashion curator and retired lecturer in the History
of Dress at De Montfort University, Leicester, and
Staffordshire University, Staffordshire, Inder uses
a dress and textile collection that she has worked
with during 1974–1987——previously located at
Leicester Museums and Leicestershire Museum Service until 1997——throughout the
book to showcase this evolution. Alongside the use of these objects, Inder also locates
the history of dress and dressmaking within other types of history including: social,
technological, and trading histories.

The book is divided into six different chapters, which cover different aspects of dress
and dressmaking. In Chapter 1, titled, “Dressmaking and Dresses 1770–1850,” Inder
explains the progression of roles, wages, and benefits, and drawbacks of working
within the dressmaking trade using both young girl apprentices and female
dressmakers as examples. She also discusses the types and costs of fabrics used at this
time as well as briefly explaining how parts of dresses were assembled.

Chapter 2, titled, “Dressmaking and Dresses 1850–1914” continues chronologically

from Chapter 1 but addresses different topics. Technological changes in dressmaking
seen through the sewing machine (which arrived in Leicester in 1856) and the “kilting
machine” (which arrived in Leicester during the 1870s) (p. 33), are two of the main
focuses of this chapter. Furthermore, improvements within the dressmaking trade
regarding improved working conditions, as well as the introduction of department
stores in late nineteenth century Leicester, are also discussed.

The content of Chapter 3 deviates from the previous two as seen through its title,
“Dresses and the People Who Wore Them.” This chapter showcases Inder’s
excellent primary research between the relationship of Leicester’s female citizens and
the clothes they purchased and wore within the nineteenth century. Among the
numerous examples within the chapter, three particular women stand out: Eliza

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Stone, who was from an upper middle class family and kept a diary of her dress
expenditures during 1813–1830 (pp. 44–45); Sylvia, a pseudonym for a woman who
wrote How to Dress Well on a Schilling a Day, published in 1876, which was aimed
at lower class readers who were on a tight budget (p. 52); and Ada Jackson, a working
class girl who kept diaries of her life and expenditures during late nineteenth century
(p. 53). Through these examples of numerous female citizens, Inder also outlines the
changing of fashionable silhouettes from crinolines to bustles, as well as discussing
maternity dress.

Asides from the sewing and kilting machine, Chapter 4, titled, “Technology,” outlines
further technological advancements that affected the appearance of dresses and
dressmaking within the nineteenth century. Using several images and brief
descriptions, Inder discusses roller printing, machinemade lace, elastic web, aniline
dyes, crinolines, rubberised fabrics, celluloid, and tin–weighted silk.

Chapter 5, titled, “Trade,” examines the various locations and items that were traded
between Britain and other countries, which contributed to the overall appearance of
British dress and dressmaking during the nineteenth century. A select number of
examples from the Leicester Museum collections include: imported silks, laces and
fashion inspiration from France; monkey furs from Africa to make muffs; silk fibre
and fabric from China to make shawls; and elephant ivory from India and Africa to
construct parasol handles (pp. 74–76).

The final chapter, “The Changing Role of Women,” discusses women’s emancipation
in social history reflected through the changing appearance of dress within the
outlined period. Inder’s dialogue includes the advent of bloomers during the mid
nineteenth century——which Leicester women did not support; the introduction of
sportswear for tennis, cycling, and bathing; aesthetic dress; and how the beginning of
the First World War affected dress.

It was an interesting read; however, there are some criticisms that are worth
mentioning. The first is in the title, as it would have been helpful to the reader to know
that the book was written within the geographical limitations of dress and dressmaking
in Leicester. Additionally, more connections and explanations between the text and
images would have been beneficial as there are an abundance of images that are
extremely fascinating, but are not explicitly referred to in the text. Nevertheless, the
images are well captioned and the flow and organisation of text is easy to follow and
understandable.

As mentioned above, the use of primary resources seen through the personal accounts
of Leicester women, and the abundance of objects sourced from the Leicester
Museum collections, as well as Leicester newspapers, reports, and leaflets, showcase

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Inder’s thorough understanding, research, and intrigue of the topic. However, book
contains no additional bibliography of secondary resources, making it challenging for
the reader to follow up on the topics discussed.

Overall, this book is incredibly helpful for those wanting to learn about dress history
and dressmaking within Leicester during 1770–1914. It provides a well–rounded
description of technological changes, nineteenth century trade, women’s social
history, and personal accounts regarding dress and dressmaking in a city that is
primarily known for its nineteenth century industrial history (including the creation of
footwear).

Copyright © 2019 Caroleen Molenaar

Email: caroleenmolenaar@[Link]

Caroleen Molenaar is a 2019 graduate of the BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
course at The University of Brighton, England. While attending The University of
Brighton, Caroleen co–curated an exhibition at Preston Manor, Brighton, called
Dressing the Decades: 85 Years of Visitor’s Clothing, which opened in the summer
of 2018 and showcased different types of visitor clothing during 1933–2018.
Commencing in September 2019 she will be starting an MA in Museum Studies at
The University of Leicester to further research and learn about museums and the role
that fashion and dress has in them.

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Margaret Scott, Fashion in the Middle Ages, The

J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California,
United States, 2018, and Yale University Press,
London, England, Select Bibliography, 89 Colour
Illustrations, 120 pages, Softback, £12.99.

In 1981, Margaret Scott wrote the authoritative

volume, History of Dress Series: Late Gothic
Europe, 1400–1500. In 2009, The British Library
published her leading work, Medieval Dress and
Fashion. She is a specialist in dress as pictured in
medieval manuscripts. Fashion in the Middle
Ages was originally published as an exhibition
catalogue accompanying an historical
retrospective at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los
Angeles, California in 2011. Scott looks closely at
miniatures in illuminated medieval manuscripts,
often with detailed depictions of attire; an
approach familiar with her previous work. Nearly all these manuscripts (codices) date
after 1170. The earlier 600 years of the Middle Ages remain largely undiscussed. This
is one of the limitations of the book. The book has not the aim of being a scientific
publication, so it contains no footnotes or detailed bibliography, other than a shortlist
of suggestions for further reading.

Scott warns us that it would be a mistake to regard medieval illuminations as providing

an unfiltered, realistic depiction of contemporary dress. The wealthy medieval men
who ordered codices wanted nice pictures, images that reflected a perfect world.
Consequently, the kings, the knights, the bishops, and the monks in the miniatures
reproduced in Scott’s book are usually dressed in impeccable clothes. Commoners
like merchants or craftsmen are rare in the book, except servants. Farmers working
in the field are (with one exception) only depicted in the final part of Chapter 2, where
they are used in symbols of the months of the year. These farmers, too, are pictured
in idealised dress, in colours lovely for the eye.

In her earlier book Medieval Dress and Fashion, Scott makes a clear distinction
between dress and fashion. Fashion is the dress that has the continuing pretension of
being new. Before roughly 1300, fashion didn’t exist at all. In this new book the
difference between dress and fiction is not discussed, although the major part of the
book doesn’t dwell on typical issues of fashion like women’s dresses with sleeves so
long that they hang below the fingers, or men’s chokingly tight hoods and shoes with

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pointy tips extending out six inches or more. This is a drawback of the book for
readers looking for more specification.

The book is divided into three chapters: “Dressing for the Moment,” “Dressing for
the Job,” and “Dressing for Another Time, Another Place.” In all three chapters the
latter part is dedicated to a particular manuscript telling a special tale. Next to
reproductions from codices, there are some photographs of surviving medieval
textiles and garments. By nature, medieval fabrics are very rare, since they normally
decompose through the centuries. Therefore, paintings and miniatures from
manuscripts are nearly the only sources of knowledge about medieval dress. A
miniature is not (what one could think) a small picture, but it is an illumination within
the outline of a capital letter (initial). Those capitals were originally painted in red,
using ink with red lead (minium in Latin) as a pigment.

The first chapter starts with an introduction about stuffs of clothing, i.e., fabrics and
materials for trimmings and embroidery. Then follows a subsection about
experiments in clothing. Here is told how after centuries of people wearing simply cut
T–shaped tunics, in the eleventh century professional tailors began to experiment with
ways of making clothing fit more closely to the body. In this way, fashion started
slowly. In this chapter attention is also given to different national styles of clothing.
The final part of the chapter concentrates on a French manuscript of the Romance of
the Rose, circa 1405. The Romance of the Rose is a thirteenth century French poem
in the form of an allegorical dream vision. The purpose is to entertain but also teach
about the art of courtly love; platonic love for a lady at the court, named by a symbolic
name, The Rose. Consequently, this manuscript contains beautiful miniatures of
idealised knights and gentlewomen in courtly outfits. The commentary of Scott on the
reproduced illustrations of the manuscript is very informative, explaining the names
and shapes of the different garments worn by the allegorical characters of the story.

Chapter 2 demonstrates how clothing in the Middle Ages was a vital part of making
visible social hierarchy. There are pictures of kings and priests in their rich
embroidered copes, some expensive but also some poor dalmatics. There is a picture
of Saint Bernard, clothed as a Franciscan monk in an undyed black woolen habit,
which was cheaper to produce than those dyed with strong blacks or bleached clean
white, and which was increasingly adopted by other monastic orders. Further on, this
chapter focuses on the so–called Spinola Hours, a manuscript from the southern
Netherlands, circa 1520. The Spinola Hours, named after the Genoese family that
owned the manuscript for centuries, is a very late example of the well–known
medieval genre of illustrated prayer books. The miniatures display spatial illusionism
in a very sophisticated style; maybe no longer medieval.

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Chapter 3 shows pictures of biblical histories with angels, kings from the Old
Testament, the Magi, and other saints. The first reproduction dates from around
1000. Initially the people are clothed in fantastic quasi–eastern clothes, but a
miniature from around 1500 reflects the High Renaissance obsession with re–creating
Classical Antiquity as accurately as possible. The final part of the chapter highlights
the Flemish manuscript of Book of the Deeds of Alexander the Great, dated around
1470. The members of Alexander’s court are clothed in a kind of odd fashioned
colourful clothes. Contemporary medieval elements in the clothing are mixed with
pseudo–Greek or Persian items. They show that at the end of the Middle Ages some
idea about historical evolution became visible.

In general, the examples and illustrations in this Fashion in the Middle Ages are more
representative for the J.P. Getty Collection than for the Middle Ages in general. This
is not a broad review of dress or fashion in the Middle Ages but an introduction to
the subject. Despite its limitations, the book contains enough material for readers
interested in medieval clothing and life in the Middle Ages in general and/or historians
of clothing without knowledge of this period. The illustrations are of a brilliant
precision with lovely reproduced colours and the text is as illuminating as you can
expect from such an expert as Margaret Scott.

Copyright © 2019 Hendrik van Rooijen

Email: havero43@[Link]

Dr. Hendrik van Rooijen studied medieval literature and art history at The University
of Amsterdam. After a career as a teacher, he returned to scholarly work. He works
as a private researcher, specialising in the relation between dress and power, especially
during the sixteenth century.

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Brent Luvaas and Joanne B. Eicher, Eds., The

Anthropology of Dress and Fashion: A Reader,
Bloomsbury, London, England, 2019,
Acknowledgements, Bibliography, Index, 434
pages, Softback, £31.99.

The Anthropology of Dress and Fashion: A

Reader, edited by Brent Luvaas and Joanne B.
Eicher, is a collection of reprinted articles
organised into thematic sections that showcases
fashion and dress as objects of anthropological
analysis. Luvaas and Eicher explicitly state that
“strictly speaking, ‘the anthropology of dress and
fashion’ does not exist, or at least it does not exist
as a formal sub–discipline of anthropology” (p. 3). Therefore, as described by the
publisher, Bloomsbury, the reader can be regarded as “the first authoritative
anthology of the seminal writings of anthropologists studying clothing and fashion”
([Link], 2019). The book offers a new resource for key readings in this
informal sub–discipline of anthropology, suitable for any student, scholar, and
researcher of fashion studies, social and cultural anthropology, material culture,
sociology, and other related fields.

As a publication focused on anthropological study, it contributes to a growing

scholarship that is researching the understanding of the place dress has in relation to
culture——historically in non–western societies but more recently in western fashion
also (p. 4). The reader can be placed amongst literature that began to emerge in the
late twentieth century, which placed prominence on material culture in anthropology–
based research. Two of the key works that emerged included: The Fabrics of Culture:
The Anthropology of Clothing and Adornment (Cordwell and Schwartz, 1979) and
Cloth and Human Experience (Weiner and Schneider, 1989). Such publications
proved that dress, textiles, and fashion could be a worthy object of anthropological
study and the way in which it could successfully merge materiality and theoretical
ideas. The Anthropology of Dress and Fashion: A Reader can therefore be seen as
the most recent and comprehensive overview of the growing scholarship in
anthropological studies of fashion and dress.

In the introduction, the editors address the factors that affected the selection of
readings included in the book. They were explicit in carefully choosing scholarly work
that was produced by researchers who were either members of anthropological
associations, work in anthropology departments, or indicate themselves to be an
anthropologist (p. 3). They also acknowledge the influence that their own

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backgrounds and research foci have had on the selection of readings included in this
volume. It was recognised that their editorial voices offered very different
perspectives, approaches, and generations to the study of fashion and dress in an
anthropological study. Joanne Eicher has a background in anthropology and sociology
with a continued specialism in fashion and dress. Her expertise is in world traditions
of dress and its role in defining ordinary lives and experience. Brett Luvaas’
background is in socio–cultural anthropology and he particularly looks at the global
systems of fashion and the relationship between its power and economics (p. 5). The
selection criteria for readings as well as the differing standpoints of the editors, was to
ensure the best, most influential, and diverse body of work produced by scholars was
included.

Following convention with similar fashion readers, The Anthropology of Dress and
Fashion: A Reader, includes 42 essays divided into eight themed parts, each headed
by an explanatory introduction outlining each theme, the authors, and the concepts
discussed. Additionally, the reader presents a compilation of reprinted published texts
from not only monographs and edited volumes of books relating to fashion and
culture but also a wide range of peer–reviewed journals. The scholarly journals the
articles were reprinted from included: American Anthropologist, Cultural
Anthropology, Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, Journal of Material
Culture, African Arts, American Ethnologist, Fashion Practice, and Fashion Theory.
This highlights the informality of the sub–discipline and how researchers are scattered
across other more formally established disciplines. This reader works to implement
and distinguish anthropology of fashion and dress study from its related disciplines
(p. 3).

The eight thematic parts of the reader begin with “Classic Works in the Anthropology
of Dress and Fashion,” to show anthropology’s historical record in relation to a
fashion and dress focus. Included in the section were articles by Alfred Kroeber, Ruth
Benedict, and Edward Sapir, who were all part of the first generation of American
anthropologists at Columbia University, taught under the “father of American
anthropology,” Franz Boas (1858–1942). This is followed by seven more sections
including: Theorising Dress and Fashion; Material Culture; Dressing the Body in
Culture; Dressing the Colony, Fashioning the Nations; Clothing, Class, and
Competing Cosmopolitanisms; Making Global Fashion; The Afterlives of Dress and
Fashion. From the “Classic Works” to more contemporary instances of fashion and
dress from an anthropological perspective, the texts not only show a range of
methodological approaches, primary research, and significant case studies, but also
where the direction anthropology of fashion and dress is heading.

The book provides a useful and practical compilation of texts that are relevant and
substantial to the anthropology of fashion and dress. Obviously, it cannot provide a

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completely comprehensive vision of the subject, but it does provide students and
researchers with the research and methodologies explored thus far. Furthermore, it
guides the reader towards opportunities for further study within this sub–discipline in
order to stimulate new theoretical concerns and experimental knowledge in the next
generation of anthropology of fashion and dress scholars.

The reader, unfortunately, lacks in biographies for the article contributors. As an

overall reader aimed at showcasing the historical and recent progression of
anthropology of fashion and dress, biographies that illustrate in which institutions and
departments the research is taking place, as well as the context of research
environment and background, would have been a useful element to an educative
reader. Furthermore, the bibliography is grouped at the end of the reader, rather than
at the end of each essay or themed section. This makes it challenging for a student to
identify the further reading of a topic. A clear indication of the further reading at the
end of an essay would have made the book more useful and clearer for the reader to
follow up on readings and key authors.

Overall, The Anthropology of Dress and Fashion: A Reader can be recommended

as a useful text for any student and researcher. It is a practical and well–organised
guide to significant work and expertise in the anthropology of fashion and dress.
Furthermore, it is a major and seminal contribution to highlighting the research of
fashion and dress in anthropology that is not regarded as a formal subject of its own.

Copyright © 2019 Emmy Sale

Email: [Link]@[Link]

Emmy Sale holds a BA in Fashion and Dress History and an MA in History of Design
and Material Culture, from The University of Brighton, England. Her research
interests include homemade clothing, women’s periodicals, and interwar beachwear.
Emmy has been the recipient of the following awards: The Association of Dress
Historians Student Fellowship 2018, Design History Society Student Essay Prize
2018, and The Costume Society’s The Yarwood Award 2019. Emmy published an
article, titled, “‘It Is Not Impossible to Look Nice Sitting About on the Beach’: The
Influence of Magazines in the Making and Wearing of Hand–Knitting Bathing Suits
by Young Working Women in England during the 1930s,” in the Autumn 2018 issue
of The Journal of Dress History.

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Erin E. Edgington, Fashioned Text & Painted

Books, University of North Carolina Press,
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, 2017,
Notes, Bibliography, Index, 2 Black–and–White
Illustrations, 212 pages, Softback, £52.07.

Erin E. Edgington’s book, Fashioned Text &

Painted Books, offers a nuanced look at the
special relationship between fashion, art, and
literature and provides an interdisciplinary link
between the three. Edgington, a lecturer in
Romantic Languages and Literatures at The
University of Michigan, has produced the perfect
book for the fashion historian who wants to think
outside the box. The book is well worth a read for
those interested in discovering the folding fan’s
multiple roles in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century. This book shines in its comprehensive study of Stéphane Mallarmé
(1842–1898) and Paul Claudel’s (1868–1955) unique use of the fan format as a device
for communication and places their work contextually within the history of French
literature.

Fashioned Text & Painted Books addresses the special relationship between the fan
and French poetry and Edgington does well to provide us with a detailed history of
the fan, from its use in ancient Egypt through to its role as a ubiquitous fashion
accessory for ladies within the upper echelons of society in fin–de–siècle Europe. The
book references key texts in the establishment of the study and history of fans, mainly
Octave Uzanne's L’Éventails (1882) which, through a male perspective, firmly
establishes the fan as an object inextricably linked to the feminine and Fans (1984) by
Hélène Alexander, noted Collector, Founder, and Director of The Fan Museum in
Greenwich, England.

Other points of reference are the use of the fan format as an object enshrined in social
history and its perpetual position at the boundary between high and low art. Edgington
explains how, in the mid–to–late nineteenth century, the fan format became an
interesting challenge for artists, specifically the Impressionists and Post–
Impressionists. The nature of the fan arc, naturally obliterating the foreground, gave
rise to new compositional challenges. This was adopted and explored by artists such
as Camille Pissarro, who painted over 70 fan shaped paintings throughout his career,
Edgar Degas, and Paul Gauguin; a fan shaped painting of his forms part of the

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permanent collection at The Fan Museum. The fan was also used a social history
object and during this period there was a particular vogue for signature fans, signed
and decorated by a coterie of famous artists, musicians, or authors to commemorate
a special evening or event.

As previously explained, the primary function of the book is to explore the significant
visual interest of the fan format combined with French poetry and focus is centred
around two poet’s work, published over 40 years apart. Mallarmé’s Éventails, a
selection of short poetic texts originally inscribed directly onto painted folding fans,
were published during the 1880s and 1890s when the fan was a ubiquitous accessory
and “to appear without a fan would be unthinkable to any well–dressed woman” (p.
99). Claudel, on the other hand, published his Cent Phrases pour éventails in 1927
when fans were relatively defunct and——with the exception of mass–produced
advertising and feathered court presentation fans——had fallen out of fashion.

