Fashion and Women's Attitudes in the Nineteenth Century

In a light, amusing, and highly readable style, an early 20th-century authority on fashion describes what "proper" Englishwomen wore in the 19th century, and explains why they clothed themselves as they did. Enlivened with extracts from novels, correspondence from columns in ladies' magazines, and fashion descriptions, the volume traces changes in feminine dress and ideas decade by decade thorough the 1800s. A carefully researched work on a fascinating subject, this book will appeal to a wide audience: feminists, sociologists, fashion historians, and costume designers among them. 8 black-and-white illustrations. Collection of period advertisements.