British Quaker Women's Fashionable Adaptation of their Plain Dress, 1860–1914

Hannah Rumball 2018. British Quaker Women's Fashionable Adaptation of their Plain Dress, 1860–1914. Costume. 52 (2), pp. 240-260. https://doi.org/10.3366/cost.2018.0070

TitleBritish Quaker Women's Fashionable Adaptation of their Plain Dress, 1860–1914
TypeJournal article
AuthorsHannah Rumball
Abstract

Throughout the period 1860–1914, British Quaker women sought to negotiate the incorporation of fashionable attire into their wardrobes to varying degrees, after the religion's hierarchy made prescriptive religious ‘Plain’ dress optional in 1860. After centuries of restrictive Advices, which used Scripture alongside peer pressure to encourage female Friends to dress ascetically, Quaker women began to interpret their new sartorial freedoms in diverse ways. Through the presentation of three female case studies from across the period, this article will suggest three newly identified distinct stances that Quaker women enacted in responding to the new Advice and adapting to fashionable ensembles, up until the devastating events of the First World War. These three stances were non-adaptive, semi-adaptive and fully adaptive. Based on empirical research conducted in dress collections across Britain, this article will describe and present the garments worn by these women, to illustrate and introduce these distinct sartorial stances.

JournalCostume
Journal citation52 (2), pp. 240-260
ISSN0590-8876
1749-6306
Year2018
PublisherEdinburgh University Press
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.3366/cost.2018.0070
Web address (URL)https://doi.org/10.3366/cost.2018.0070
Publication dates
PublishedSep 2018

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