Interestingly, Edgington notes that for Mallarmé, this was not his first dalliance with
the fan. The book dedicates a chapter to Mallarmé’s venture into the world of fashion
journalism through his short–lived publication La Dernière Mode. (Only eight issues
were published between September and December 1874). Edgington explains that as
the first few issues were published between seasons, Mallarmé would comment on
accessories, especially the fan and its function in fashionable society. The book makes
particular reference to how, in the first issue, Mallarmé “qualifies the fan in two
significant ways: First he establishes fans as being central to any discussion of fashion
while, at the same time, positioning them outside the temporal constraints of that
industry. Secondly, and critically, by making reference to the images that adorn
them… he situates them within the context of the art object” (p. 100). The book
continues to explain how Claudel made his approached from a very different angle,
having composed and published his fan poetry during his time spent in Japan, 1921–
1927, where he held various diplomatic posts. Through Edgington’s analysis of
Claudel’s poetry, it is impossible to ignore the influence that his time in Japan had on
his poetry, both stylistically and aesthetically.

Ultimately, the book is a literature review of French poetry from the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries aimed at Romantic Language academics and scholars.
As a fashion historian, it is hard to place this book into the wider context and literature
as this is not an area in which I am familiar. For the fashion historian there are
moments of brilliance as the text does add a fresh, new angle to the current literature
on fans and their role within cultural, social, and fashion history. It must be noted
however, that when analysing the meaning and structure of Mallarmé and Claudel’s
poetry, the abundant use of quotations in their original French format makes reading
the book challenging at times. There are obvious advantages to this, such as avoiding
the poets’ original sentiment being lost in translation however, if you are not familiar

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with the language it can create a disconnect. Another minor issue is the lack of visual
reference material within the text. The only two images in the book appear at the end
and ironically provide one of the highlights of the text; the discussion around the
interpretation and symbolism of James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s Arrangement in
Flesh Colour and Black: Portrait of Théodore Duret, painted in 1883, which also
serves as the book’s cover. It should be noted that despite these shortcomings, this is
an eloquently written, intelligent study of fans in late nineteenth and early twentieth
century French literature. The book successfully sums up the social importance of the
fan as an object that has a rich network of associations and connotations which
warrants a multiplicity of interpretations.

Copyright © 2019 Scott William Schiavone

Email: [Link]@[Link]

Scott William Schiavone graduated from London College of Fashion in 2010 with an
MA in Fashion Curation. Having subsequently worked across Scotland with various
dress and textile collections, including eighteenth and nineteenth European dress at
Glasgow Museums and the Jean Muir (1928–1995) and Charles W. Stewart (1915–
2001) collections at National Museums Scotland, Scott is now Assistant Curator at
The Fan Museum, Greenwich. Scott’s areas of expertise are nineteenth and twentieth
century womenswear, particularly 1980s haute couture and contemporary fashion and
designers. Since joining The Fan Museum, Scott has become interested in the role of
fans as the ultimate fashion accessory in the mid–to–late nineteenth century.

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Susanne Gänsicke and Yvonne J. Markowitz,

Looking at Jewelry: A Guide to Terms, Styles, and
Techniques, Getty Publications, Los Angeles,
USA, 2019, Glossary, Suggested Further Reading,
Acknowledgements, Illustration Credits, Index,
124 Colour Illustrations, 132 pages, Softback,
£14.99.

A recent instalment in the Looking At series of

handbooks published by the J. Paul Getty Museum
in Los Angeles, California, this publication on the
history of jewellery encompasses adornment,
decorative objects, and the materials and
techniques behind their making. Organised
alphabetically and illustrated with high–definition
colour photographs of objects, individuals, and
artworks, this reference guide was written (and priced) to be accessible, portable, and
concise. Rather than provide an all–encompassing history of the art form, Senior
Conservator at the Getty Museum, Susanne Gänsicke, and Curator Emerita at the
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Yvonne J. Markowitz, selected key terms based on
their cultural significance or commonality within the fields of art history, dress studies,
and jewellery studies.

The authors’ selection of key terms is well–rounded; they include not only common
jewellery objects but also terms found in period texts, as well as objects recognisable
from popular paintings. This is particularly useful, as the portably designed handbook
can be used in various contexts whether exploring a museum (the Looking At series
was originally intended to ease the visitor experience in the Getty Museum) or antique
shop, clarifying a primary source’s description of dress, or identifying an object worn
in a work of art. Therefore, the authors are successful in creating a guide for all
audiences.

As the publication follows a stylistic format consistent with the others in the Looking
At series, it does not include certain graphics which could enhance the reader’s
experience. For example, an illustrated timeline would allow the reader to visualise
an object or technique within its place in history. An illustrated map could provide an
overview of certain distinct jewellery types such as Italian cameos and Berlin iron.
Likely for the sake of brevity, the handbook does not offer illustrations of the different
stone cuts or settings which are defined in the glossary. In contrast, Gems and Jewelry
in Color by Ove Dragsted (Macmillan, 1975) illustrates stone types and cuts and then

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contextualises them within colour plates of objects, maps, and techniques to show how
gems are utilised within jewellery and from what regions gems are sourced.

The images included are of objects considered by scholars to be important to the

history of jewellery, providing excellent overview of the discipline while also inviting
the reader to marvel at the beauty and craft behind this art form. The high–quality
colour photographs encourage enthusiasm and interest towards the subject matter,
while differentiating the handbook from publications such as Jewelry from Antiquity
to the Present by Clare Phillips (Thames and Hudson, 2010 reprint); a more artistic–
movement focused work containing mostly black–and–white illustrations. That
Gänsicke and Markowitz chose to include photographs of the objects worn, whether
in a photograph or in an artwork, provides a comprehensive visual overview of
jewellery history. An example of note is a pair of earrings designed by Man Ray,
illustrated by a photograph of the extant earrings juxtaposed alongside a photograph
of Catherine Deneuve wearing the same design (p. 53).

However, there are no footnotes within the glossary, or an extensive bibliography,

which lightens the book and promotes an easy read. Consequently, this publication
serves more as an introduction of jewellery themes and terminology; the suggested
reading lists following the introduction, as well as the glossary, allow for expanded
study if needed. The authors chose to omit a discussion of artistic themes (as they
have been explored by others) and do not include designers or design houses in the
glossary, as this is material enough for its own publication.

What the authors do particularly well via the descriptive, clear writing and beautiful
images, is promote the study of jewellery history and invite interest to promote further
study. The alphabetical order of the glossary is easy to follow and includes references
to popular culture, contemporary jewellery usage, and celebrity figures, which
altogether encourage readers to enthuse about jewellery history. The introduction
concisely summarises the major themes of jewellery and its multitude of meanings
and uses, such as its magical properties, indication of wealth, and its role in courtship,
memory, and patriotic duties (pp. 10–13). Further explored in the glossary, these
themes are discussed alongside jewellery’s functional and/or decorative aspects and
“the reciprocal relationship between dress and jewellery” is consistently explored
throughout (p. 13).

The authors explored both western and non–western objects of adornment, with a
focus on historical and archaeological examples and the occasional contemporary
reference is made, including slang terms like “bling” and the Star Trek Bajoran
earrings (p. 31 and p. 52). A feature of note is that terms from the glossary, if used in
the introduction or within the definition of another term, are emphasised via all–
capital letters with every mention so that the reader may look them up, if necessary.

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The glossary includes information on how to test metals, authenticate jewellery,

identify makers, and broad terms such as “bracelet” or “necklace” are subdivided into
their various types. Men’s jewellery, ornamentation and decorative objects, and
religious adornment feature within the glossary, reflecting the universality of jewellery.
Notably, a socially conscious definition of “ethnic jewellery” distinguishes the term (p.
59) and the authors included the act of “recycling jewellery” within the glossary as well
(p. 104).

In summary, Looking at Jewelry: A Guide to Terms, Styles, and Techniques is an

excellent comprehensive sourcebook on jewellery history to use as a foundation for
further study or as an easily accessible reference. Because it consistently relates
adornment to dress, it is a relevant resource for dress historians, especially those
looking to get an overview of such an expansive part of decorative arts history. It is
especially useful when reading about fashion, rather than identifying an extant object
because not all terms are accompanied by illustrations. A well–researched, accurate,
and concise guide that is also accessibly priced, it is recommended as a purchase for
jewellery specialists and dress historians alike.

Copyright © 2019 Naomi Sosnovsky

Email: [Link]@[Link]

Naomi Sosnovsky is a jewellery historian based in New York City, specialising in

private collections management and antique jewellery sales. She holds a Master of
Studies in Archaeology from The University of Oxford and a Master of Arts in
Fashion and Textile Studies from The Fashion Institute of Technology. Her areas of
interest include archaeological revival jewellery, magic in medieval Europe, and
twentieth century British menswear.

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Melanie Schuessler Bond, Dressing the Scottish

Court, 1543–1553, Clothing in the Accounts of
the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, The
Boydell Press, Woodbridge, England, 2019,
Acknowledgements, Notes, Appendices,
Glossary, Bibliography, Indexes, 27 Black–and–
White Illustrations, 730 pages, Hardback, £75.00.

Dressing the Scottish Court, 1543–1553 analyses

extracts of the accounts of James Hamilton’s
Regency court relating to items of dress. The
relevant account entries are presented in
typescript form in parallel to a modern English
translation. Organised by gender and social rank,
individual accounts are presented as “Wardrobe
Biographies” (pp. 144–650) and provided with short introductions exploring to whom
the garments relate. These vary from the full information available regarding the
regent himself, to brief deductions based on name and quality of clothing given. The
biographies are preceded by three general introduction chapters exploring and
describing the types of garments featured in the accounts, arranged by gender and
function. The book concludes with appendices relating to clothing legislation,
including a translation of an example of an expenditure authorised by James
Hamilton, a transcript and translation of a letter relating to Hamilton’s wife, Margaret
Douglas’s wardrobe, a transcript and translation of sumptuary legislation largely from
the fifteenth century, and some transcriptions and translations of sixteenth century
Scottish poetry. These are followed by an essential glossary.

Melanie Schuessler Bond’s contribution to the field of sixteenth century dress studies
is evidence of her generosity in scholarship. Dressing the Scottish Court presents the
results of dizzying hours spent pouring over original manuscripts in a quest for
knowledge of sixteenth century dress. The book consequently provides an easy go–to
for serious readers in the field of dress history who need to access original details of
garments relating to the Scottish court outside of the archive. Bond’s analysis of the
accounts is evidently led by her knowledge of costume construction and Dressing the
Scottish Court is likely to benefit makers and designers who are seeking authentic
replication. Approaching this book with a standing knowledge of materials,
construction, and visual research in sixteenth century dress will assist readers when
unpicking the account details Bond has extracted. The arrangement of the text is most
useful for looking up a specific type of garment and understanding who, in court
society, wore it. For the less informed, Bond’s introductory chapters provide a truthful
appraisal of the difficulties faced by historians when interpreting documents;

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throughout, the author includes honest descriptions of the uncertainties and vagaries
of exactly what the accounts refer to.

The sixteenth century is an era from which almost no clothing objects survive, and the
challenge of attempting to understand what was worn in Britain has previously been
met through focus on England. Janet Arnold’s Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe
Unlock’d (1988) broke new ground in bringing together a strength of sources to try
and understand descriptions of a lost royal wardrobe. Subsequently, Jane Malcolm–
Davies and Ninya Mikhaila provided detailed descriptions from a maker’s perspective
in The Tudor Tailor: Reconstructing 16th–Century Dress (2006); building on Janet
Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion series volumes 3 and 4, which dealt with dress and
accessories from the 1560s and 1540s, respectively. More recently Eleri Lynn’s Tudor
Fashion (2017) provided a more socio–historical approach to understanding the
significance of dress in the Tudor court.

Bond’s Dressing the Scottish Court brings a large quantity of raw data to this field of
publication and importantly shifts the focus to Scotland. Her work is perhaps best
understood as a continuation of publications featuring the Scottish royal accounts.
Dressing the Scottish Court sits comfortably as a follow–on to The Boydell Press
release of Regency in Sixteenth–Century Scotland by Amy Blakeway (2015), which
in turn continues authorship on sixteenth century Scotland from Andrea Thomas’s
seminal Princelie Majestie: The Court of James V of Scotland, 1528–1542 (2005) and
Dr. Sally Rush’s article French Fashion in Sixteenth–Century Scotland: The 1539
Inventory of James V’s Wardrobe (Furniture History, 1996, 42, pp. 1–25). Blakeway’s
introduction to the context of the Regency, and her and Thomas’s general analysis of
the court accounts, are continued by Bond with a specific focus on dress. Bond’s
garment descriptions and biography introductions guide the reader throughout the
text; while some of this might cover ground familiar to those seasoned in sixteenth
century scholarship; the descriptions form a crucial foundation for those new to the
period or to archive interrogation.

The specificity of Dressing the Scottish Court lends strength to its contribution, but
equally creates weakness. The book’s focus on data and reliance on the accounts, with
only 27 illustrations in over 700 pages, makes it a highly specialised read. Context for
the garments and their wearers gains only the briefest mention; in some instances
Bond is able to enlighten the reader regarding items purchased as part of general
mourning, or as wedding trousseau, but in too many cases there remain questions
surrounding the greater picture of relationships, personal incomes and expenditures,
and how the court as a whole used clothing to pay individuals and signify status. One
family tree is provided, that of James Hamilton, but a graphic indication of the court
structure might have been equally useful.

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Although this text is a valuable data source, it seems like an unusual decision to
publish transcriptions at a time when British institutions are desperately searching for
resources to digitise their collections. Bond points to errors, bias, and omissions in
the 1908 publication of the accounts by Sir James Balfour Paul (p. 2 and p. 20), and
also chooses to publish her own modern English translation of sumptuary legislations
already available online. So much generosity in sharing painstaking transcriptions in a
book, begs the question of why funding cannot be made available to turn this labour
into an online resource complementing digital images of the original text, thus helping
to preserve the object as well as develop a rich source for future knowledge. Bond’s
detailed cross–references and indexing are already an excellent basis for a digital
search tool.

Dressing the Scottish Court is methodically laid out with indexing that enables
searches by garment, person, and textile. Bond’s knowledge of materials speaks for
itself by enabling her to unravel hierarchy and personal relationships. Yet, this feels
like only the beginning of the histories these accounts have to tell. Knowing what
clothing individuals had paid for by the state, begs questions of how they sat within
wider social and political contexts; what those clothes meant not just to their wearers,
but to their onlookers and makers as well. In a court society where illegitimacy and
half–blood relationships were rife, the wardrobes of the wearers promise fascinating
tales of power play, demonstrative preference and ultimately, who would govern the
lands of Scotland. Hopefully, with the fresh light shone by Dressing the Scottish Court
onto court clothing in the Regency accounts, further scholarship will go from strength
to strength in understanding how those garments enacted history.

Copyright © 2019 Emily Taylor

Email: [Link]@[Link]

Dr. Emily Taylor is Assistant Curator, European Decorative Arts at National

Museums Scotland, where she has worked since 2012. Specialised in historic fashion
and textiles, she works with the pre–1850 collections. In 2013 Emily completed a
PhD with the University of Glasgow, titled, Women’s Fashionable Dress in
Eighteenth–Century Scotland: Objects and Identities. Her current research is focused
on dress construction in the long eighteenth century and men’s fashion, circa 1700–
1840. Emily is currently an Executive Committee member of The Association of
Dress Historians.

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Fiona Ffoulkes, How to Read Fashion: A Crash

Course in Understanding Styles, Herbert Press
(Bloomsbury) London, England, 2018,
Appendices, Bibliography, Index, 500+ Colour
Illustrations, 256 pages, Softback, £10.99.

Fiona Ffoulkes’ contribution to Herbert Press’

“How to Read” series, How to Read Fashion,
provides a comprehensive overview of key fashion
trends and styles over the past 200 years while
relating them to contemporary fashion. The easily
accessible pocket–sized book packs two centuries
worth of style and history into 250 pages——all
illustrated with relevant and contextual images. The “How to Read” series includes
other titles, such as How to Read Paintings, and aims to provide a foundation of
understanding and knowledge of the style or discipline approached.

Fiona Ffoulkes has had a varied career within fashion design and history; she has
“worked in fashion and costume design for the past thirty years, including fifteen years
as a stylist for BBC and ITV. She has lectured in textiles and fashion at St Martins
College of Art & Design and at the American University in Paris” (Back cover).

The first chapter of the book, “Glossary of Themes,” breaks down fashion styles and
influences that range from established styles such as neo–classism, exoticism, and
historical; illustrated with examples that included rebels, gothic, and garconne. Each
style identified is accompanied with a paragraph and carefully selected image. While
within the confines of a pocketbook, Ffoulkes has selected a seemingly random choice
of styles to include in the “Glossary of Themes,” such as inside/outside, and leaves
out important areas such as futurism, street style, and vintage. Furthermore, the book
had a section for the eighteenth century over any other eras, while also including
historical as its own separate style.

The second chaper, titled, “Techniques,” provides a straightforward technical

overview from tailoring to fastenings. The third chapter, titled, “Materials” handily
breaks down fabric types into natural, synthetic, weaves, dyes, and prints, with each
category broken down further into the different variations of said fabric. Again, due
to the limit of space, categories such as prints leaves out many different types of
popular prints, such as resist. The materials chapter also features embellishments,
such as feathers, decorations, and lace.

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The next six chapters of How to Read Fashion concern formal, casual, and leisure
wear with two chapters for each divided into men’s and womenswear. Each of the six
chapters follow the same formula on each page, underlying a particular garment or
convention of dress, such as weddings, in the men’s and women’s formalwear chapters
and underwear and swimwear under men and women’s leisurewear. As well as
highlighting different types of garments the book also provides interesting facts and
origins of each one, placing them within the wider historical context of the book.

Chapters 10 and 11 examine men’s and then women’s accessories, beginning with
bags (for womenswear) then boots, shoes, neckwear, and hats. Notably missing in the
bags section is any mention of iconic bags such as Louis Vuitton’s Alma, Keepall, or
Dior’s saddlebag, choosing instead to include Moschino——less influential than those
aforementioned in the history of luxury handbags.

The next two chapters regard jewellery, hair, and makeup. The jewellery section
introduces the process of making; explaining materials and stones before approaching
fine jewellery (both men’s and women’s), all including historical and contemporary.
The hair and make up section, again, identifies different hair and make up styles with
dedicated pages to “revival” hairstyles, thereby sticking to the brief of the book to
relate contemporary styles’ historical influences.

The final chapter, titled, “Designers and Brands,” briefly introduces some of the first
fashion designers such as Worth (1825–1895), Doucet (1853–1929) and Poiret
(1879–1944); continuing to explain how a designer evolves to become a brand (a
useful section for the budding fashion student). Finally, the book gives a brief
biography of some of the most important designer brands today, Chanel, Dior,
Armani, Hermès, amongst others.

The book focuses entirely on western fashion without acknowledging that this is the
main perspective of the book. When approaching exoticism, Ffoulkes highlights
western interpretations of African and Japanese styles without distinguishing that
exoticism is not representative of the actual dress of these countries and continents
and, as this book is intended as a reference book, this could be seen as an outdated
source of inspiration. While the book has multiple relevant images on each page,
there are no picture credits. Captions do highlight a date and name of the garment in
the imagery, yet there is no credit line apart from picture credits on the last page which
only identifies the copyright owner, which is problematic when the reader may want
to identify an artist of an illustration or a model in a fashion photograph.

This book can be enjoyed as a companion to a fashion student, an absolute beginner,

as well as the established designer or dress historian as a quick and easy reference.
This book would be a perfect gift for the budding fashion enthusiast used as a

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reference for a research project or as inspiration. A highlight of this book is the near
equal weighting of menswear to womenswear——menswear often underrepresented in
introductory fashion books. The abundance of facts and information on each page
means there’s bound to be something new to learn for everyone.

