Clothing and Landscape in Victorian England : Working-Class Dress and Rural Life

"During the Victorian period, England changed from being a predominantly rural to an increasingly urban and suburban society. Clothing and Landscape in Victorian England explores visual and literary representations of clothing in the context of these rapid changes in Victorian life and landscape. Rachel Worth traces how 'traditional' styles of dress -- like men's smock-frocks or women's sun-bonnets -- came to be replaced by 'fashion'. She draws comparisons between different depictions of clothing by artists as diverse as Helen Allingham and George Clausen, as well as by photographers like Henry Peach Robinson and Peter Henry Emerson. She also examines literary accounts of rural life and rural dress, ranging from parliamentary commissions to autobiographies and the novels and poetry of Thomas Hardy. She situates these representations in relation to the particular pattern of survival and collection by museums of garments of rural provenance. Examining the clothing of the rural working classes and its representation in this way, this book illuminates wider social and cultural aspects of society, including rural poverty and changing male and female work patterns, depopulation of the countryside and associated urbanization. It also firmly establishes the importance of clothing as a reference point that enhances our understanding of the social history of the Victorian period"-- Provided by publisher Change and transition in Victorian England : the rural context. A southern landscape of Englishness The decline of agriculture The 'condition' of the agricultural labourer : wages, income, poverty and clothing Rural discontent and trade unionism Rural-urban migration Rural history and the history of working-class dress -- Women's work, education and the domesticity of dress : surveying and documenting the rural (I). The parliamentary commissions of enquiry of 1843 and 1867 The Daily News of 1891 'A woman's place is in the home' : the conflicting demands of field work, education and ideals of domesticity -- Clothing and its acquisition in a changing society : surveying and documenting the rural (II). Poverty and the scarcity of clothing Poor relief, charity and clothing clubs Finding a voice : working-class perceptions of respectability -- Painting nostalgia : dress and the vision of a vanishing rural world. The development of agricultural landscape painting England's green and pleasant land : dress in agricultural landscape paintings -- Photography and rural dress : 'work of art' or documentary realism? The photograph as a work of art and the representation of landscape Photography, rural dress and the picturesque -- Clothing and the 'counter-myth' in images of rural England. Peter Henry Emerson and 'truth to nature' The influence of realism and naturalism on the representation of the rural labourer Dress in the work of George Clausen -- Thomas Hardy : tradition, fashion and the approach of modernity. Clothing in fiction A discourse of change Rural dress, 'fashion' and the urban -- Rural working-class dress : survival, representation and change. Obstacles to survival Representations of rural working-class dress and museum collections Male working-class clothing Female working-class clothing. "In the context of this rapidly changing world, Rachel Worth explores the ways in which the clothing of the rural working classes was represented visually in paintings and photographs and by the literary sources of documentary, autobiography and fiction, as well as by the particular pattern of survival and collection by museums of garments of rural provenance. Rachel Worth explores ways in which clothing and how it is represented throws light on wider social and cultural aspects of society, as well as how 'traditional' styles of dress, like men's smock-frocks or women's sun-bonnets, came to be replaced by 'fashion'. Her compelling study, with black & white and colour illustrations, both adds a broader dimension to the history of dress by considering it within the social and cultural context of its time and discusses how clothing enriches our understanding of the social history of the Victorian period."-- At the beginning of the Victorian period, most of England's population lived in the countryside; by its end, the balance had tipped towards living in urban and suburban spaces.