The cut of his coat : men, dress, and consumer culture in Britain, 1860-1914 / Brent Shannon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shannon, Brent Alan, 1970-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Male consumers--Great Britain--History.

Male consumers.

Men's clothing--England--History.

Men's clothing.

Social classes--England--History.

Social classes.

Consumption (Economics).

History.

Masculinity.

England.

Masculinity--England--History.

Consumption (Economics)--England--History.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

xii, 252 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Athens : Ohio University Press, [2006]

Summary:

The visual markers of class membership and manly behavior underwent a radical change in late-nineteenth-century England as the variety of material goods available to the middle class dramatically increased. In The Cut of His Coat: Men, Dress, and Consumer Culture in Britain, 1860-1914, Brent Shannon examines etiquette manuals, period advertisements, and fashion monthlies, as well as novels by authors such as George Eliot, Anthony Trollope, Thomas Hughes, and H. G. Wells, to trace how new ideologies emerged when mass-produced clothes, sartorial markers, and consumer culture began to change.

Although Victorian literature traditionally portrayed women as having sole control of class representations through dress and manners, Shannon argues that middle-class men participated vigorously in fashion. The Cut of His Coat probes the Victorian disavowal of men's interest in fashion and shopping to recover men's significant role in the representation of class through self-presentation and consumer practices.

Contents:

1 "It cannot be supposed that men make no study of dress": The "Disappearance" of Men's Fashion and Consumption in Victorian Britain 21

2 Outfitting the Gent: The Emergence of the Male Consumer and the Commodification of the Male Body 52

3 "Really there is much more to be said about men's fashions than I had imagined": Fashion and the Birth of the Men's Lifestyle Periodical 191

4 From Dandy to Masher to Consumer: Competing Masculinities and Class Aspirations 128

5 Ready to Wear: Class Performance and the Triumph of Middle-Class Sartorial Taste 61.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-243) and index.

ISBN:

0821417029

0821417037

OCLC:

69680040

Publisher Number:

9780821417027

9780821417034