Copyright © 2019 Milly Westbrook

Email: mwestbrookdresshistorian@[Link]

Milly Westbrook was awarded a 2019 Student Fellowship from The Association of
Dress Historians (ADH), during which she is working as ADH Social Media
Assistant, creating new and exciting original content for ADH Instagram. Milly is a
second–year student studying for an undergraduate degree in Fashion and Dress
History at The University of Brighton, England. Her passion for historical fashion
began from a young age with trips to museums with her granny. Milly’s research
interests include headwear and dress of the 1920s, Designer Lucile (1863–1935), and
eighteenth century dress. Milly is currently writing her undergraduate dissertation on
Girls’ independent school uniforms during 1920–1950. Milly is also a student
annotator for the Yoox Net–A–Porter/Bloomsbury Runway Collection Archive.

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Carol Tulloch, The Birth of Cool: Style Narratives

of the African Diaspora, Bloomsbury Academic,
London, England, 2018, Acknowledgements,
References, Index, 42 Black–and–White
Illustrations, 9 Plates, 254 pages, Softback, £23.74.

Carol Tulloch is at the forefront of African

diaspora fashion research in the United Kingdom.
Her research has focused on the telling of self
through a styled black body. She combines cross–
cultural and transnational relations, cultural
heritage, autobiography and biography, along with
personal archives to think through the ways black
people have negotiated their sense of self within
various cultural and social contexts. The Birth of
Cool: Style Narratives of the African Diaspora is a
culmination of the extensive research of African
diaspora fashion practices that Tulloch has undertaken. The book employs “cool” as
an aesthetic that has been employed by the African diaspora at different times; it is,
as she argues, a critical tool in the projection of an aesthetic of presence. Her
methodological approach for the book is a concept she first proposed in 2010. For
Tulloch, the concept “style–fashion–dress” encompasses the myriad of routes,
connections, flows, and tensions. She argues for the system, style–fashion–dress, as a
signifier of the multiple meanings and frameworks through which black style
narratives flow, allowing her to situate black style narratives within the complex
framework from which they emerged. Style, for Tulloch, equals agency in the
construction of self through the assemblage of garments, accessories, and beauty
regimens, which may not be considered to be in fashion at the time. For her, style is
the exercising of agency through the articulation of everyday life through a styled body.
African diaspora fashion narratives, as Tulloch shows in the book, have not simply
been reliant on a western fashion cycles but have emerged inside and outside of it,
shaped by specific histories, heritages, and transnational relations.

Creating a broad framework from which to analyse black style has allowed Tulloch to
conduct a more comprehensive analysis of the complex diverse landscapes in the
which African diaspora style practices have emerged. Using autobiographical
narratives, material culture, and objects from her personal archives, she situates the
style practices of individuals at the heart of her argument; showing ways of being which
contest misrepresentations and ethnic absolutism. The book’s narrative weaves
through important themes and periods, drawing on differing geographic locations——
from the Caribbean to North America——which have been instrumental in shaping

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the style of individuals. By including such diverse subjects in this book, there was a
danger that Tulloch would be unable to sufficiently address the different ways
members of the African diaspora have used clothing to articulate individual ways of
being. However, Tulloch is able to make connections across time and place,
connecting the different chapters through her methodological approach; an approach
that allows her to unpack the complexity of black style practices.

The first chapter, “Angel in the Market Pace: The African–Jamaican Higgler, 1880–
1907” focuses on Jamaica, and the emergence of a Jamaica higgler (a female market
trader). Higglers were an important part of Jamaica’s history of style and gender
because their ways of being challenged dominant narratives. This created spaces that
allowed them to not only retain economic control, but also freedom of movement.
The chapter provides an analysis of the importance clothing as a means of articulating
ways of being in colonial Jamaica. In Chapter 2, Tulloch reflects on the connection
between style and modernity during the Harlem Renaissance. This chapter utilises
cultural markers which embodied black modernity during the interwar years in
American history. Tulloch compares the glamour and wealth of an African–American
couple photographed by James VanDerZee to the casualness of the Gray Johnson’s
self–portrait. The chapter shows very different style aesthetics can emerge in divergent
ways during this period, and how modernity can be articulated from different places.
In the following chapters (3 and 4), Tulloch turns to Billie Holiday and Malik el–
Shabazz (Malcolm X) to consider the ways gender has been articulated through black
style. Billie Holiday blended an avant–garde ideology with style–fashion–dress that
transformed her. Holiday is positioned as a female black dandy, an aesthetic which
Tulloch argues, she created through regimens usually associated with heightened
femininity. For Malik el–Shabbaz she traces the evolution of his style from street
hustler to spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Both case studies are examples of the
evolution of individual style practices through the lens of gender.

Chapter 5, titled, “You Should Understand, It’s A Freedom Thing: The Stone
Cherrie–Steve Biko T–Shirt,” Tulloch considers the ways in which style narratives
can be written on a garment——in this instance a T–shirt. Here she is suggesting that
understanding a garment does not merely have to be about an individual’s use but can
also be a way to articulate connections to other black people. She argues that black
people do not have to experience a particular period in time but can still be connected
through what that object articulates about the black experience. The final chapter,
“Here: The Haunting Joy of Being in England,” brings the reader to Britain, the place
that Tulloch is most closely connected. She explains that it was the place and time
that sparked her interest in fashion and black identities. The chapter is more personal
because it reflects her style–fashion–dress concept through a relationship to Britain
and her connection to the Windrush Generation. The chapter considers what it
meant to be black and British and shows the ways the diasporic experience for the

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Windrush Generation contributed to telling of self through a styled black body of the
period.

Drawing on different geographic locations and time periods, Tulloch weaves the
separate chapters together with her methodological approach. A Jamaican higgler and
an African American blues singer, may on the face of it seem to be diametrically
opposed, however, despite this distance they are connected through their use of style
as a means to subvert existing social forms. The Billie Holiday and Malik el–Shabbaz
chapters present ways in which gender can be performed and presented through an
evolution of style. In juxtaposing displays of wealth and glamour with casual style
during the Harlem Renaissance, Tulloch shows how different places and periods are
interpreted in different ways, which in turn, produce distinctive ways of being. Tulloch
has an ability to interweave the different chapters, revealing the critical tools that
Tulloch calls an “aesthetics of presence;” the imprinting of oneself on society, culture,
and history. For readers/researchers interested in understanding the style practices of
the African diaspora, or looking for ways to understand the field from a position that
allows for a richer and more complicated ways of observing dress history, then they
will certainly get something from this book.

Copyright © 2019 Elli Michaela Young

Email: ellimichaelayoung@[Link]

Elli Michaela Young is currently a PhD candidate at The University of Brighton,

England. She holds a BA in Design from London Metropolitan University, and an
MA in Postcolonial Cultures and Global Policy from Goldsmith’s College. Her PhD
research, titled, Fashion, Identity and Jamaica: Fashioning African Diaspora Identities
from Colony to Independent Nation, 1950–1970, focuses on the use of fashion and
textiles in the production of Jamaican identities during the period of transition from
colony to independent nation.

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Recent PhD Theses in Dress History

The Association of Dress Historians (ADH) is proud to support scholarship in dress

history through its international conferences, events such as ADH members’ tours,
and publication of The Journal of Dress History. We are passionate about sharing
our knowledge with you. Our mission is to start conversations, encourage the
exchange of ideas, and expose new and exciting research in the field to all who
appreciate the discipline. To that end, the following is a recurring article, updated and
published in every issue of The Journal of Dress History, and contains a selection of
recently completed PhD thesis titles and abstracts in dress history. This list is
important as it illustrates new, cutting–edge research in dress history that is currently
being executed by PhD candidates, listed in this article in alphabetical order per
surname.

This list of recent PhD thesis titles and abstracts contains theses in dress history that
are registered at The British Library, London, England, the official theses repository
of the region in which The Journal of Dress History is published. The titles and
abstracts were taken directly from the published thesis entry on The British Library
website. Most of these theses are available for immediate download, in full and for
free, through The British Library portal, [Link] Additionally, this article
includes those PhD thesis titles and abstracts of ADH members (especially
international ADH members) whose theses are not registered at The British Library.
If you are an ADH member and would like your PhD thesis title and abstract included
in the next issue of The Journal of Dress History, please send a note to
journal@[Link].

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Jennifer Daley, A History of Clothing and Textiles for Sailors in the British Royal
Navy, 1660–1859, PhD Thesis, King’s College, London, England, 2019.
Did the clothing regulations cited in Admiralty Circular No. 283 of January 30, 1857
establish the first sailor uniforms in the British Royal Navy, as many historians have
argued? Through qualitative and quantitative analyses, this thesis proves that before
1857 the Admiralty regulated, procured, and distributed uniform sailor clothing that
was endorsed, enabled, and enforced by the British government. This thesis’ original
contribution to knowledge is a completely new paradigm as to how the navy clothed
sailors up to and through the Crimean War, 1854–1856. Clothing uniformity was
essential in order to secure a clearly identifiable and cohesive sailor force whose clean
and widely available uniform was a key to the sailors’ survival and the navy’s ability to
thrive. As disease and infection could be transmitted through clothing and textiles, the
importance of sailor uniforms was elevated so as to promote general health. A strong
navy required healthy sailors. The research in this thesis is supported by investigations
into disparate primary sources, including Royal Navy clothing regulations and
circulars, official solicitations for procurement of sailor clothing and textiles,
Parliamentary records, contemporary publications including books and newspapers,
sailors’ journals, archival sailor clothing and textiles in museums, and pictorial
evidence in painting and portraiture, caricatures, and photographs. By utilizing a
diverse set of data and methodological approaches, this interdisciplinary research
study addresses the critical development of clothing and textiles for the iconic British
Royal Navy sailor.

Bethany Pleydell, The Spanish Tudors: Fashioning the Anglo–Spanish Elite through
Dress, c. 1553–1603, and Beyond, PhD Thesis, University of Bristol, Bristol,
England, 2019.
Spain loomed large in the hearts, minds and wardrobes of England’s elite classes
during the sixteenth century. It represented both a cultural model of worldliness and
wealth, emulated and envied by its European neighbours, and a global leader in
sartorial sophistication; its fashions bought and worn by Englishmen and women, even
during times of Anglo–Spanish conflict. This thesis examines the dissemination,
consumption and reception of luxury Spanish fashions, textiles and household
furnishings amongst the English elite classes during the reigns of Mary Tudor and
Elizabeth I, c.1554–1603. It uncovers the role played by Spanish garb in the self–
fashioning agendas of the English aristocracy and nobility – most notably Mary and
Elizabeth, members of the so–called ‘Spanish Faction’ and select elite families – which
has been overlooked in previous scholarship on Anglo–Spanish diplomatic affairs and
material exchanges. This thesis marries archival and object–focussed research, as
based on a close–hand analysis of a range of manuscript and printed primary sources,
portraiture and objects, to: examine the making of the ‘Spanish Model’ of fashion;
investigate the Spanish textile and fashion diaspora in Tudor England, as analysed

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through the lens of the lucrative leather and wool trade; and, consider the politicised
dress habits of Mary and Elizabeth, whose inventories and warrants are scrutinised to
reveal a larger quantity of Spanish garb in their wardrobes than previously
acknowledged. It also analyses the twin phenomenon of Hispanophilia and ‘pseudo–
Hispanophilia’ – defined here as a disingenuous love of Spain, exhibited by the
individual for personal and political gain – amongst the English nobility and members
of the political ‘Spanish Faction’ who displayed ostensibly pro–Spanish sentiments
and wore Spanish fashions. Finally, it examines how the circulation of anti–Spanish
pamphlets and plays contributed towards the ultimate demise of Spanish fashions in
England in the 1580s as diplomatic relations soured and widespread Hispanophobia
increased. This thesis thus offers an original contribution to art and social historical
studies of Anglo–Spanish relations, as well as the material culture of Spanish fashions
more broadly, by using English dress habits to analyse elite attitudes to Spain, first as
England's ally, and later as its political and religious rival.

Cheryl Roberts, The Impact of the Purchasing Power of Young, Employed, Modern
Working–Class Women on the Design, Mass Manufacture and Consumption of
Fashionable Lightweight Day Dresses, 1930–1939, PhD Thesis, University of
Brighton, Brighton, England, 2019.
The Impact of the Purchasing Power of Young, Employed, Modern Working–class
Women on the Design, Mass Manufacture and Consumption of Fashionable
Lightweight Day Dresses, 1930–1939 is a significant and largely untold history of the
demand for cheap, more fashionable clothing for young working–class women. This
is an interdisciplinary, material culture analysis that investigates the design,
manufacture, retailing and consumption of fashion for and by young working–class
women in Britain the 1930s. It concentrates on new mass developments in the design
and manufacture of lightweight day dresses styled for younger women and on its
retailing in the secondhand and seconds trades, in street markets, new chain stores,
department stores, independent dress shops and in home dressmaking as well as
discussing the specific impact of this new product within the emerging mail order
catalogue industry in England. These outlets all offered venues of consumption to the
young, employed, modern working–class woman which is freshly analysed here in the
context of old and new businesses practices. The actuality of the garments worn by
these young women is paramount to this research and will be at the forefront of all
findings and developed discussions in this study. The mass manufacture of lightweight
ready–made day dresses 1930–1939 is therefore the focus of this thesis, although
other integral clothing items in the wardrobe of the young working–class woman must
be briefly considered to build a clear picture of what clothing was available and what
she could afford. The complex issue of garment fashionability, as seen through in the
eyes of this young woman consumer, is also probed here. Pulling together a wide
range of disparate original sources: oral testimony, photography, business archives,

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press reports, fashion periodicals and analysis of surviving garments in museum

collections, this study proves for the first time that examination of the dress habits of
young working–class women in Britain in the 1930s opens up an unexplored but
significant material culture research field. This clarifies the central role of these young
female consumers and their fashion demands as a key trigger for the major industrial
development of a new product: fashionable, lightweight clothing in Britain and its
mass consumption. The term ‘agents of change’ is of deep significance to this study
that argues and proves that the close analysis of the consumption choices and the
wearing of lightweight day dresses of this specific social group also became a significant
reflection of major cultural and technological developments in mass modernity and
social change in Britain in this period.

Elizabeth Tregenza, Not Just Copying: Frederick Starke and London Wholesale
Couture, 1933–1966, PhD Thesis, University of Brighton, Brighton, England, 2019.
This thesis considers the operations of the London wholesale couture industry
between 1933 and 1966. Whilst this sector of the market has received little academic
discussion, as this thesis demonstrates, it was a vital and thriving part of the mid
twentieth century London fashion industry. The seven chapters in this thesis question
how wholesale couturiers designed, manufactured, promoted, retailed and exported
their garments. Whilst wholesale couturiers have typically been recognised as simply
copying haute couture garments, this thesis seeks to revise this notion and
demonstrate the complexities of wholesale couturiers' design processes and business
strategies. A material culture based approach is followed throughout with original
garments used to help unpick the design, manufacture and usage of wholesale
couturiers' products. The effect of World War Two on the fashion industry is
discussed throughout. The pioneering activities of wholesale couturiers in 1946, a year
typically ignored by fashion history, are vital to this thesis. This study demonstrates
that 1946 was in fact a critical year for re–building and re–imagining the London
fashion industry and that wholesale couturiers were at the centre of this. The primary
focus of this thesis is on the life and work of Frederick Starke, one of London's key
wholesale couturiers (1904–1988). Starke founded his business in 1933 and therefore
offers a fascinating case study of a wholesale couture company from its infancy. It
demonstrates how both the man Frederick Starke and the brand Frederick Starke
Ltd. were at the centre of an enterprising group of London fashion men, women and
firms. This thesis considers the activities of the two groups that Starke helped to
found: The Model House Group and Fashion House Group. It investigates the events
these groups organised in the period 1946–1966 and how these helped to increase
the export of British garments internationally. Overall this thesis demonstrates that
wholesale couturiers must be recognised as a key part of London's status as a fashion
city.

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Jennifer Ann Van Schoor, The Indian Cashmere Shawl and Social Status in British
Art, 1760–1870, PhD Thesis, Birkbeck, University of London, London, England,
2019.
This thesis explores visual representations of social status in British art between 1760
and 1870 to analyse the significance of Indian Cashmere shawls, and the British–
made shawls they inspired, as objects associated with the notion of respectability. The
appropriation and domestication of this Indian garment by the British, and how it
intersected with multiple formations of respectability over the late eighteenth and
nineteenth century while also enduring as a fashion item, are shown to have provided
women with a symbol through which to negotiate and shape their own social standing
within a fluid social hierarchy. The semiotic economy of the shawl and its expressive
material form provided artists with a visual language to engage with representations of
contemporary social change or status display. Uniquely, this thesis offers an art
historical study of the shawl in British culture which is both temporally expansive and
socially broad, in order to understand eighteenth– and nineteenth–century
perceptions of a garment that became integrated into diverse visual representations of
respectable womanhood in Britain between 1760 and 1870. During this period, the
Cashmere shawl would appear in a large number of British portraits and narrative
paintings, representing a wide range of British women, from royalty and noblewomen
to bourgeois wives and daughters, society hostesses, farmers' wives and even fallen
women. Through analysis of these paintings we gain a deeper understanding of the
complex and nuanced ways women negotiated social mobility, status and identity and
how artists used this object's association with respectability to participate in an
increasingly complex discourse on the effects of Britain's industrial progress and
global expansion; what impact industrial innovation had on the meaning of status; how
conflict in India found expression in the ways women presented themselves; and how
artists responded to the negative effects of social change through representations of
women.

Lucie Whitmore, Fashion Narratives of the First World War, PhD Thesis, University
of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, 2019.
This thesis asks how women’s fashionable dress in Britain was altered by the First
World War, drawing primarily on museum collections of dress and contemporary
periodicals as evidence. Fashion from the First World War period has been widely
overlooked, both in dress history scholarship and museum practice. Though it has
been suggested that the war ‘had a deadening effect on fashion,’ this thesis argues that
it sparked a range of creative, emotive and assertive sartorial responses, and
fundamentally changed women’s dressing practices. This thesis further asks how
Britain's widely underused collections of garments from the First World War period
can effectively be used in museums to ‘sum up, or make coherent’ aspects of the
civilian female experience of war for museum visitors. The main body of the thesis is

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divided into five chapters. The structure sheds light on the processes of finding,
forming and sharing narratives of war through fashion objects. Chapters One and Five
are centred around collections and their usage, while Chapters Two, Three and Four
focus on dress historical study. Using the methodological approach of defining fashion
as the material culture of war, the three dress history chapters each apply a different
lens to investigate the relationship between war and women's fashionable dress,
focusing on austerity, modernity, and the embodiment of warfare. In doing so, this
thesis fills a gap in dress history knowledge and reattributes significance to objects that
have lost their provenance or been overlooked for other reasons, and argues that they
should be used in the public domain to widen understanding of war and its impact
beyond the Fighting Fronts. Attention is also paid to those objects from the period
that have been lost, and it is argued that immateriality should not prevent objects from
being used to form and share narratives of war. This thesis demonstrates that
fashionable dress is a powerful medium that can both generate and effectively
communicate historical knowledge; covering such diverse subject matter as rationing,
the development of synthetic fibres and the impact of air raids, all through the lens of
fashion. This study represents a significant and timely contribution to dress history,
dress museology, and the historiography of the First World War.

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A Guide to Online Sources for Dress History Research

Jennifer Daley

Online sources for dress history research have been increasing in scale and quality.
This article provides online sources that are of a professional quality and that play a
role in furthering the academic study of the history of dress, textiles, and accessories
of all cultures and regions of the world, from before classical antiquity to the present
day. Categorised alphabetically per country, the following online collections reflect
the interdisciplinarity of dress history research that can be accessed through
searchable banks of images, objects, and texts.

