Fashion as Argument: Nineteenth-Century Dress Reform

Abstract

This paper examines the place of the body in the dress reform movement, a social movement that focused on fashion as the vehicle for achieving social and political equality. The nineteenth century saw tremendous social turmoil. The need for surety was great. Women's fashions became one arena where definitions of gender were contested. That dress reform did not succeed in redefining femininity indicates the depth of ideological significance attached to clothing and the body.