A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in the Age of Empire Denise Amy Baxter (The University of North Texas, USA) 9780857856845

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the production of dress shifted dramatically from being predominantly hand-crafted in small quantities to machine-manufactured in bulk. The increasing democratization of appearances made new fashions more widely available, but at the same time made the need to differentiate social rank seem more pressing. In this age of empire, the coding of class, gender and race was frequently negotiated through dress in complex ways, from fashionable dress which restricted or exaggerated the female body to liberating reform dress, from self-defining black dandies to the oppressions and resistances of slave dress. Richly illustrated with over 100 images and drawing on a plethora of visual, textual and object sources, A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in the Age of Empire presents essays on textiles, production and distribution, the body, belief, gender and sexuality, status, ethnicity, and visual and literary representations to illustrate the diversity and cultural significance of dress and fashion in the period.

The definitive overview of dress and fashion in the Age of Empire, this ground-breaking scholarly work presents over 100 years of dress and fashion in culture and examines diverse topics such as textiles, production and distribution, the body, gender and sexuality, status, ethnicity, and visual and literary representations.

About the Author
Denise Amy Baxter is Associate Professor of Art History and Women's Studies affiliate faculty member at the University of North Texas, USA.


Book Information
ISBN 9780857856845
Author Denise Amy Baxter
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Series The Cultural Histories Series
Weight(grams) 670g