This article includes online collections in the following countries: Australia, Belgium,
Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy,
Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Wales,
and the United States. For inclusion in this article, the museum, archive, or other
professional organisation must offer online sources in English. If a website link in this
article initially prompts non–English text, simply find the translation tool on the
webpage, which will provide automatic translation into English. Additionally, the
museum, archive, or other professional organisation must offer online sources for
dress history research that can be officially referenced at an academic level; for
example, images must include a unique identifying number (such as an inventory
number, accession number, or museum identification number).

The following descriptive texts were taken directly from the individual websites, which
are hyperlinked and can be easily utilised: from the downloaded journal issue, simply
select the link to view the online source. This article is a living document and will be
updated and published in every issue of The Journal of Dress History. Additions,
suggestions, and corrections to this article are warmly encouraged and should be sent
to journal@[Link].

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Australia
The Australian Dress Register, Sydney
The Australian Dress Register is a collaborative, online project about dress with
Australian provenance.
[Link]

Museums Discovery Centre, Sydney

The Museums Discovery Centre is a collaboration between The Museum of Applied
Arts and Sciences, Australian Museum, and Sydney Living Museums. The Centre
includes the material heritage of Australian culture, history, and lifestyle. There are
more than 500,000 separate items in the collection, including dress and fashion.
[Link]

The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

The National Gallery of Australia is the Commonwealth of Australia’s national
cultural institution for the visual arts and is a portfolio agency within the Department
of Communications and the Arts.
[Link]

The National Gallery of Victoria, Fashion and Textiles Collection, Melbourne

Select the Collection tab at the top menu, then view the search tool and all curatorial
departments, including The Fashion and Textiles Collection. The earliest
international works are Egyptian Coptic textiles dating from around the sixth century
AD while later holdings include sixteenth century lace, eighteenth century dress,
embroidery and textiles, as well as contemporary fashion from around the globe.
[Link]

The National Museum of Australia, Canberra

Scroll through this page to research many interesting examples of clothing and
accessories.
[Link]

Belgium
Fashion Museum of Antwerp and The University of Antwerp, Antwerp
This online collection was compiled for the sole purpose of being accessible to study,
research, training, and inspiration.
[Link]

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Canada
Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto, Ontario
The Bata Shoe Museum is home to the world’s largest and most comprehensive
collection of shoes and footwear–related objects. On the following webpage, click on
“Select a Story” then click on the story of your choice; on the next page, click on
“Enter” to view text and images of that story. On the left–hand side menu of each
story page are more story options while on the right–hand side menu are images of
shoes, with descriptive text and accession numbers.
[Link]

The McCord Stewart Museum, Montreal, Quebec

The online collection includes clothing and accessories belonging to Canadian men,
women and children, covering three centuries; garments from Montreal designers,
manufacturers, and retailers; quilts, coverlets, and other handmade domestic textiles.
[Link]

Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario

The Textiles and Fashions Collection is one of many that are listed on this page.
[Link]

Ryerson University, Fashion Research Collection, Toronto, Ontario

This collection offers a wide selection of fashion and textiles.
[Link]

The University of Alberta, Anne Lambert Clothing and Textiles Collection,

Edmonton, Alberta
Founded in 1972, the collection includes everyday wear and designer clothes for men,
women, and children from different continents, and over 350 years of history.
[Link]

The University of Calgary, Theatrical Scene and Costume Design Collection,

Calgary, Alberta
This collection features designs dating to the mid nineteenth century.
[Link]

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Chile
Museo de la Moda, Santiago
This database offers a timeline of fashion with descriptive information and images.
[Link]

China
The China Silk Museum, Hangzhou
The China Silk Museum is China’s largest professional museum for textiles and
clothing, and the largest silk museum in the world. To utilise the museum website,
select Collection; then choose either Ancient collection search or Contemporary
collection search; then, make a selection in the drop–down menus titled
Classification, Technology, and/or Years.
[Link]

Denmark
The National Museum, Copenhagen
The National Museum holds a large collection of men’s and women’s clothes, circa
1700–1980s. For a number of different dresses, suits, special occasion clothes, etc.,
there are downloaded sewing patterns. The following website features dress history
but also links to additional research portals, including celebrations and traditions,
cosplay, military history, monarchy, fur, and more.
[Link]

England
Art UK, London
This searchable database is a compilation of public art collections within the UK.
[Link]

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

The Ashmolean has embarked on a major project to digitise its collections with an
initial target of making 250,000 objects available online by 2020.
[Link]

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The Bank of England Archive, London

On this page, select Online Catalogue. The Bank of England Archive contains over
88,000 records relating to all aspects of the Bank’s history and work, dating from the
founding of the Bank in 1694 to the present day.
[Link]

Bloomsbury Fashion Central and Berg Fashion Library

This platform offers instant access to scholarly research, iconic images, and quality
textbooks. To gain comprehensive access, log in by subscription, which may be
available through an affiliated educational establishment or public library.
[Link]

The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle

The online database includes an array of dress and textile artefacts, including items
from the wardrobe of Empress Eugenie (1826–1920) and other pieces from the
Blackborne Lace Collection.
[Link]

Bridgeman Images
This online collection has over two million art, culture, and historic images.
[Link]

Brighton & Hove Museums Costume Collection, Brighton

Brighton & Hove Museums’ comprehensive costume collection is of considerable
national significance. It embraces men’s, women’s, and children’s dress and
accessories from the sixteenth century to the present day.
[Link]

British History Online

This is a digital library of key printed primary and secondary sources for the history
of Britain and Ireland, with a primary focus on the period, 1300–1800. BHO was
founded in 2003 by The Institute of Historical Research and The History of
Parliament Trust.
[Link]

The British Library, London

The website contains many images, such as illuminated manuscripts, which could
support dress history research.
[Link]

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The British Museum, London

A search box enables comprehensive research through over four million objects.
[Link]

The British Newspaper Archive, London

Access hundreds of historic newspapers from all over Britain and Ireland through the
search tool on the following webpage.
[Link]

The Illustrated London News began weekly publication in 1842 as a primarily

conservative leaning paper and was the world’s first illustrated newspaper.
[Link]

British Pathé, London

The world’s leading multimedia resource offers a search tool, a Collections tab, and
free availability to view newsreels, video, archive, film, footage, and stills.
[Link]

The Burgon Society, London

The following website contains a list of the items of academical dress owned by The
Burgon Society, with many images of academical gowns and hoods.
[Link]

Central Saint Martins, London

This searchable online collection includes art and design of Central Saint Martins
alumni and images from the British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection.
[Link]

Chertsey Museum, The Olive Matthews Collection, Chertsey

This collection features many items of national significance, with over 4000 men’s,
women’s and children’s fashionable clothes dating from circa 1700 to the present.
[Link]

The Costume Research Image Library of Tudor Effigies

This is a Textile Conservation Centre project now hosted by The Tudor Tailor and
JMD&Co. The website includes images of sixteenth century effigies in churches in
the English counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Sussex, and Hampshire, including
the Isle of Wight. This resource is useful to anyone interested in the cut and
construction of sixteenth century dress.
[Link]

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The Courtauld Gallery, London

The following website includes the complete collection of paintings, sculpture,
decorative arts, and drawings, as well as a selection of prints.
[Link]

The Fashion Museum, Bath

There are almost 100,000 objects in the Fashion Museum collection, some items of
which can be accessed on the following website.
[Link]

The Glove Collection Trust, London

The Glove Collection Trust owns a collection of historic and modern gloves
recognised as one of the finest in the world and includes an unsurpassed collection of
seventeenth century gloves as well as original coronation gloves worn by English
monarchs. The Trustees of The Glove Collection Trust are appointed by the Court
of the Worshipful Company of Glovers of London, one of the Livery Companies of
the City of London. To view images of gloves on the webpage, below, select either
“View catalogue by date” or “View catalogue by material.”
[Link]

Goldsmiths Textile Collection, London

The Collection, founded in the 1980s by Constance Howard and Audrey Walker,
comprises textile art, embroidery, and dress.
[Link]

Hampton Court Palace, Historic Royal Palaces Image Library

This online database includes images of fashion, caricature, art, portraits.
[Link]

The Imperial War Museum, London

The collection covers all aspects of conflict involving Britain, its former Empire and
the Commonwealth, from the First World War to the present day. The collection
includes works by great artists, filmmakers and photographers to intensely personal
diaries, letters and keepsakes to pamphlets, posters and proclamations. Explore
around 800,000 items via the following website.
[Link]

The John Bright Historic Costume Collection, London

This website is a catalogue of key items from the collection of original garments and
textiles belonging to award–winning costume designer, John Bright.
[Link]

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Kerry Taylor Auctions, London

Established in 2003, Kerry Taylor Auctions is a leading auction house specialising in
vintage fashion, fine antique costume, and textiles. The website features dress images,
description, and pricing.
[Link]

Knitting in Early Modern Europe

This online database provides photographs and technical details about knitted caps
from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries held in European collections. It offers
opportunities to comment on the material and participate in experimental
archaeology which is attempting to match the characteristics of the fulled knitted fabric
from the era.
[Link]

Manchester City Council, Manchester Local Image Collection, Manchester

The Manchester Local Image Collection, with over 80,000 images, is a unique
photographic record of Manchester, its people, streets, and buildings from a period
stretching well over 100 years.
[Link]

Marks and Spencer Archive Catalogue, Leeds

The M&S Company Archive holds thousands of historical records from the days of
Michael Marks’ Penny Bazaar to the present. It is possible to browse themes, such as
Lingerie and Sleepwear, Textile Technology, and Wartime.
[Link]

Mary Evans Picture Library, London

This Picture Library cover a broad range of topics and subject areas.
[Link]

Middlesex University Fashion Collection, London

The Fashion Collection comprises approximately 450 garments for women and men,
textiles, accessories including hats, shoes, gloves, and more, plus hundreds of
haberdashery items including buttons and trimmings, from the nineteenth century to
the present day.
[Link]

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The Museum of London, Dress and Textiles Collection, London

These unique collections include over a million objects from thousands of years of
London’s history. The Dress and Textiles Collection focuses on clothes and textiles
that were made, sold, bought, and worn in London from the sixteenth century to the
present. The Paintings, Prints, and Drawings Collection, as well as the Photographs
Collection, support research in dress history.
[Link]

The National Archives, Kew

Browse over 75,000 images available to download immediately, spanning hundreds
of years of history from The National Archives’ unique collections, from ancient maps
to iconic advertising.
[Link]

The National Army Museum, London

This online collection holds a large image gallery that could be useful for research in
dress history.
[Link]

The National Portrait Gallery, London

Access over 200,000 portraits from the Tudors to the present day. Scroll through the
Primary Collection, Photographs, Prints and Drawings, or use the search tool.
[Link]

A hundred years of hand–coloured engraved fashion plates can now be explored.

Primarily showing women’s dress, the fashion plates were published in English and
French magazines during 1770–1869, and now form part of the National Portrait
Gallery’s reference collection to assist portrait and dress research.
[Link]

The National Trust, Swindon

Discover great art and collections, including fashion, and explore over 200 historic
places (and 921,731 items online) in the care of The National Trust.
[Link]

People’s History Museum, Manchester

The collections span four centuries of the history of working people in Britain with
the majority focusing on the last 200 years. The museum holds one of the largest
collections of historic trade union and political banners in the world and is the leading
authority in the UK on the conservation and study of banners.
[Link]

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The Public Domain Review, Manchester

The Public Domain Review is a not–for–profit project dedicated to works that have
fallen into the public domain, which are therefore able to be used freely. To find dress
history images and text, insert “fashion” into the search box at the top of the page.
[Link]

Punch, London
Punch, a British magazine of humour and satire, was published during 1841–2002.
The following website offers a searchable database of Punch cartoons, many of which
portray dress.
[Link]

Queen Victoria’s Journals, London

A fully searchable database of Queen Victoria’s journals is freely available online at:
[Link]

The Royal Collection, London

Use the “Search the Collection” tool to navigate through thousands of images to
support research in dress history.
[Link]

The Royal Opera House, London

Royal Opera House Collections collect, preserve, and provide access to an
extraordinary collection that records the history of the House since 1732.
[Link]

The University of Brighton, Dress History Teaching Collection, Brighton

The aim of the Dress History Teaching Collection is to offer all students and staff at
the University of Brighton direct access to closely examine and photograph historical
and world fabrics and garments while encouraging the use of the collection within
material culture research.
[Link]

The University of Brighton, Screen Archive South East, Brighton

Screen Archive South East (SASE) is a public sector moving image archive serving
the South East of England. SASE is part of the School of Media at the University of
Brighton. Its function is to collect, preserve, research, and provide access to screen
material related to the region and of general relevance to the study of screen history.
[Link]

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Symington Fashion Collection, Barrow–on–Soar

The Symington corsetry collection was created by the Market Harborough company
R. & W. H. Symington, which began to make corsets during the 1850s. The company
eventually grew into an international concern and one of its most famous products,
the Liberty Bodice, was produced for almost seventy years. The collection includes
garments and supporting advertising material, which provide an insight into the
development of corsetry, foundation garments, and swimwear from the late
nineteenth century to the beginning of the 1990s.
[Link]

The Underpinnings Museum, London

The Underpinnings Museum is an online archive dedicated to the history of
underwear. The goal of the project is to provide free access to an oft–neglected area
of fashion study. Each object is accompanied by detailed imagery, technical and
contextual information.
[Link]

The University of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Oxford

The John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera is one of the largest and most
important collections of printed ephemera in the world. It offers a fresh view of British
history through primary, uninterpreted printed documents which, produced for
short–term use, have survived by chance, including advertisements, handbills,
playbills and programmes, menus, greetings cards, posters, postcards. The Images
tab, on the following webpage, contains circa 74,000 items, and a search tool.
[Link]

The University of Sussex, Mass Observation, Brighton

The Mass Observation Archive contains papers generated by the original Mass
Observation social research organisation (1937 to early 1950s), and newer material
collected continuously since 1981 (Mass Observation Project).
[Link]

The Victoria and Albert Museum, Textiles and Fashion Collection, London
The V&A holds the national collection of Textiles and Fashion, which spans a period
of more than 5000 years. The Clothworkers’ Centre for the Study and Conservation
of Textiles and Fashion is the location at which items can be studied in person.
[Link]

The Wedgwood Museum Collections, Stoke–on–Trent

The searchable collection includes some interesting images of historic dress, from
Wedgwood portrait medallions to a woman’s shoe designed with a Wedgwood heel.
[Link]

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The Wellcome Collection Library, London

The Wellcome Collection is one of the world’s major resources for the study of
medical history. The online collection offers free downloads of high–resolution
images of paintings, drawings, caricatures, photographs, films, posters, books,
pamphlets, archives, and sound recordings.
[Link]

The William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow

The William Morris Gallery holds the most comprehensive collection of objects
relating to all aspects of Morris’ life and work, including his work as a designer, a
writer, and a campaigner for social equality and the environment.
[Link]

France
Cluny Museum, National Museum of the Middle Ages, Paris
Tapestries and textiles can be explored on the following link.
[Link]
[Link]

The National Centre for Stage Costume, Moulins

This collection includes costume for performing art, theatre, opera, ballet, dance, and
street theatre productions.
[Link]

The Palais Galliera, Paris

This fashion museum offers a comprehensive online collection that includes many
images to support dress history research.
[Link]

Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Grand Palais, Paris

Since 1946, the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Grand Palais photo agency (a public
industrial and commercial institution under the authority of the French Ministry of
Culture) has been officially responsible for promoting collections of France’s national
museums. On the following link, browse the collections that are included in the
database, different themes for research, or insert a keyword (such as dress) in the
search tool at the top of the page.
[Link]

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Textile and Decorative Arts Museum, Lyon

On the following website, select Museums and Collections to search for dress and
textiles sources.
[Link]

Germany
The Munich City Museum, Fashion and Textiles Collection, Munich
Access the Fashion and Textiles Collection through the main website. Founded in
1888, the museum collection includes fashion and textiles from everyday clothing to
haute couture from the early eighteenth century to the present day.
[Link]

Hungary
The Museum of Applied Arts, Textile and Costume Collection, Budapest
The 17,000 items in the Textile and Costume Collection are mainly from Europe,
with some from overseas, representing a wide range of techniques and periods of
textile art. Complementing the textiles themselves is a historical collection of
equipment used to make them.
[Link]

Israel
The Rose Fashion and Textile Archives, Tel Aviv
The archive contains a collection of about 4000 items of clothing and accessories
ranging from the eighteenth century to the twenty–first century. This is in addition to
a collection of ancient, modern, and ethnic textiles made using a wide range of manual
and industrial techniques. Of particular interest is the Israeli collection in which
clothing, textiles, and accessories were created or worn in Israel from the end of the
nineteenth century. For an English version of the webpage, right–click anywhere on
the page and select Translate to English.
[Link]

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Italy
Europeana Fashion International Association, Florence
Explore fashion from more than 30 European public and private institutions. Digital
images include historical clothing and accessories, contemporary designs, catwalk
photographs, drawings, sketches, plates, catalogues, and videos.
[Link]

The European Fashion Heritage Association, Florence

EFHA is an international hub, in which fashion GLAMs (Galleries, Libraries,
Archives and Museums) and brands share their digital heritage assets and their
experiences and best practices in the field of digitisation, access and valorisation of
fashion heritage resources.
[Link]

Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum, Milan

Take a virtual tour through this museum, dedicated to the fashion design of Valentino.
[Link]

Japan
The Bunka Gakuen Library, Tokyo
This is a specialised library for fashion and clothing. The library collects rare books,
magazines, fashion plates, etc., from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century.
[Link]

The Kyoto Costume Institute, Kyoto

The Kyoto Costume Institute Digital Archives presents image and text information
for objects in the collection, from 1700 to today.
[Link]

Netherlands
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The collection of the Rijksmuseum includes more than 10,000 items of costumes and
accessories. On the following webpage, researchers can search with keywords, such
as fashion, textiles, etc, or select the link, Search the library catalogue.
[Link]

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Textile Research Centre, Leiden

The collection of the Textile Research Centre in Leiden contains over 22,000 textiles,
garments and accessories such as headgear, footwear, jewellery and walking sticks. It
also includes technical items such as hand spinning and weaving equipment. The
objects derive from all over world and date from some seven thousand years ago to
the present day. Scroll down the following webpage to search items by country, date,
technique, as well as by subject category, such as hats, shoes, belts, etc.
[Link]

New Zealand
The New Zealand Fashion Museum
Established in 2010 as a Charitable Trust, the museum records and shares the stories
of the people, objects, and photographs that have contributed to the development of
the unique fashion identity of New Zealand.
[Link]

Northern Ireland
National Museums Northern Ireland, Belfast
The museum has several collections, which include art, costume, and textiles.
[Link]

Russia
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
The Hermitage includes over 3 million works of art and world culture artefacts,
including paintings, graphic works, sculptures, works of applied art, archaeological
artefacts, and numismatic objects. A search tool can be used to find dress and textile
objects on the following link, Collection Online.
[Link]

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Scotland
The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow
The Archives and Collections are available online and include images of art, design,
photographs, textiles, and more.
[Link]

Heriot Watt University Textile Collection, Edinburgh

The Textile Collection of archives, fabric, and apparel, charts the evolution of the
Scottish textile industry from the mid eighteenth century to the present day.
[Link]

The National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh

This online source includes art and design images, medieval manuscripts, maps,
photography, sport, theatre, war, and more.
[Link]

National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh

The museum has over three million objects and specimens, ranging from the earliest
times to the present day, including a range of fashion and textiles.
[Link]

Spain
The Virtual Fashion Museum of Catalonia, Barcelona
This website is a platform to present historical and period costumes of public
collections in Catalonia, Spain. More that 6000 pieces of period clothing are held in
these collections and this platform tries to expose them to a wider audience. There
are 642 costumes digitised in this online catalogue.
[Link]

United States
The American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts
The AAS library houses the largest and most accessible collection of books,
pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, periodicals, music, and graphic arts material
printed through 1876 in what is now the United States. The online inventory includes
many artefacts that could be useful for dress historians.
[Link]

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The Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois

