Clothing the Poor in Nineteenth-Century England

Richmond, Vivienne. 2013. Clothing the Poor in Nineteenth-Century England. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107042278 [Book]

[img]
Preview
Image
9781107042278.jpg - Cover Image

Download (21kB) | Preview

Abstract or Description

In this pioneering study Vivienne Richmond reveals the importance of dress to the nineteenth-century English poor, who valued clothing not only for its practical utility, but also as a central element in the creation and assertion of collective and individual identities. During this period of rapid industrialisation and urbanisation formal dress codes, corporate and institutional uniforms and the spread of urban fashions replaced the informal dress of agricultural England. This laid the foundations of modern popular dress and generated fears about the visual blurring of social boundaries as new modes of manufacturing and retailing expanded the wardrobes of the majority. But a significant impoverished minority remained outside this process. Clothed by diminishing parish assistance, expanding paternalistic charity and the second-hand trade, they formed a 'sartorial underclass' whose material deprivation and visual distinction was a cause of physical discomfort and psychological trauma.

Item Type:

Book

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

History
Research Office > REF2014

Date:

2013

Item ID:

9047

Date Deposited:

10 Oct 2013 09:37

Last Modified:

27 Jun 2017 10:31

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/9047

View statistics for this item...

Edit Record Edit Record (login required)