The Three-Piece Suit and Modern Masculinity: England, 1550-1850 (Studies on the History of Society and Culture) (Volume 47)

39 b/w photographs 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. "How one defined consumption - especially the distinction between healthy consumption and unhealthy luxury - depended on one's status and views. Kuchta analyzes men's clothing consumption under three different political and cultural regimes: Tudor-Stuart court culture, eighteenth-century aristocratic society, and early Victorian middle-class culture. With the adoption of the three-piece suit, elite masculinity rejected the idea of sumptuous display as the privilege of nobility and regarded fashion instead as the concern of debauched upstarts. Anyone who did not subscribe to this ideology of renunciation could be presumed guilty of "luxury" and "effeminacy." There have, of course, been numerous exceptions, not to mention visible resistance, to the general trend toward simplicity, but the modest three-piece suit has remained the emblem of English manliness.". "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. The three-piece suit, a fashion statement so successful that it ceased to be noticed, is now back in the spotlight."--BOOK JACKET.

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.

Illustrations......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 1 Conspicuous Constructions......Page 12 2 The Old Sartorial Regime, 1550–1688......Page 28 3 The Seventeenth-Century Fashion Crisis......Page 62 4 The Three-Piece Suit......Page 88 5 Masculinity in the “Age of Chivalry,” 1688–1832......Page 102 6 The Making of the Self-Made Man, 1750–1850......Page 144 7 Inconspicuous Consumption......Page 184 Notes......Page 190 Bibliography......Page 264 Index......Page 306 As history records it, October 7, 1666 marks the beginning of the three-piece suit, for it was on this day, according to Samuel Pepys's Diary, that England's King Charles II declared his resolution of setting a fashion for clothes, which he will never alter. In 1666 King Charles II introduced a fashion that developed into the three-piece suit. This text examines the inspiration behind this royal revolution in masculine attire