The Department of Textiles contains more than 13,000 textiles and 66,000 sample
swatches ranging from 300BC to the present. The collection has strengths in pre–
Columbian textiles, European vestments, tapestries, woven silks and velvets, printed
fabrics, needlework, and lace. The Institute also offers digital collections of European
painting and sculpture, prints, and drawings.
[Link]

Augusta Auctions, New York, New York

Augusta Auctions represents museums, historical societies, universities, and other
institutions bringing to market museum de-accessions and patron donations of
clothing, textiles, and accessories.
[Link]

The Brooklyn Museum Library, Fashion and Costume Sketch Collection,

1912–1950, New York, New York
The Digital Library Collection holds additional collections that could be beneficial in
dress history research.
[Link]

Brown University Library Collections, Providence, Rhode Island

This page lists the different collections that the library has compiled, many of which
contain interesting images of dress. A search box at the top, right–hand corner allows
a comprehensive sweep of the whole Brown Digital Repository.
[Link]

Brown University also holds The Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, the foremost
American collection of material devoted to the history and iconography of soldiers
and soldiering, and is one of the world’s largest collections devoted to the study of
military and naval uniforms.
[Link]

Chicago History Museum, Chicago, Illinois

The Museum’s collection of more than 23 million objects, images, and documents
records the evolution of Chicago, from fur-trading outpost to modern metropolis.
[Link]

Chicago History Museum has an especially strong Costume and Textiles Collection,
which can be accessed through the following link.
[Link]

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Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Virginia

Colonial Williamsburg, an eighteenth century living heritage museum, hosts online
resources, a digital library, and special collections. There are both textual and visual
objects in this collection.
[Link]

Columbia College, Fashion Study Collection Online Database, Chicago, Illinois

The Fashion Study Collection at Columbia College Chicago is an exceptional
collection of designer garments, fashion history, and ethnic dress. A hands–on,
academic, and inspirational resource for students and the public, the collection was
founded in 1989 and has grown to house more than 6000 items.
[Link]

Cornell University, The Costume and Textile Collection, Ithica, New York
This collection includes more than 10,000 items of apparel, accessories, and flat
textiles dating from the eighteenth century to present, including substantial collections
of functional clothing, technical textiles, and ethnographic costume. To view images,
scroll down the page and select the link, “Online catalogue database.” Then, select
“Guest account,” which will take you to the searchable database of costume.
[Link]

Cultural Institutions Online Collections, Newport, Rhode Island

This database includes items from participating cultural institutions in Newport,
Rhode Island, including the Doris Duke Fashion Collection of Newport Restoration.
[Link]

Drexel University, Historic Costume Collection, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

This is a searchable image database comprised of selected fashion from the Robert
and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection, designs loaned to the project by private
collectors for inclusion on the website, fashion exhibitions curated by Drexel faculty,
and fashion research by faculty and students.
[Link]

Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), Los Angeles, California

The collections of the FIDM Museum and Galleries span more than 200 years of
fashion history, from Parisian haute couture to iconic film costumes.
[Link]

The Fashion Institute of Technology, The Museum at FIT, New York, New York
This collection of fashion, textiles, and accessories is fully searchable. The website
also includes a Photography Archive that features the work of fashion photographers.
[Link]

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The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.

The Folger Shakespeare Library holds the world’s largest collection of Shakespearean
art, from the sixteenth century to the present day, as well as a world–renowned
collection of books, manuscripts, and prints from Renaissance Europe. The Digital
Image Collection includes some stage costumes and other dress images.
[Link]

HathiTrust Digital Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan

HathiTrust is a partnership of academic and research institutions, offering a collection
of millions of titles digitised from libraries around the world. These books are
especially good for textual evidence to support dress history research. Photographs
and pictorial works can also be searched in this database.
[Link]

Historic Deerfield Museum, Deerfield, Massachusetts

Historic Deerfield Museum holds a collection of approximately 8000 items of
clothing and textiles, ranging in date from circa 1650 to 2000. Additionally, the library
at Historic Deerfield holds primary and secondary sources related to dress history
and fashion studies. The museum has a searchable database, shared with the Five
College art museums: Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke
College, Smith College, and UMASS Amherst.
[Link]
[Link]

Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana

The collection of textile and fashion arts comprises approximately 7000 items and
represents virtually all of the world’s traditions in fabric. Major collecting in this area
began in 1906, with the purchase of 100 Chinese textiles and costumes. European
holdings feature silks from the late sixteenth to nieteenth centuries, a lace collection
spanning 500 years, and nineteenth century paisley shawls woven in England.
[Link]

Iowa State University, The Textiles and Clothing Museum, Ames, Iowa
This online collections database includes dress, dating from the 1840s to today.
[Link]

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California

The collection comprises Greek, Roman, and Etruscan art from the Neolithic to Late
Antiquity; European art (including illuminated manuscripts, paintings, drawings,
sculpture, and decorative arts) from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century;
and international photography. The images are fully searchable.
[Link]

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Kent State University, Gallery of Costume, Kent, Ohio

This online collection includes an impressive array of dress and historic costume from
the eighteenth century through the twentieth century.
[Link]

The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

The Digital Collection holds a wide array of images that can be utilised in dress history
research, including The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. There
are several categories from which to research, or a separate search box at the top of
the page can be utilised.
[Link]

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California

This LACMA website includes links to many useful collections, including a collection
titled, Fashion, 1900–2000.
[Link]

Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles, California

There are several different collections that are freely available and searchable,
including travel posters, movie posters, book plates, and fashion plates. The Casey
Fashion Plates Collection includes over 6200 hand–colored, finely detailed fashion
illustrations produced during 1780–1880 for British and American fashion
magazines.
[Link]

Margaret Herrick Library Digital Collections, Hollywood, California

The database contains more than 35,000 digitised images about American cinema,
including original artwork and Hollywood costume design.
[Link]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Thomas J. Watson Library, New York, New
York
The following address is the main page, which lists items in The Costume Institute
and the Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library. Searchable image databases
include dress, fashion plates, textual references, and more.
[Link]

The following webpage includes more than 5000 years of art from across the globe.
[Link]

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The Museum of Chinese in America, New York, New York

The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) has amassed a nationally significant
collection, documenting Chinese life in America, including fashion and textiles.
[Link]

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts

The David and Roberta Logie Department of Textile and Fashion Arts offers a wide
range of online materials for dress history research. Scroll down the page to see the
links to the Textiles and Fashion Arts Collection. The museum also holds a large
collection of prints and drawings, containing almost 200,000 works that range from
the beginnings of printing in the fifteenth century to today.
[Link]

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York

The museum contains almost 200,000 works of modern and contemporary art, more
than 77,000 works of which are available online.
[Link]

The New York Public Library Digital Collections, New York, New York
The New York Public Library offers many different online collections, including
Fashion Collections and an Art and Picture Collection.
[Link]

New York School of Interior Design Archives and Special Collections, New York,
New York
A collection of 23 boxes of material including correspondence, drawings,
publications, articles, project specifications, photographs, and miscellaneous items
documenting the careers of both Sarah Tomerlin Lee (1910–2001), advertising
executive, magazine editor, author and interior designer, and her husband Thomas
(Tom) Bailey Lee (1909–1971), designer of displays, exhibits, sets, and interiors.
[Link]

Ohio State University, Historic Costume and Textiles Collection, Columbus, Ohio
This collection is a scholarly and artistic resource of apparel and textile material
culture, including the Ann W. Rudolph Button Collection. The site also includes
lesson plans for its programme, Teaching History with Historic Clothing Artefacts.
[Link]

The Ohio State University Libraries’ Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre
Research Institute includes costume and scene designs from more than 50
productions by British designer, Daphne Dare (1929–2000).
[Link]

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Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Many objects from the Museum’s collection of over 240,000 are available in the
online collections database, include dress historical images with complete citations.
[Link]

Philadelphia University, The Design Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Tapestry is an online resource that catalogues thousands of historic fabric swatches
from Philadelphia University’s vast textile collection.
[Link]

Phoenix Art Museum, Fashion Collection, Phoenix, Arizona

The Fashion Collection holds more than 4500 American and European garments,
shoes, and accessories, and emphasises major American designers of the twentieth
century.
[Link]

Prelinger Archives, New York, New York

Prelinger Archives has grown into a collection of over 60,000 ephemeral (advertising,
educational, industrial, and amateur) films.
[Link]

Shippensburg University, Fashion Archives and Museum, Shippensburg,

Pennsylvania
The Fashion Archives’ 15,000–item collection, comprised mostly of donations,
consists of clothing and accessories worn by men, women and children, dating from
the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Primarily focused on middle– and working–
class Americans, clothing from all walks of life is represented in the collection.
[Link]

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

The Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex.
[Link]

To search the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, insert “fashion” (for example) for a
variety of fashion plates, shoes, and more.
[Link]

The National Museum of American History offers many images and information
online. For a list of subject areas, select the following link, which includes Clothing &
Accessories as well as Textiles.
[Link]
[Link]

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The Smithsonian American Art Museum provides many collections online that could
be useful for research in dress history.
[Link]

Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

The Museum’s collection exceeds 45,000 objects spanning the history of European
and American art from ancient to contemporary, with broad and significant holdings
of East Asian art. Areas of special strength include medieval art; European and
American painting, sculpture, and prints; photography; Japanese Edo–period painting
and prints; and twentieth century Chinese painting.
[Link]

State University of New York, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), New York, New
York
The address is for the digital collections of the FIT Library’s Special Collections and
College Archives. On the main page, there is a search box into which any term can
be inserted. Images are of high resolution and easily downloaded. At the top of the
page, select Images or Collections to view sources for research in dress history.
[Link]

Staten Island Historical Society, New York, New York

The Staten Island Historical Society’s collections tell the story of the American
experience through the lives of Staten Islanders.
[Link]

State University of New York, Geneseo, New York

To locate primary source material for costume images, go to the link, then on the top
menu, select Image Collections.
[Link]

The University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign, Illinois

Many different digital collections are listed on this page, including the Motley
Collection of Theatre and Costume Design, containing over 4000 items.
[Link]

The University of Michigan, Digital Collections, Ann Arbor, Michigan

On the left–hand column, highlighted in yellow, searches can be run through many
different filters. In that yellow column, select Image Collections to access applicable
research for dress history.
[Link]

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The University of Minnesota, Goldstein Museum of Design, St. Paul, Minnesota

On the following website, select Collection, then Search the Collection. There, use
the search tool or select Costumes, Textiles, or Decorative Arts and Design.
[Link]

The University of North Texas, Texas Fashion Collection, Denton, Texas

The collection includes over 18,000 items and is an important element to the fashion
programme at The University of North Texas.
[Link]

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Online Books Page is a website that facilitates access to books that are freely
available over the Internet and could be useful in textual research in dress history.
[Link]

The online archives of The University of Pennsylvania also include issues of

Gentleman’s Magazine, the monthly magazine published in London, 1731–1907.
[Link]

The University of Rhode Island Library Special Collections, The Commercial Pattern
Archive, Kingston, Rhode Island
This is a wide collection of vintage sewing patterns.
[Link]

The University of Texas, Harry Ransom Center, Austin, Texas

There are many collections accessible, representing just a sample of the diverse
holdings in literature, photography, film, art, and the performing arts, with many
images to support research in dress history.
[Link]

The University of Washington, The Costume and Textiles Collection, Seattle,

Washington
The Henry Art Gallery’s Costume and Textile Collection is a unique resource for the
study of construction, design, and pattern found on clothing and textiles. These
collections reflect trends in historic fashion, preserve information about traditional
ethnic dress.
[Link]

The University of Wisconsin Digital Collection, Madison, Wisconsin

This digital collection includes images of millinery, dressmaking, clothing, and
costume books from the UW–Madison collections.
[Link]

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Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia

This collection includes a wide variety of military images and text of the Institute,
alumni, the American Civil War, the First World War, and the Second World War.
[Link]

Wayne State University, Digital Dress Collection, Detroit, Michigan

There are several different collections on this page; however, the Digital Dress
Collection is the best for dress history research. The Digital Dress Collection contains
images of clothing worn in Michigan during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The collection offers insight into Michigan life and society. The items shown here are
held in the collections of Wayne State University, The Henry Ford, Detroit Historical
Society, and Meadowbrook Hall.
[Link]

We Wear Culture, Mountain View, California

This project is part of the greater Google Arts and Culture Project, which includes a
wealth of information and images, all fully searchable.
[Link]

Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Winterthur, Deleware

Winterthur’s collection of nearly 90,000 objects features decorative and fine arts
made or used in America during 1630–1860. The collection is organised in several
main categories: ceramics, glass, furniture, metalwork, paintings and prints, textiles
and needlework.
[Link]

The Valentine, Costume and Textiles Collection, Richmond, Virginia

This address is the main page for the Costume and Textiles Collection at The
Valentine, which comprises over 30,000 dress, accessory, and textile objects made,
sold, worn, or used in Virginia from the late eighteenth century to the present day.
On this page, there is a menu on the right that lists links to the Collections Database
Search page and the Archives page.
[Link]

Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, New Haven,
Connecticut
This webpage includes many different Digital Collections, including Civil War
Photographs, Postcard Collection, Prints and Drawings, Historical Medical Poster
Collection, and more.
[Link]

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Yale University, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven,
Connecticut
The Yale Center for British Art holds the largest and most comprehensive collection
of British art outside the United Kingdom, presenting the development of British art
and culture from the Elizabethan period to the present day. With the Reference
Library and Archives, the Center’s collections of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints,
rare books, and manuscripts provide exceptional resources.
[Link]

Wales
National Museum Wales, Cardiff, Wales
This museum network includes National Museum Cardiff, St Fagans National
Museum of History, National Waterfront Museum, Big Pit National Coal Museum,
National Slate Museum, National Roman Legion Museum, and National Wool
Museum. Clothing from many periods is collected, both fashionable and everyday
wear, official uniforms, and occupational dress. There are large collections of female
dress of the 19th and 20th centuries.
[Link]/collections/online

Other
Archive Grid
This is a searchable database for archival collections in the United States.
[Link]

Artstor
Artstor is a nonprofit organisation committed to enhancing scholarship and teaching
through the use of digital images and media, which includes the Artstor Digital Library
and JSTOR, a digital library.
[Link]

Digital Public Library of America

This is an all–digital library that aggregates metadata (or information describing an
item) for millions of photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and
more from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. DPLA brings
together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them
freely available to the world.
[Link]

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Getty Images
Royalty–free historic images can be filtered in the search tool.
[Link]

The Internet Archive

This is a non–profit library of millions of free books, images, and more. On the top
menu, select the images icon to search for images. In the search box in the center of
the page, insert “fashion plate” to view and download a wide variety of historic fashion
images. Scroll down the homepage to view lists of the top categories.
[Link]

North American Women’s Letters and Diaries

This database is the largest electronic collection of women’s diaries and
correspondence ever assembled, spanning more than 300 years. This database is
searchable with a free, 30–day subscription; otherwise, access is advised through an
academic institution or library.
[Link]

Open Culture
Browse a collection of over 83,500 vintage sewing patterns. On this page there is also
lists to links of art and images, which could be useful in dress history research.
[Link]
[Link]

Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg offers over 57,000 free ebooks, many of which could support
research in dress history, such as the complete 1660s diary of Samuel Pepys.
[Link]

Vintage Sewing Patterns

This searchable database includes images of sewing patterns, printed before 1992.
[Link]

The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS)

This is online source contains many different collections that could be useful for dress
history research. The search tool on the main page allows global searches across all
collections; otherwise, individual collections can be searched.
[Link]

WorldCat Library Database

WorldCat connects collections and services of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide.
[Link]

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Copyright © 2019 Jennifer Daley

Email: journal@[Link]

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The Editorial Board

The following biographies represent the members of The Editorial Board of The
Journal of Dress History.

Jennifer Daley, Editor–in–Chief

Jennifer Daley, PhD, FHEA, MA, MA, BTEC, BA, is Chairman and Trustee of The
Association of Dress Historians and Editor–in–Chief of The Journal of Dress
History. Dr. Daley is a university professor, who researches the political, economic,
industrial, technological, and cultural history of clothing and textiles. She earned a
PhD from The Department of War Studies at King’s College, London, with a thesis,
titled, A History of Clothing and Textiles for Sailors in the British Royal Navy, 1660–
1859. She also earned an MA in Art History from The Department of Dress History
at The Courtauld Institute of Art; a BTEC in Millinery (history, design, and
construction) at Kensington and Chelsea College; an MA (with a dissertation on
political economics) from King’s College, London; and a BA from The University of
Texas at Austin.

Ingrid E. Mida, Editor

Ingrid E. Mida, PhD (Art History and Visual Culture) is a Modern Literature Centre
research associate at Ryerson University, Toronto; a contributor to Smarthistory; and
also works as an independent curator. Responsible for the revival of the Ryerson
Fashion Research Collection, she is the lead author of The Dress Detective: A
Practical Guide to Object–based Research in Fashion (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015)
and Reading Fashion in Art with The Dress Detective (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).
She is the recipient of various grants and awards including the Janet Arnold award at
the Society of Antiquaries in London (2015) and the Scholars’ Roundtable Honor
from the Costume Society of America (2016 and 2017). She is a Board Trustee for
the Textile Museum of Canada. Ingrid is a member of the Executive Committee of
The Association of Dress Historians.

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Georgina Chappell, Proofreader

Georgina Chappell is a lecturer in Fashion Cultures at Manchester Fashion Institute
at Manchester Metropolitan University. After many years working in technical system
design for the banking industry, her academic background in history led her back to
dress history. Georgina’s research interests include the influence of the avant–garde
on fashion in the early twentieth century; early twentieth century beauty culture;
fashion in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR); and Eve magazine, 1919–
1929. Georgina recently completed a Master’s degree at Manchester Fashion Institute
and Manchester School of Art with a dissertation, titled, An Investigation into the
Influence of the Avant–Garde, Bohemia, and Modernism on Women’s Lifestyle and
Fashion, 1919–1929, with Particular Reference to Eve Magazine.

The Editorial Board of The Journal of Dress History would like to thank the following
Editorial Assistants, who are working on the journal during their year–long Student
Fellowship, sponsored by The Association of Dress Historians.

Irene Calvi, Editorial Assistant

Irene Calvi graduated in 2019 with a BA degree in Cultural Heritage (History of Art)
from The University of Turin, Italy, with a dissertation on fashion museology. The
focus of her BA dissertation research was the museological approach to fashion, and
the ability of museums to deliver a message to their public through exhibitions. She
will continue her studies with the international MA course Arts, Museology, and
Curatorship at the Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Italy. Irene is
passionate about the historical and cultural significance of fashion interpretation in
museums, an aspect she has deepened with a collaboration with the young collective
CreateVoice and an Erasmus Traineeship. She is looking forward to expanding her
knowledge in costume and textile history from innovative perspectives, following her
interest in building a successful network that allows students, researchers, museums,
and heritage sites to work better together. Irene was awarded a 2019 Student
Fellowship by The Association of Dress Historians.

Katharine Lawden, Editorial Assistant

Katharine Lawden is a design historian, currently pursuing an MSt in the History of
Design at The University of Oxford. A graduate of Central Saint Martins, her BA
Fashion History and Theory dissertation examined the representation of black
women within Vogue magazine. Since graduating, she has worked at the Burberry
Heritage Archives and Marie Claire magazine, as well as undertaking an array of
internships at the Alexander McQueen Archives, Vogue UK, Tatler, Harper’s
Bazaar, ELLE UK, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and most recently at Christie’s

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London in their Handbags department. Katharine was awarded a 2019 Student

Fellowship by The Association of Dress Historians.

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The Advisory Board

The following biographies represent the members of The Advisory Board of The
Journal of Dress History, in alphabetical order.

