1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910780376203321

Autore

Kuchta David <1960->

Titolo

The three-piece suit and modern masculinity : England, 1550-1850 / / David Kuchta

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2002

ISBN

1-282-75872-1

9786612758720

0-520-92139-9

1-59734-954-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (314 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Studies on the history of society and culture ; ; 47

Classificazione

HD 305

Disciplina

391/.1/0942

Soggetti

Men's clothing - England - History

Masculinity - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-293) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Conspicuous constructions -- The old sartorial regime, 1550-1688 -- "Apparel oft proclaims the man" -- The crown proclaims the apparel -- Court capitalism -- Religious conformity to fashion -- The seventeenth-century fashion crisis -- "The mode is a tyrant" -- "A tailor made thee" -- "Popery and foppery" -- The moral economy of mercantilism -- The three-piece suit -- Masculinity in the "Age of Chivalry," 1688-1832 -- "the manners of a republic" -- Gentlemanly capitalism -- Sublime masculinity -- The feminization of fashion -- The making of the self-made man, 1750-1850 -- "Character is power" -- The language of capital -- "The great masculine renunciation."

Sommario/riassunto

In 1666, King Charles II felt it necessary to reform Englishmen's dress by introducing a fashion that developed into the three-piece suit. We learn what inspired this royal revolution in masculine attire--and the reasons for its remarkable longevity--in David Kuchta's engaging and handsomely illustrated account. Between 1550 and 1850, Kuchta says, English upper- and middle-class men understood their authority to be based in part upon the display of masculine character: how they presented themselves in public and demonstrated their masculinity helped define their political legitimacy, moral authority, and economic



utility. Much has been written about the ways political culture, religion, and economic theory helped shape ideals and practices of masculinity. Kuchta allows us to see the process working in reverse, in that masculine manners and habits of consumption in a patriarchal society contributed actively to people's understanding of what held England together.Kuchta shows not only how the ideology of modern English masculinity was a self-consciously political and public creation but also how such explicitly political decisions and values became internalized, personalized, and naturalized into everyday manners and habits.