The Clothes that Wear Us: Essays on Dressing and Transgressing in Eighteenth-century Culture

The contributors to this volume offer a wide range of topics, perspectives, and approaches as they explore issues of gender and cultural cross-dressing. The meanings inherent in theatrical costuming; the ways in which novels, journals, and prints disseminated ideas about fashion, status, and gender; and present case studies of cultural practices relating to clothing are examined. The ways in which dress articulates transformations in the economic conditions, social relations, and ideological constructions of the culture of the eighteenth century are also traced. Illustrated.