Sylvia Ayton, MBE, Independent Scholar, England

Sylvia Ayton received a very thorough training at Walthamstow School of Art and
Royal College of Art. Her early work as a fashion designer included designing BEA
air hostess uniforms in 1959, clothing for B. Altman and Co. (New York), Count
Down and Pallisades stores (London). In 1964, she formed a partnership with Zandra
Rhodes to open Fulham Road Clothes Shop in London. She joined Wallis Fashion
Group as outerwear designer in 1969 and remained until 2002. In 1990 she was
awarded the MBE for services to the fashion industry, whilst continuing to work as an
external examiner and part–time lecturer to many BA (Hons) fashion courses. In
1980 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts
Manufacture and Commerce, and was a Member of the Jury of RSA Student Design
Awards (Fashion). She is also a former Chairman of the Costume Society.

Penelope Byrde, MA, FMA, Independent Scholar, England

Penelope Byrde read Modern History at St. Andrews University before specialising
in the history of dress for her MA from The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of
London. She was a curator at The Museum of Costume and Fashion Research Centre
in Bath for almost 30 years until she retired in 2002. She was joint editor of Costume,
the dress studies journal published by The Costume Society, for five years and she is
an Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London where
she specialises in dress in eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century literature. She
has written several books on the history of fashion, including The Male Image: Men’s
Fashions in Britain 1300–1970, A Visual History of Costume: The Twentieth
Century, Nineteenth Century Fashion, and Jane Austen Fashion.

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Caroline de Guitaut, MVO, AMA, Royal Collection Trust, England

Caroline de Guitaut is currently Senior Curator of Decorative Arts, Royal Collection
Trust, London. She is a curator with more than 25 years’ experience of caring for,
displaying, and researching one of the world’s greatest art collections. She is curator
of high–profile exhibitions of decorative arts and fashion at The Queen’s Galleries in
London and Edinburgh and at Buckingham Palace since 2002. Her publications
include books, exhibition catalogues, and articles in peer reviewed journals. She is a
regular lecturer in museums and galleries in the UK and internationally. She is a
Member of the Victorian Order, an Associate of the Museums Association, and a
Trustee of the Royal School of Needlework.

Thomas P. Gates, MA, MSLS, MAEd, Kent State University, United States
Thomas P. Gates attended The Cleveland Institute of Art and Case Western Reserve
University, receiving a bachelors’ degree in art history from the latter. He received a
Masters’ degrees in art history and librarianship from The University of Southern
California. He also received a Master’s degree in art education from The University
of New Mexico. After receiving a Rockefeller Fellowship in museum and community
studies at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, he assisted with exhibitions at the
museum’s Downtown Centre and curated a mobile exhibition for the US
Bicentennial in 1976 sponsored by the California Historical Society. In 1996 he
developed the June F Mohler Fashion Library for the School of Fashion Design and
Merchandising, assuming responsibilities as head librarian when it opened in 1997.
He achieved rank of tenured associate professor in 1998. Gates’ interest in the history
of the built environment and American mid century high–end retail apparel resulted
in published, as well as invitational papers, in many scholarly organisations.

Alex Kerr, PhD, FBS, The Burgon Society, England

Alex Kerr has spent much of his career as a lecturer in medieval studies, later
combining this with academic administrative roles. He holds a BA in medieval and
modern languages from Oxford University, and an MA and PhD in medieval studies
from Reading University. Since 2001 he has also been director of a consultancy
providing training courses in communication skills. From 2001 to 2013 he was
Managing Editor of the journal, Contemporary Review. So far as dress history is
concerned, he is an independent researcher and has published several articles on the
history of academic dress. He is a Trustee and Fellow of The Burgon Society, an
educational charity for the study of academic dress, its design, history, and practice.
He was editor of its Transactions, an annual scholarly journal, from 2003 to 2010,
and is now the Society’s Secretary.

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Jenny Lister, MA, The Victoria and Albert Museum, England

Since 2004, Jenny Lister has been Curator of Fashion and Textiles at The Victoria
and Albert Museum. She has curated the exhibitions, 60s Fashion (2006), Grace
Kelly: Style Icon (2010), and Mary Quant (2019). Her publications include The V&A
Gallery of Fashion (2013), with Claire Wilcox; London Society Fashion 1905–1925:
The Wardrobe of Heather Firbank (2015); May Morris (2017), with Anna Mason,
Jan Marsh, et al.; and Mary Quant (2019). Her other research interests include the
British shawl industry.

Timothy Long, MA, Independent Scholar, United States

Until 2018, Timothy Long was Curator of Fashion and Decorative Arts at The
Museum of London. His career began at The Chicago History Museum in 1999 as a
costume collection manager, before becoming curator of costume in 2006. In 2011,
he returned to school for an MA, History and Culture of Fashion at London College
of Fashion. Following the completion of his degree in 2013, he became a curator at
The Museum of London. His publication record includes Chicago History Museum
exhibition catalogues, including Dior: The New Look, Chic Chicago, Charles James:
Genius Deconstructed, I Do! Chicago Ties the Knot, and investigations on Etruscan
dress for The British Museum Technical Bulletin (2014). More recently, he wrote a
book titled Charles James: Designer in Detail, and a chapter on the same designer for
London Couture: British Luxury 1923–1975, both through V&A Publishing (2015).

Jane Malcolm–Davies, PhD, The University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Jane Malcolm–Davies was a Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow at The Centre for
Textile Research, University of Copenhagen, from 2015 to 2017. She is co–director
of The Tudor Tailor, which researches and retails publications and products aimed
at improving reproduction historical dress for pedagogical projects. She was a
postdoctoral research fellow at The University of the Highlands and Islands (Centre
for Interpretation Studies) and The University of Southampton. She lectured in
entrepreneurship and heritage management at The University of Surrey, introduced
costumed interpreters at Hampton Court Palace (1992 to 2004), coordinated training
for the front–of–house team at Buckingham Palace each summer (2000 to 2010), and
has coached guides for the new National Army Museum.

Susan North, PhD, The Victoria and Albert Museum, England

Susan North is the Curator of Fashion before 1800 at The Victoria and Albert
Museum. She has a BA in Art History from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada,
an MA in Dress History from The Courtauld Institute, and a PhD from Queen Mary,
University of London. She worked for The National Gallery of Canada and The

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National Archives of Canada, before joining the V&A in 1995. She has co–authored
several V&A publications relating to early modern dress, as well as co–curating Style
and Splendour: Queen Maud of Norway’s Wardrobe (2005).

Martin Pel, MA, Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museums, England

Martin Pel is Curator of Fashion and Textiles at Royal Pavilion and Museums in
Brighton where he has curated a number of exhibitions, including Subversive Design
(2013) and Fashion Cities Africa (2016). He has published on dress and fashion
history including The Biba Years 1963–1975 (V&A Publishing, 2014) and has co–
edited Gluck: Art and Identity (Yale, 2017), with Professor Amy de la Haye, to
accompany an exhibition of the same name.

Anna Reynolds, MA, Royal Collection Trust, England

Anna Reynolds is Senior Curator of Paintings at Royal Collection Trust, where she
has worked since 2008. She is part of the curatorial team with responsibility for
temporary exhibitions at The Queen’s Gallery in London and The Queen’s Gallery
in Edinburgh, as well as the permanent display of approximately 8000 paintings across
royal residences including Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and the Palace of
Holyroodhouse. Her exhibitions and accompanying publications include In Fine
Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion (2013), Royal Childhood (2014), A Royal
Welcome (2015), and Portrait of the Artist (2016). During 2017–2018, Anna was the
Polaire Weissman Fellow at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where
she studied John Singer Sargent and fashion. Anna holds an undergraduate degree
from Cambridge University, a Diploma from Christie’s Education, and a Master’s
degree in the History of Art from The Courtauld Institute.

Aileen Ribeiro, PhD, The Courtauld Institute of Art, England

Professor Emeritus Aileen Ribeiro read history at King’s College, London, followed
by an MA and PhD at The Courtauld Institute of Art. She was Head of The
Department of Dress History at The Courtauld Institute of Art from 1975 to 2009.
She lectures widely and has acted as costume consultant/contributor to many major
museum exhibitions in Great Britain, Europe, and North America. Professor
Emeritus Ribeiro has published many books and articles on various aspects of the
history of dress, including The Art of Dress: Fashion in England and France 1750–
1820 (1995); Dress and Morality (2003); Fashion and Fiction: Dress in Art and
Literature in Stuart England (2006); Facing Beauty: Painted Women and Cosmetic
Art (2011); A Portrait of Fashion: Six Centuries of Dress at the National Portrait
Gallery (with Cally Blackman) (2015); and Clothing Art: The Visual Culture of
Fashion, 1600–1914 (2017).

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Georgina Ripley, MA, National Museums Scotland, Scotland

Georgina Ripley is Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Fashion and
Textiles at National Museums Scotland (NMS), where she is responsible for fashion
from 1850 to the present day, including the museum’s extensive Jean Muir archive.
She is currently working on Body Beautiful: Diversity on the Catwalk (opening 23
May–20 October 2019) and the museum’s first major temporary exhibition for
fashion opening in June 2020. Georgina was the lead curator for the permanent
Fashion and Style gallery which opened at the museum in 2016. She has also co–
curated Express Yourself: Contemporary Jewellery (2014) and contributed to
exhibitions at NMS including Jean Muir: A Fashion Icon (2008–2009) and Mary
Queen of Scots (2013), and The House of Annie Lennox (2012), a V&A Touring
Exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Georgina holds a Master’s degree
in the History of Art from The Courtauld Institute and has previous experience
working with The Royal Academy of Arts, The Warner Textile Archive, Museums
Galleries Scotland, and the National Galleries of Scotland.

Gary Watt, MA, NTF, The University of Warwick, England

Gary Watt is a Professor of Law at The University of Warwick, a National Teaching
Fellow, and co–founding editor of the journal, Law and Humanities. Specialising in
performative rhetoric, he was named UK “Law Teacher of the Year” in 2009 and has
led rhetoric workshops for the Royal Shakespeare Company for many years.
Professor Watt’s monographs include Equity Stirring (Oxford: Hart, 2009); Dress,
Law and Naked Truth (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013); and Shakespeare’s Acts of
Will: Law, Testament and Properties of Performance (Bloomsbury Arden
Shakespeare, 2016). He has written for The Times Literary Supplement and
collaborated with composer Antony Pitts for BBC Radio 3 and for The Song
Company of Australia.

Rainer Wenrich, PhD, Catholic University, Eichstaett–Ingolstadt, Germany

Rainer Wenrich, PhD, is Professor and Chair of Art Education and Didactics of Art
at Catholic University in Eichstätt–Ingolstadt, Germany. He achieved his PhD on the
topic of twentieth century art and fashion. His research interests are visual studies,
costume history, and fashion theory. As a Professor for Art Education he has lectured
at The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich and as a visiting scholar at Columbia
University, New York. He is the author of many articles and books in the field of art
education and fashion studies. In 2015 he edited The Mediality of Fashion, published
by Transcript, Bielefeld, Germany.

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Submission Guidelines for Articles

Members of The Association of Dress Historians (ADH) are encouraged to consider

writing an article for publication in The Journal of Dress History. If you are not yet
an ADH member but are interested in writing an article, become a member today!
ADH memberships are £10 per year and are available at
[Link]/membership. If you would like to discuss an idea for an
article, please contact journal@[Link].

The Editorial Board of The Journal of Dress History encourages the unsolicited
submission for publication consideration of academic articles on any topic of the
history of dress, textiles, and accessories of all cultures and regions of the world, from
before classical antiquity to the present day. Articles and book reviews are welcomed
from students, early career researchers, independent scholars, and established
professionals.

Articles must be between 4000 words (minimum) and 6000 words (maximum), which
includes footnotes but excludes the required 150–word (maximum) abstract, five
(minimum) images with references, the tiered bibliography (that separates Primary
Sources, Secondary Sources, Internet Sources, et cetera), and 150–word (maximum)
author’s biography. Authors retain the copyright to their article.

Please submit articles as a Word document to journal@[Link]. Articles

can be submitted any day during the year, except for special themed issues of The
Journal of Dress History, which have a specific deadline, as follows.

11:59pm GMT, Tuesday, 1 December 2020:

This is the article submission deadline for publication consideration for the special
themed issue, titled, Costume Drama: A History of Clothes for Stage and Screen.
Topics of potential articles could include any aspect of clothes in theatre, opera, ballet,
film, television, pantomime, advertisements, cartoons, et cetera, of any time period
and culture or region of the world.

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By submitting an article to The Journal of Dress History, authors acknowledge and

accept the following:

• The article is the author’s original work and has not been published
elsewhere.
• Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submitted article contains
accurate facts, dates, grammar, and spelling.
• Once the article has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Dress
History, the article cannot be revoked by the author.
• The article will be submitted to a double blind peer review process.
• The article contains neither plagiarism nor ethical, libellous, or unlawful
statements.
• The article follows the submission guidelines of The Journal of Dress
History.
• All submissions are subject to editorial revision.
• Authors must adhere to the following guidelines, specified in alphabetical
order.

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abbreviation Spell out abbreviations at the first appearance in the article;

thereafter, only the abbreviation can be used, for example:
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England (V&A).

No full stops (periods) in academic and monetary

abbreviations; for example: MA, PhD, GBP, etc.

Use a full stop with abbreviated titles; for example: Dr.

Do not abbreviate “et cetera” [etc.]. Write out et cetera.

ampersand Do not use an ampersand [&] unless it is legally required, as

as part of a formal book/magazine title or the name of a
company.

Ampersands can be used when it an accepted form of

identification; for example: V&A.

artefact Write artefact (not artifact)

articles Refer to your “article,” not the “paper.”

Definite articles (“the”) must always be included in proper

titles, such as The New York Times, The Savoy Hotel, The
University of Brighton.

Indefinite articles (“a” or “an”) before a word that begins

with the letter, h, must be written as follows:

An historic
An hotel

article title Articles submitted to The Journal of Dress History must

include a descriptive title that includes the research topic, a
date, and geographical reference; for example:

Feminists in High Heels: The Role of Femininity in

Second–Wave Feminists’ Dress in Finland, 1973–1990

Appearance, National Fashion, and the Construction of

Women’s Identity in Eighteenth Century Spain

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bibliography A tiered bibliography (that separates Primary Sources

(unpublished first, then published), Secondary Sources,
Internet Sources, etc.) must be included at the end of the
article.

Notice that the bibliographical references differ slightly in

format from the footnotes. Bibliographical references do not
contain page numbers (unless an article within a journal is
cited), and they are listed in alphabetical order with surname
first.

List only the books and articles that were actually cited
within the article.

Publications written by the same author must be listed in

chronological order of publication (with the oldest
publication first).

The following is an example of a bibliography.

Unpublished Sources
Letter Written by Admiral Soandso Regarding Sailors’
Clothing, ADM/Z/449/27 August 1743, Caird Library,
The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England.

Published Sources
Cumming, Valerie, Cunnington, CW, and Cunnington, PE,
The Dictionary of Fashion History, Bloomsbury Academic,
London, England, 2010.

Reynolds, Anna, In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart

Fashion, Royal Collection Trust, London, England, 2013.

Ribeiro, Aileen, “Re–Fashioning Art: Some Visual

Approaches to the Study of the History of Dress,” Fashion
Theory, Volume 2, Issue 4, 1998, Routledge, Abingdon,
Oxfordshire, England, pp. 315–325.

Ribeiro, Aileen, Fashion and Fiction: Dress in Art and

Literature in Stuart England, Yale University Press, London,
England, 2005.

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Internet Sources
Conlon, Scarlett, “Burberry Reveals Runway To Retail,” 20
September 2016, [Link]
see–now–buy–now–runway–to–retail, Accessed 7 October
2016.

birthdate Include a birthdate and deathdate when introducing a new

person; for example:

Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895)

case Use a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters. Do not

type titles or headings in solely uppercase letters.

century Write centuries without hyphens or numbers; for example:

The twentieth century design of…

clarity Clarity of writing is essential. Ensure that each word and

each sentence are clearly written, so every reader
understands the intended meaning. Write for the reader
who does not know your specific research topic. Educate the
reader of your article by defining words and explaining
concepts.

Ensure that each sentence follows is a logical sequence, and

each paragraph naturally flows to the next paragraph.

When referring to a particular country or region of the

world, consider including a map in order to illustrate
geographical locations, so the reader will clearly understand.

Additionally, ensure that the overall article has employed

clarity of organisation (with a clearly defined introduction,
body, and conclusion). Ensure that the introduction
serves as the roadmap of the article. The introduction must
include a thesis statement or brief overview of the entire
article.
colon Do not capitalise the word following a colon [:].

colonial Lowercase the word, colonial; for example:

An interesting aspect of dress in colonial America.…

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comma Only insert a comma in numbers that are five digits or more;
for example:

3000
30,000

With three or more items in a series, insert a comma before

the conjunction; for example:

red, white, and blue

compound word Compound words are generally treated as a single word,

without spacing or hyphenation; for example:

homemade, piecemade, machinemade lace

secondhand
hardback, softback

contraction Avoid contractions; for example, write “it is” rather than
“it’s.”

copyright The Journal of Dress History is copyrighted by the

publisher, The Association of Dress Historians, while each
published author within the journal retains the copyright to
their individual article.

The author is responsible for obtaining permission to

publish any copyrighted material. The submission of an
article is taken by The Editorial Board to indicate that the
author understands the copyright arrangements of the
journal. Specifically, work published by The Journal of
Dress History retains a Creative Commons copyright license
that allows articles to be freely shared, copied, and
redistributed in any medium of format but must be
attributed to the author and cannot be used commercially or
remixed or transformed unless the licensor gives permission.
More information about this license can be found here:
[Link]

In the UK, copyright of images (for example, paintings,

artwork, photography, text) older than the creator’s lifetime
plus 70 years are automatically in the Public Domain and

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can therefore be utilised in your article. For example, The

Royal Collection/Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II may own
a physical painting but the actual image may be out of
copyright. Photographs or scans of the work that lack
sufficient changes (such as colourisation or restoration) are
derivative copies and do not incur any copyright in
themselves. For additional information regarding copyright,
visit:

[Link]
ds/attachment_data/file/481194/c–notice–[Link]

The following is a duration of Crown copyright flowchart:

[Link]
information–management/crown–copyright–flowchart
.pdf

The following is a duration of non–Crown copyright

flowchart:

[Link]
information–management/non–crown–copyright–
[Link]

Ensure any rights or permissions necessary have been

secured prior to article submission. If authors have questions
about the usage of images within an article, contact
journal@[Link].

country Be careful when referring to modern states in a historical

context, for example:

This sentence is incorrect:

Prince Albert was born in Germany in 1819.

However, this sentence is correct:

Prince Albert was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe–Coburg–
Saalfeld in 1819.
Technically, Germany unified both politically and
administratively in 1871; therefore, “Germany” should only
be used from 1871 onward.

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dash Insert proper “en dashes” when hyphenating. Do not use the
“minus” symbol on the computer keyboard. To insert an en
dash in a Word document, place the cursor where you want
to insert the en dash, then go to Insert, Symbol, en dash.

For long dashes in text——follow the same procedure as

above yet insert an “em dash” twice.

date Format dates, as follows:

29 September 1939
920 BC to 775 AD

Datespans must be fully written, such as 1628–1629 (not

1628–29); likewise, pp. 348–370 (not pp. 348–70).

decade Write the word, “during” when describing a decade or

century. Do not write, for example, “in the 1930s.” Instead,
write “during the 1930s.”

Exclude an apostrophe when writing a decade; for example:

1770s

early, mid, late Do not hyphenate with the words, “early,” “mid,” or “late;”
for example:

During the early twentieth century…

Mid nineteenth century stockings...
During the mid 1930s, men…
Mid to late Victorian dress…

ellipsis Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission of a word or words in

a quotation; for example:

“The shirt was pink…and made of linen.”

If you (the author) add ellipses to a direct quotation, then it

must be cited in a footnote by stating:

Ellipses added by the author of this article.

