The Victorian Fancy Dress Ball, 1870–1900
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: While most scholars agree that the Victorian fancy dress ball differs fundamentally from its eighteenth-century predecessor—the masquerade—few studies detail the nature of those differences. This article suggests that central to this shift was the Victorian embrace of self-revelation in fancy dress, as opposed to disguise or antithesis. Late Victorian fancy dress allowed participants to negotiate rather than to escape their self-presentation and their milieu: revealing aspects of their character (including, for men, the novelty of sartorial pleasure) by choosing costumes from a prescribed set of identifiable roles and tropes, and by choosing costumes that directly engaged with issues of their day. Considering mass-market guidebooks and a range of contemporary popular works, this article explores the representational strategies of late nineteenth-century fancy dress, including abstract and overtly gendered costumes.
Source: Fashion Theory
Author: Rebecca N. Mitchell
Institution: University of Birmingham
Language: English
Subfield: Museology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2472496166