The term "dress for success" was perhaps more pertinent to 18th and 19th century England than any other period in its history. Whether it was furnishing the home or dressing for public events, a family's material appearance attested, essentially, to its relative societal importance and the respect that it merited. As Hanna Greig notes in The Beau Monde, "fashion was, in essence, aligned to social position." But how can something as subjective as fashion be measured so concretely? Contemporary belief holds that taste can't be bought, so does this mean that there was a "right" way to do fashion among the Georgians and Victorians? As it turns out, yes. English high society had exacting rules on how one was to present themselves in the public and domestic spheres. In order to be considered part of certain socioeconomic tiers, one had to be able to express this position through material wealth with little room for individualism or daring. But what were these rules, and who created them? In studying the objects that fit Georgian and Victorian definitions of respactable fashion, it is clear that gender played a dominant role in these definitions' formation.
Credits
Griffin Williams