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email The Journal of Dress History requires that authors include

their email address at the end of their article, as part of the
copyright information. When submitting an article for
publication consideration, include an email address that will
allow the public to contact you should they have a question
or comment about your article. For example, insert a
derivation of the following information at the end of your
article. Situate it after the bibliography and just above your
150–word author’s biography:

Copyright © 2019 Your Firstname Lastname

Email: abc@[Link]

figure Every article must include at least five images. Within the
article text, there must be a reference for each figure (in
parenthesis) within the text, for example (Figure 1).

See “image caption,” below, for examples of correctly

formulated captions.

footnote Footnotes (not endnotes) are required in articles. (To insert

a footnote in a Word document, simply place the cursor
where you wish the footnote number to appear. Select
References in the Word menu, then Insert Footnote.)

When appropriate, footnotes must contain page numbers to

denote the exact location of the reference.

Footnotes must be used primarily for referencing. Avoid the

inclusion of long explanatory language in the footnotes.

Examples of correct footnoting format include:

Footnote for journal articles:

Alexandra Carter, “‘What Severall Worlds Might in an
Eare–Ring Bee:’ Accessory and Materialism in the
Seventeenth Century Work of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess
of Newcastle,” The Journal of Dress History, The
Association of Dress Historians, London, England, Volume
1, Issue 1, Spring 2017, pp. 37–38.

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Footnote where consecutive references are exactly the same:

Ibid.

Footnote where consecutive references are the same but with

a different page number:
Ibid., p. 172.

Footnote for a book with one author:

Anna Reynolds, In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart
Fashion, Royal Collection Trust, London, England, 2013,
pp. 10–11.

Footnote for online sources:

Scarlett Conlon, “Burberry Reveals Runway To Retail,” 20
September 2016, [Link]
see–now–buy–now–runway–to–retail, Accessed 7 October
2016.

Footnote for a book with two or more authors:

Valerie Cumming, CW Cunnington, and PE Cunnington,
The Dictionary of Fashion History, Bloomsbury Academic,
London, England, 2010, p. 79.

Footnote for a work that was previously (but not

consecutively) footnoted. Notice how this footnote refers to
Anna Reynolds’ book, above:
Reynolds, op cit., p. 126.

Footnote for a work that was previously (but not

consecutively) footnoted, and in which case the author of the
work has two or more publications already cited; include the
year of publication to distinguish between works, for
example:
Ribeiro, 1988, op cit., p. 47.

“foreign” words Do not italicise “foreign” words that have been adopted into
the English language, such as “kimono” or “zeitgeist.”

For other “foreign” words that may not be readily

understood by readers, place the word in italics followed
immediately by the English translation [in brackets]; for
example:

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He wore a Swedish kiortel [cloak, jerkin, or doublet] that

featured silver embroidery.

Also refer to the entry, “language,” below.

format Do not format the article, use “text boxes,” styles, or other
formatting features. Do not wrap text.

full stop (period) Insert a full stop at the end of every image citation, footnote,
and bibliographical entry.

In cited quotations, insert the full stop inside the closing

quotation mark, with the footnote number following; for
example:

“Common assumptions are often wrong, especially in the

field of fashion history, where myths can persist
unchallenged for years.”55

heading Only one heading level can be utilised in articles, which must
include Introduction, Conclusion, and other headings in
between, to separate topics.

hyphen To insert a hyphen in a Word document, go to Insert, then

Symbol, then select the en dash. Do not use the minus
symbol on the keyboard. Examples of properly placed
hyphens include:

a cross–cultural examination of…

long–term investment in…(yet there is no hyphen in: a
longstanding ADH member)
She was the then–favourite of Louis XIV…
hand–coloured engraved plates
high–quality items
upper–class men
an ill–fated journey
non–professional embroiderers
long–established museum collections
post–revolutionary Cuba
present–day Denmark
a world–famous collection
The art history–based model of fashion history

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Hyphen usage with adjectives versus objects:

• They are well–known researchers. (Insert hyphen

when used as an adjective).
• He is well known. (No hyphen when used as an
object.)

Likewise for “out–of–date:”

• The computer utilises out–of–date technology.
• After the French Revolution, the aristocratic négligé became
out of date.

This is the same rule for “everyday:”

• He wore his everyday clothes.
• He ate an apple every day.

image Every article must include at least five images. Within the
article text, there must be a reference for each figure (in
parenthesis) within the text, for example (Figure 1).
Image captions must appear directly below each image.
Images must be a maximum height of 600 pixels only. If
authors’ images are a higher resolution than 600 pixels in
height, then the author needs to crop the image then reduce
the resolution. The image caption must appear directly
underneath the image as plain text (not text within a text
box).

image caption Image citations must include a title (in italics),

author/painter, date, medium and dimensions (if applicable),
venue/collection, city, county/state/province (if applicable),
country, and the unique identifying number (such as an
inventory number, accession number, or museum
identification number). The purpose of a citation within your
article is to enable the image or item to be located by a
reader.

Sample image captions for paintings:

Charles I and Henrietta Maria Departing for the
Chase, Daniel Mytens, circa 1630–1632, Oil on
Canvas, 282 x 408.3cm, © The Royal Collection,
London, England, RCIN 404771.

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Pit Brow Girl, Hannah Keen, 1895, Oil on Canvas,

© The National Coal Mining Museum for England,
Wakefield, West Yorkshire England,
KSMM:2004.2736.

Sample image captions for works of art in manuscript

collections:
The Rutland Psalter, Artist Unknown, circa 1260,
© The British Library, London, England,
Additional MS 62925, 42r.

Three Studies of a Woman, Antoine Watteau, 1717,

Sanguine on Paper, 16.5 x 24.8cm, © The National
Museum, Stockholm, Sweden, NMH 2824/1863.

Sample image caption for art in historic pamphlets:

A Most Certain, Strange, and True Discovery of a
Witch, Pamphlet Title Page, Artist Unknown, 1643,
Printed by John Hammond, London, England, ©
Ferguson Collection, The University of Glasgow,
Glasgow, Scotland, Sp Coll Ferguson Al–x.57.

Marie Taglioni in the Title Role of the Ballet, La

Sylphide, Paris, Artist Unknown, 1832, Hand–
Coloured Woodcut, Harry Beard Collection,
© The Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
England, S.259–1988.

Sample image captions for artefacts:

British Day Dress of Aniline Dyed Silk, Lined with
Cotton, Trimmed with Satin and Bobbin Lace,
Reinforced with Whalebone, Maker Unknown,
circa 1870–1873, © The Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, England, T.182&A–1914.

Textile Design, Wladyslaw Strzeminski, 1948,

© The National Museum, Warsaw, Poland,
Wzr.t.479/6.

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Detail, Burse for the Great Seal of Elizabeth I, Maker

Unknown, circa 1596–1603, © The British Museum,
London, England, 1997,0301.1.

A Tulup [Long Sheepskin Coat from the Russian

tулуб], circa 1840–1850, © Hallwyl Museum,
Stockholm, Sweden, 7467.
If a researcher has photographed inside an archive,
the image caption must include who photographed
the item and on which date; for example:

A Tulup [Long Sheepskin Coat from the Russian

tулуб], circa 1840–1850, © Hallwyl Museum,
Stockholm, Sweden, 7467, Photographed by
Firstname Lastname, 28 September 2018.

Sample image captions for photographs:

Olive Schreiner in Kimberley, South Africa,
JE Middlebrook, 1895, Olive Schreiner Collection,
© National English Literary Museum, Grahamstown,
South Africa, 2005_51_19_103.

Five Generations on Smith’s Plantation, Beaufort,

South Carolina, Timothy H. O’Sullivan, 1862,
© The Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs
Division, Washington, DC, United States, 98504449.

Alf Louth and Chris Cheever Wearing Onshore Suits

on St Matthew Street in Hull, Photographer
Unknown, 1961, The Private Collection of Alf Louth,
Hull, East Yorkshire, England.

Sample image captions for items in a magazine:

Front Cover, The Model of a Blue Wedding Dress,
Milena Pavlovic Barilli, 1 April 1940, © Vogue,
American Edition, New York, New York, United
States.

Advertisement, Fall Collection of Eldridge de Paris,

Rolling Stone Magazine, Special Men’s Issue,
9 October 1975, © Wenner Media, New York,
New York, United States, p. 65.

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Spinning Demonstrations at the Weald and

Downland Open Air Museum, insideSUSSEX
Magazine, February 2017, © Sideways Media,
Brighton, England, p. 48.

Sample image captions for items in a company catalogue:

Hamsa Damayanthi Silk Sari, RmKV Fashion Sales
Catalogue, December 2015, Chennai, India, p. 4.

Sample image captions for items in a novel or book:

Frontpiece, Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery,
Illustrated by MA and WAJ Claus, 1908, LC Page
and Company, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

Franz Liszt, Drawn by Carl Hartmann, 11 October

1843, National Forschungs und Gedenkstätten der
klassichen deutschen Literatur in Weimar [National
Research and Memorial Centre for Classical German
Literature in Weimar], Nuremberg, Germany, in
© Ernst Burger, and Stewart Spencer, trans., Franz
Liszt: A Chronicle of His Life in Pictures and
Documents, Princeton University Press, Princeton,
New Jersey, United States, 1989.

Sample captions for a television or film still or movie poster:

The Character, Gus Carmichael, Portrayed by Noah
Marullo, Film Still from Tracy Beaker Returns, 2010,
© British Broadcasting Corporation, London,
England.

The Actress, Evgeniya Sabelnikova, and Her Real–

Life Daughter, Film Still from Olenja Ohota, 1981,
Directed by Yuri Boretsky © Gorky Film Studio,
Moscow, Russia.

American Film Poster for The Little Foxes, 1941,

Samuel Goldwyn Productions/RKO Pictures,
Hollywood, California, United States, © International
Movie Database (IMDb).

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Sample image caption for a record or album cover:

Album Cover, Prince, Dirty Little Mind, Allen
Beaulieu, 8 October 1980, © Warner Bros. Records,
Burbank, California, United States.

Sample image caption for an image from a website:

A Victorian Print Reproduced in “Murder on the
Hackney Express: The First–Class Train Killing that
Terrified the Victorian Middle Classes,” Harriet
Arkell, 15 February 2013,
© [Link]
2279102/Thomas-Briggs-murder-train-Franz-Muller-
[Link],
Accessed 6 December 2018.

All website addresses must be linked to the exact page

reference, so the reader can access the referenced webpage.
All website captions must include the date on which the
website was accessed.

indefinite article Use “an” (not “a”) as an indefinite article for words
beginning with an “h,” as in:

An historical overview

initials Avoid initials. Spell out authors’ entire first and last names,
unless the author is specifically known by initials; for
example, TS Eliot.

italics Titles of books and images (such as paintings and

photographs) must be italicised.

Museum exhibition titles are unitalicised.

The Journal of Dress History remains unitalicised in text.

items in a series With three or more items in a series, insert a comma before
the conjunction; for example:

red, white, and blue

justification Left justify article text but centre justify image captions.

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language When possible, articles must be written in British English.

The only acceptable standard for dictionary references is the
Oxford English Dictionary, not lesser–known dictionaries or
American versions, such as dictionaries published by
Merriam–Webster.

Non–English material can be included in the article but an

English translation must accompany it. To include a long
passage of translated material, include the English translation
into the body of the article, with the original non–English
text in a footnote.

In the bibliography, include an English translation in

brackets after any identifying information, for example:

“Confiscationer I Stockholm,” Överdirektören vid

Sjötullen, Advokatfiskalen, Liggare [The Director at
Sea Customs, Public Prosecutor, Ledger], D3, Volume
1–2, 1803, Riksarkivet [National Archives of Sweden],
Stockholm, Sweden.

lowercase Some examples of lowercase format:

court dress
western attire
(yet uppercase for a location, such as: in the West)

movements Capitalise art and design movements; for example:

Impressionism
Arts and Crafts
Cubism
The Aesthetic movement...

not Condense language for efficiency and clarity. Be aware of the

usage of the word, “not;” for example:

Write “inaccessible” rather than “not accessible.”

Write “impossible” rather than “not possible.”
Write “unrestricted” rather than “not restricted.”
Write “indirectly” rather than “not directly.”
Write “unclear” rather than “not clear.”

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numbers Fully spell out numbers below 10; for example:

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine

But use numbers from 10 onwards; for example:

10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, etc.
Write out “hundreds” and “thousands;” for example:
There were hundreds of garments in the warehouse.

origin unknown If the artist, maker, or author are unknown, then specify it in
the image caption, footnote, or bibliography; for example:

Artist Unknown
Maker Unknown
Photographer Unknown

pages Articles must be paginated at the bottom centre page.

When referring to page numbers in footnotes and in the

bibliography, use the following format.

p. 43.
pp. 67–78.
pp. 103–123, 167.
pp. 200–203.

paragraphs Ensure that paragraphs are properly balanced; for example,

one– or two–sentence paragraphs are rarely acceptable.

Do not indent paragraphs; instead, simply insert a blank line

to separate paragraphs.

percentages Use the percent sign instead of writing out “twenty percent;”
for example:

20%

person When writing an article, never utilise first person singular (I,
me, my, mine) or first person plural (we, us, our, ours).

Never utilise second person singular or plural (you, your,

yours).

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Instead, only utilise third person singular (he/she/it,

him/her/it, his/her/its, his/hers/its) or third person plural
(they, them, their, theirs).

plural possessives Ensure that plural possessives are correct; for example:

fifteenth century farmers’ garments

tailors’ journals

prefix Do not hyphenate words with the following prefixes.

co+ words:
coexisting, cooperate, codependent, etc.

inter+ words:
interdisciplinary, interwar, interwoven, international, etc.
multi+ words:
multipronged, multiyear, multifacetted, multicoloured, etc.

non+ words:
nonbinary (except non–professional embroiderers)

post+ words:
postgraduate, postdoctoral (except pre–war and post–war)

pre+ words:
prehistory, preemptive

re+ words;
reexamination, recreate, reenactment, remakers, reuse

under+ words:
underrepresented, understudied, etc.

quotation marks “Double” quotation marks must be used for “regular”

quotations, with ‘single’ quotation marks used for quotations
within quotations, for example:

As Steele wrote, “It is as though (critics) believe that

collecting and exhibiting clothes in a museum effectively
‘kills’ their spirit.”

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Quotations of more than three lines of typescript should be

typed indented and without quotation marks or italics.

seasons Within the article text, the seasons are lowercased, eg.,
spring, summer, autumn, winter.

Write “autumn” rather than “fall.”

Delete unnecessary words during the writing process; for

example, instead of writing,
“By the spring of 1913…” write “By spring 1913...”

Only capitalise seasons when referring to specific published

dates; for example:
“In the Winter 1926 issue of Vogue magazine….”

spacing Single space all text.

Insert only one space after colons and full stops (period).

tense Write about history in the past tense, not the present tense.

time periods Lowercase “early modern” and “medieval.”

Uppercase “Renaissance” and the “Enlightenment.”

titles and headings Titles of books and images (such as paintings and
photographs) must be italicised. (See the entry, “italics,”
above.)

Always capitalise the first and last words of titles and

headings. Verbs must be capitalised within titles. Articles (ie.,
the, a, an) and conjunctions (ie., and, but) are not capitalised
in titles and headings unless they appear as the first or last
word in the title.

war Do not write World War One or World War Two; instead,
write:

First World War

Second World War

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west Capitalise the word, West, when referring to a location; for

example:

This occurred in the West…

However, lowercase the word, western, when used as an

adjective; for example:

The concept of western dress emerged…

z Use British spelling in words that otherwise would include

the letter, z, in American spelling; for example, write:

organisation (not organization)

utilises (not utilizes)

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Submission Guidelines for Book Reviews

Members of The Association of Dress Historians (ADH) are encouraged to consider

writing a book review for publication in The Journal of Dress History. If you are not
yet an ADH member but are interested in writing a book review, become a member
today! ADH memberships are £10 per year and are available at
[Link]/membership. If you would like to discuss an idea for a book
review, please contact journal@[Link].

Book reviewers are responsible for ensuring that their submitted book review contains
accurate facts, dates, grammar, spelling, and adheres to the following book review
guidelines. All book reviews will be edited by the editorial team of The Journal of
Dress History; however, the editorial team does not hold a physical copy of the book
under review. Therefore, the reviewer alone is responsible for providing accurate
facts, dates, grammar, spelling (especially of names, references, and page numbers
within the book that the editorial team cannot verify).

By submitting a book review to The Journal of Dress History, reviewers acknowledge

and accept that:

• as a reviewer you do not hold any conflict of interest;

• the review is the author’s original work and has not been published
elsewhere;
• once the review has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Dress
History, the review cannot be revoked by the reviewer;
• the review contains neither plagiarism nor ethical, libellous, unlawful
statements;
• the review follows the submission guidelines and style guide of The Journal
of Dress History;
• all reviews are subject to editorial revision before publication;
• in the unlikely event that The Journal of Dress History declines to publish
your book review, you are welcome to seek publication of your book review
elsewhere.

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Substance:
• Book reviews should include some insight into the author’s background,
experience, or qualifications.
• Book reviews must contain a critical analysis of the book, which could include
the following five steps, in this order (as a suggestion):

1. Provide an overview of the book

2. Identify important information in the book
3. Place this book into the wider context and literature
4. Critically analyse the book, including:
• Organisation and clarity of writing
• Identification of logical flaws
• Critical assessment of research methods
• Use of sources
5. In conclusion, articulate an academic opinion of the book

• At the end of the book review, reviewers must provide guidance on whether
the readers of The Journal of Dress History should consider purchasing the
book or view the work as an important point of reference for a particular field.
• Where appropriate, reviewers should provide relevant counterarguments, with
references, to points of significant contention within the work under review.
• Errors of fact or typographical errors can be pointed out but should not be
dwelt upon unless the reviewer feels the errors compromise the validity of the
work as a whole.
• Please balance critical observations with a recognition of the contributions that
the text might offer.
• Criticism must be substantiated with reference to appropriate alternative
scholarly work.
• Reviews must aim to be professional, courteous, and temperate and not include
attacks on the author as personal attacks will not be published.
• Due care and attention must be paid to diversity, equality, and the avoidance
of generalisations.
• Footnotes are not permitted.

Form:
• Book reviews must be submitted as a Word document (with a .doc or .docx
extension, never as a .pdf), written in block paragraphs with one horizontal line
space between paragraphs, not indented but flushed left.
• Save your Word document with your name, for example:
Janet Mayo, book [Link]

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• For questions regarding writing style and format, please refer to the submission
guidelines for articles, published in the previous chapter of this journal issue.
• Reviews must begin with the author(s)/editor(s), the book title, the publisher,
city of publication, county/state/province (if applicable), country of publication,
year of publication, (and then the following information though delete where
appropriate) notes, appendices, bibliography, credits, index, illustrations,
number of pages (written as 245pp), softback or hardback, and price (in British
pounds sterling), eg:

Aileen Ribeiro, Clothing Art: The Visual Culture of Fashion, 1600–1914, Yale
University Press, London, England, 2017, Notes, Bibliography, Credits, Index,
170 Colour Illustrations, 80 Black–and–White Illustrations, 572pp, Hardback,
£55.00.

• At the end of the book review, insert your copyright information (as you will
hold the copyright to your own book review) and your email address in the
following format, which will appear at the end of your published book review:

Copyright © 2018 Your Firstname Lastname

Email: abc@[Link]

• Follow the copyright notice with a 150–word (maximum) biography of yourself

(written in essay format in the third person), which will be published with your
book review.
• Quotations should be used where appropriate, using “double” quotation
marks.
• When the book under review is quoted, the page number(s) must be cited at
the end of the quotation, for example:
o “This is an example of quoted material in a book review” (p. 93).
o This is an example of unquoted (yet referenced) material in a book
review (pp. 293–295).
• Book reviews must be between 700 words (minimum) and 1200 words
(maximum), which excludes the book title information at the top of the review
and the required 150–word (maximum) reviewer’s biography.
• When writing a book review, never utilise first person singular (I, me, my,
mine) or first person plural (we, us, our, ours).
Never utilise second person singular or plural (you, your, yours).
Instead, only utilise third person singular (he/she/it, him/her/it, his/her/its,
his/hers/its) or third person plural (they, them, their, theirs).

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Index of Articles and Book Reviews

Listed in alphabetical order per authors’ surnames, the following 59 articles and 82
book reviews have been published in The Journal of Dress History, inclusive of this
issue. All articles and book reviews are freely available at [Link].

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Articles

Author Title Issue

Kevin Almond Eliminating the Bust Dart: Summer 2019
The Role of Pattern Cutting in the 1960–
2002 Career of British Fashion Designer,
Sylvia Ayton
Toni Bate From Morality Play to Court Masque: Spring 2017
A Study of Allegorical Performance
Costume from Medieval Religious Dramas
to Secular Theatre of the Seventeenth
Century
Anabela Becho Contemplating a Madame Grès Dress Autumn 2017
to Reflect on Time and Fashion
Laura Beltran–Rubio Portraits and Performance: Winter 2018
Eighteenth Century Dress and the Culture
of Appearances in Spanish America
Ariana Bishop “The Importance of Being Jeweled:” Spring 2019
Patriotism and Adornment in the
United States during the First World War
Raissa Bretaña Bloomerism in the Ballroom: Spring 2018
Dress Reform and Evening Wear in 1851
Lizanne Brown Masking Reality: Spring 2019
Prosthetics and Adaptable Clothing
during the First World War
Nora Ellen Carleson Harry Collins and the Birth of American Summer 2018
Fashion, 1910–1950
Maria Carlgren The (Saint) Birgitta Schools: Autumn 2018
Dressmaking and Fashion between
Tradition and Renewal in Stockholm,
1910–1935

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Alexandra Carter “What Severall Worlds Might in an Eare– Spring 2017

Ring Bee:”
Accessory and Materialism in the
Seventeenth Century Work of
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle
Alexa Chan and Heidi Lempp Garment +: Spring 2018
Challenging the Boundaries of Fashion for
Those with Long–Term Physical Disabilities
Lena Dahrén To Represent a King: Spring 2017
The Clothing of Duke Johan, Second Son of
King Gustav I of Sweden, Produced for His
Audience with Queen Elizabeth in 1559
Jennifer Daley A Guide to Online Sources for Spring 2019
Dress History Research
Olga Dritsopoulou Conceptual Parallels in Fashion Design Autumn 2017
Practices:
A Comparison of Martin Margiela and
John Galliano
Alison Fairhurst Women’s Shoes of the Eighteenth Century: Autumn 2017
Style, Use, and Evolution
Kimberley Foy To Cover or Not to Cover: Spring 2017
Hat Honour at the Early Stuart Court,
1603–1642
Thomas P. Gates Tina Leser Sketchbooks, 1942–1962: Autumn 2017
Crossing Continents and Interpreting
Ethnic Dress for American Sportswear
Inga Lena Ångström Grandien An Analysis of Dress in Portraiture of Spring 2017
Women at the Swedish Royal Court,
1600–1650
Inga Lena Ångström Grandien “She Was Naught...of a Woman Except Spring 2018
in Sex:”
The Cross–Dressing of Queen Christina
of Sweden
Laura Pérez Hernández Appearance, National Fashion, and the Spring 2017
Construction of Women’s Identity in
Eighteenth Century Spain
Carole Hunt Dressed for the Part: Summer 2019
Clothing as Narrative Enquiry into Gender,
Class, and Identity of Pauper Lunatics at
Whittingham Asylum, England, 1907–1919

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Lovisa Willborg Jonsson How to Cross–Dress in Eighteenth Century Spring 2018

Sweden:
Skills, Props, and Audiences
Anna Knutsson Out of the Darkness into the Market: Spring 2017
The Role of Smuggling in Creating a
Global Market of Textiles in Late
Eighteenth Century Sweden
Calina Langa Interwoven Boundaries: Spring 2018
Various Stylistic Influences in Romanian
Court Costume
Alison Larkin Professional and Domestic Embroidery on Spring 2017
Men’s Clothing in the Later Eighteenth
Century
Landis Lee Tangomania: Winter 2018
A 1913 Dance Craze and Its Influence on
Women’s Fashion
Elena Madlevskaya Challenging Boundaries in the Field of Spring 2018
and Anna Nikolaeva Traditional Russian Costume
Sarah Magill Standardised or Simplified? Summer 2018
The Effect of Government–Imposed
Restrictions on Women’s Clothing
Manufacture and Design during the
Second World War
Jane Malcolm–Davies Shedding Light with Science: Spring 2017
The Potential for Twenty First Century
Studies of Sixteenth Century Knitting
James Middleton “Their Dress is Very Different:” Spring 2018
The Development of the Peruvian Pollera
and the Genesis of the Andean Chola

Alicia Mihalić Liberating the Natural Movement: Autumn 2019

Dance and Dress Reform
in the Self–Expression of
Isadora Duncan (1877–1927)
Axel Moulinier Paintings Undressed: Autumn 2018
A Sartorial Investigation into the Art of
Antoine Watteau, 1700–1720
Rosa Edith Moya Emperor Maximilian I and Summer 2018
and Angela Bernice Kennedy Empress Charlotte Habsburg:
Their Impact on Mexican Dress, 1864–1867

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Erica Munkwitz Wearing the Breeches: Winter 2018

Riding Clothes and Women’s Work
during the First World War
Diana Rafaela Pereira Fashion Victims: Spring 2018
Dressed Sculptures of the Virgin
in Portugal and Spain
Michael Ballard Ramsey Adopted and Adapted: Spring 2018
The Cross–Cultural Appropriation of the
Eighteenth Century Blanket Coat
(or Capote) in North America
Michael Ballard Ramsey Plaiding the People: Autumn 2019
Party–Coloured Plaid and Its Use in the
North American Colonies, 1730–1800
Aileen Ribeiro Truth and Imagination: Spring 2017
How Real Is Dress in Art?
Georgina Ripley “A New Kind of Menswear for a New Kind Summer 2018
of Man:”
Constructs of Masculinity at
JW Anderson and Loewe, 2008–2017
Clare Rose The Fashion Trade in Spring 2019
First World War France
Elise Urbain Ruano The Négligé in Eighteenth Century Spring 2017
French Portraiture
Emmy Sale “It Is Not Impossible to Look Nice Sitting Autumn 2018
about on the Beach:”
The Influence of Magazines in the Making
and Wearing of Hand–Knitted Bathing Suits
by Young Working Women in England
during the 1930s
Rachel Sayers “For God and Ulster:” Spring 2019
Political Manifestation of Irish Dress and the
Ulster Volunteer Medical and Nursing
Corps, 1912–1918
Svitlana Shiells Redressing Japonisme: Spring 2018
The Impact of the Kimono on Gustav Klimt
and Fin de Siècle Viennese Fashion

Katarina Nina Simončič Women’s Fashions in Zagreb, Croatia, Spring 2019

1914–1918

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Lorraine Hamilton Smith Support and Uplift: Autumn 2018

How Technology Defined the Bra
during the Twentieth Century
Stephanie Sporn Creativity amidst Conflict: Spring 2019
The Marchesa Luisa Casati and the
Avant–Garde in Wartime Rome, 1915–1918

Ondřej Stolička Clothing as a Means of Representation of Spring 2017

Baroque Nobles in Central Europe,
1650–1700
Solveig Strand The Norwegian Bunad: Autumn 2018
Peasant Dress, Embroidered Costume,
and National Symbol
Kirsten Toftegaard Paris, 1982–1994: Autumn 2017
The Fashion Designs of
Danish Couturier, Erik Mortensen,
for Balmain and Jean–Louis Scherrer
Emma Treleaven Living Garments: Autumn 2017
Exploring Objects in Modern Fashion
Exhibitions
Emma Treleaven Dressed to Disappear: Spring 2018
Fashion as Camouflage during the
Second World War
Arja Turunen Feminists in High Heels: Autumn 2018
The Role of Femininity in Second–Wave
Feminists’ Dress in Finland, 1973–1990
Fausto Viana The Clothes Worn in 1785 for the Autumn 2017
Betrothal and Wedding of
Carlota Joaquina of Spain and
Dom João of Portugal
Rainer Wenrich Coding/Recoding/Defining/Redefining: Summer 2018
Discussing Boundlessness and Anticipation
in the Fashion System, 1998–2011
Lucie Whitmore “Chic Rag–and–Tatter Modes:” Winter 2018
Remnant Fashions during the
First World War
Hannah Wroe Dress Economy for the British Home Front: Spring 2019
Flora Klickmann’s Needlework Economies
(1919)

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Allie Yamaguchi Kimonos for Foreigners: Autumn 2017

Orientalism in Kimonos Made for the
Western Market, 1900–1920
Tamsyn Young Cloth of the Sixteenth Century Yeoman: Spring 2017
Thick, Itchy, and Blanket Like, or Carefully
Engineered for Relevance?

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Book Reviews

Reviewer Title Issue

Olaf Bachmann Pious Fashion: Autumn 2019
How Muslim Women Dress
By Elizabeth Bucar
Gail Baxter The Lace Samples from Ipswich, Summer 2019
Massachusetts, 1789–1790:
History, Patterns, and Working Diagrams
for 22 Lace Samples Preserved at the
Library of Congress
By Karen H. Thompson
Laura Beltran–Rubio Exquisite Slaves: Autumn 2019
Race, Clothing, and Status in Colonial Lima
By Tamara J. Walker
Art Blake Liberated Threads: Summer 2018
Black Women, Style, and the Global
Politics of Soul
By Tanisha C. Ford
Jay McCauley Bowstead Peacock Revolution: Winter 2018
American Masculine Identity and Dress
in the Sixties and Seventies
By Daniel Delis Hill
Andrew Breer Fashionability: Summer 2018
Abraham Moon and the Creation of
British Cloth for the Global Market
By Regina Lee Blaszczyk
Raissa Bretaña London Society Fashion, 1905–1925: Winter 2018
The Wardrobe of Heather Firbank
By Cassie Davies–Strodder, Jenny Lister,
and Lou Taylor

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Constance Karol Burks Tweed Summer 2018

By Fiona Anderson
Penelope Byrde Inside the Royal Wardrobe: Summer 2018
A Dress History of Queen Alexandra
By Kate Strasdin
Irene Calvi Fashion Curating: Spring 2019
Critical Practice in the Museum and Beyond
By Annamari Vänskä and Hazel Clark
Irene Calvi Fashion, History, Museums: Summer 2019
Inventing the Display of Dress
By Julia Petrov
Elizabeth Coatsworth Textiles and Clothing, c.1150–1450 (4): Winter 2018
Finds from Medieval Excavations in London
By Elisabeth Crowfoot
and Frances Pritchard
Shaun Cole Menswear Revolution: Autumn 2018
The Transformation of Contemporary
Men’s Fashion
By Jay McCauley Bowstead
Jennifer Daley Clothing and Landscape in Victorian Summer 2018
England:
Working–Class Dress and Rural Life
By Rachel Worth
Doris Domoszlai–Lantner Designed in the USSR: 1950–1989 Autumn 2019
By Moscow Design Museum
Olga Dritsopoulou Balenciaga: Autumn 2018
Shaping Fashion
By Lesley Ellis Miller
Julie Eilber Making Vintage 1940s Clothes for Women Autumn 2018
By Sarah Magill
Helen Elands African Wax Print Textiles Autumn 2019
By Anne Grosfilley
Alison Fairhurst Fashioning the Early Modern: Spring 2017
Dress, Textiles, and Innovation in Europe,
1500–1800
By Evelyn Welch

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Alison Fairhurst How to Read a Dress: Autumn 2017

A Guide to Changing Fashion from the
Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century
By Lydia Edwards
Alison Fairhurst Pretty Gentlemen: Autumn 2018
Macaroni Men and the Eighteenth–Century
Fashion World
By Peter McNeil
Alison Fairhurst Treasures Afoot: Summer 2019
Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era
By Kimberly S. Alexander
Fiona Ffoulkes The House of Worth, 1858–1954: Summer 2018
The Birth of Haute Couture
By Chantal Trubert–Tollu,
Françoise Tétart–Vittu, Jean–Marie Martin–
Hattemberg, and Fabrice Olivieri
Fiona Ffoulkes Fashioning Spaces: Summer 2019
Mode and Modernity in Late–Nineteenth–
Century Paris
By Heidi Brevik–Zender
Harper Franklin Hats Autumn 2019
By Clair Hughes
Sidsel Frisch Tudor Fashion Autumn 2018
and Rosalind Mearns By Eleri Lynn
Victoria Garrington Fashion Game Changers: Summer 2019
Reinventing the 20th Century Silhouette
By Karen Van Godtsenhoven, Miren
Arzaluz, and Kaat Debo
Katie Godman Collectable Names and Designs Winter 2018
in Women’s Shoes
By Tracy Martin
Caroline Hamilton Costume in Performance: Summer 2019
Materiality, Culture, and the Body
By Donatella Barbieri,
with a Contribution from
Melissa Trimingham
Laura Pérez Hernández Moors Dressed as Moors: Autumn 2018
Clothing, Social Distinction and Ethnicity
in Early Modern Iberia
By Javier Irigoyen García

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Tracey Jones Wearing the Trousers: Summer 2018

Fashion, Freedom, and the Rise of the
Modern Woman
By Don Chapman
Vanessa Jones Fashion History: Winter 2018
A Global View
By Linda Welters and Abby Lillethun
Vanessa Jones The Golden Thread: Summer 2019
How Fabric Changed History
By Kassia St. Clair
Jasleen Kandhari Unbroken Thread: Banarasi Brocade Saris Autumn 2019
at Home and in the World
By Anaemic Pathak, Abeer Gupta, and
Suchitra Balasubrahmanyan
Djina Kaza One Study of High Fashion and High Art: Summer 2019
Maison Barilli, Belgrade/New York
By Stefan Žarić

Landis Lee The Fashion Chronicles: Spring 2019

The Style Stories of History’s Best Dressed
By Amber Butchart
Madeleine Luckel Fashioned from Nature Autumn 2018
By Edwina Ehrman
Madeleine Luckel Dior and His Decorators: Winter 2018
Victor Grandpierre, Georges Geffroy,
and the New Look
By Maureen Footer
Alice Mackrell Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Autumn 2017
Art of the In–Between
By Andrew Bolton
Alice Mackrell Heavenly Bodies: Autumn 2018
Fashion and the Catholic Imagination
By Andrew Bolton
Alice Mackrell Napoleon: Winter 2018
The Imperial Household
By Sylvain Cordier
Alice Mackrell Visitors to Versailles: Summer 2019
From Louis XIV to the French Revolution
By Daniëlle O. Kisluk–Grosheide
and Bernard Rondot

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Alice Mackrell Camp: Notes on Fashion Autumn 2019

By Andrew Bolton
Sarah Magill CC41 Utility Clothing: Winter 2018
The Label that Transformed British Fashion
By Mike Brown
Marion Maule Textiles and Clothing of Viet Nam: Summer 2018
A History
By Michael C. Howard
Janet Mayo Clothing Art: Autumn 2017
The Visual Culture of Fashion, 1600–1914
By Aileen Ribeiro
Eliza McKee The Clothing of the Common Sort, Autumn 2019
1570–1700
By Margaret Spufford and Susan Mee
Marie McLoughlin Dressing for Austerity: Autumn 2017
Aspiration, Leisure and Fashion
in Postwar Britain
By Geraldine Biddle–Perry
Mariaemanuela Messina La Parisienne in Cinema: Autumn 2019
Between Art and Life
By Felicity Chaplin
Ingrid Mida Refashioning and Redress: Summer 2019
Conserving and Displaying Dress
By Mary M. Brooks and Dinah D. Eastop
Ninya Mikhaila Clothing the Past: Autumn 2019
Surviving Garments from Early Medieval to
Early Modern Western Europe
By Elizabeth Coatsworth and
Gale R. Owen–Crocker
Caroleen Molenaar Dresses and Dressmaking: Autumn 2019
From the Late Georgians to the Edwardians
By Pam Inder
Scott Hughes Myerly Historical Style: Spring 2017
Fashion and the New Mode of History,
1740–1830
By Timothy Campbell

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Scott Hughes Myerly Signs and Symbols: Spring 2019

Dress at the Intersection between
Image and Realia
By Sabine de Günther
and Philipp Zitzlsperger
Scott Hughes Myerly Ottoman Dress and Design in the West: Summer 2019
A Visual History of Cultural Exchange
By Charlotte Jirousek with Sara Catterall
Pamela Parmal Fashion in European Art: Winter 2018
Dress and Identity, Politics and the Body,
1775–1925
By Justine De Young
Martin Pel Dolly Tree: Summer 2018
A Dream of Beauty
By Gary Chapman
Allison Pfingst Fashion and Popular Print in Autumn 2018
Early Modern England:
Depicting Dress in Black–Letter Ballads
By Clare Backhouse
Chrys Plumley Late Medieval and Renaissance Textiles Winter 2018
By Rosamund Garrett and Matthew Reeves
Lorraine Portelli European Fashion: Spring 2019
The Creation of a Global Industry
By Regina Lee Blaszczyk
and Véronique Pouillard
Vivienne Richmond The Rag Trade: Winter 2018
The People Who Made Our Clothes
By Pam Inder
Georgina Ripley Managing Costume Collections: Autumn 2017
An Essential Primer
By Louise Coffey–Webb
Julie Ripley From Goodwill to Grunge: Winter 2018
A History of Secondhand Styles
and Alternative Economies
By Jennifer Le Zotte
Hendrik van Rooijen Fashion in the Middle Ages Autumn 2019
By Margaret Scott
Emmy Sale The Anthropology of Dress and Fashion: Autumn 2019
A Reader
By Brent Luvaas and Joanne B. Eicher

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Scott William Schiavone Fashioned Text and Painted Books Autumn 2019
By Erin E. Edgington
Andrea J. Severson Fashion and Fiction: Summer 2018
Self–Transformation in Twentieth–Century
American Literature
By Lauren S. Cardon
Rebecca Shawcross Shoes: Summer 2018
The Meaning of Style
By Elizabeth Semmelhack

Katarina Nina Simončič Medieval Clothing and Textiles, Volume 13 Summer 2018
By Robin Netherton and
Gale R. Owen–Crocker
Lorraine Hamilton Smith The Silhouette: Spring 2017
From the 18th Century to the Present Day
By Georges Vigarello
Naomi Sosnovsky Looking at Jewelry: Autumn 2019
A Guide to Terms, Styles, and Techniques
By Susanne Gänsicke and Yvonne J.
Markowitz
Emily Taylor Dressing the Scottish Court, 1543–1553: Autumn 2019
Clothing in the Accounts of the Lord High
Treasurer of Scotland
By Melanie Schuessler Bond
Tara Tierney Fashion Victims: Autumn 2017
The Dangers of Dress Past and Present
By Alison Matthews David
Frances Tobin Making Vintage 1920s Clothes for Women Summer 2019
By Suzanne Rowland
Emma Treleaven Military Style Invades Fashion Autumn 2017
By Timothy Godbold
Emma Treleaven House of Fashion: Summer 2019
Haute Couture and the Modern Interior
By Jess Berry
Valerie Wilson Trower Tailored for Freedom: Summer 2019
The Artistic Dress around 1900 in Fashion,
Art and Society
By Ina Ewers–Schultz
and Magdalena Holzhey

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The Journal of Dress History Volume 3, Issue 3, Autumn 2019

Janice West The Hidden History of American Fashion Winter 2018

By Nancy Diehl
Milly Westbrook How to Read Fashion: Autumn 2019
A Crash Course in Understanding Styles
By Fiona Ffoulkes
Sarah Woodyard 18th–Century Fashion in Detail Winter 2018
and Michael Ramsey By Susan North
Rainer Wenrich The Dress Detective: Spring 2017
A Practical Guide to Object–Based
Research in Fashion
By Ingrid Mida and Alexandra Kim
Elli Michaela Young The Birth of Cool: Autumn 2019
Style Narratives of the African Diaspora
By Carol Tulloch

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