5/21/2023 0 Comments The Art of Dress by Aileen Ribeiro![]() These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. … Foreign visitors to England often confessed themselves puzzled by the conflicting signals sent out by clothing.” 1 Contemporary accounts confirm this view: As the author of The Ladies Library comments, “What Difference is there now between the Dress of a Citizen and a Courtier, of a Taylor and a Gentleman, or a Servant and a Master? The Maid is very often mistaken for the Mistress, and the Valet for my lord.” 2 Keywords Aileen Ribeiro notes, “It is a cliché, but none the less true for all that, that in England there were fewer glaring gulfs between the classes a greater sartorial freedom produced-depending on the viewpoint-a kind of social anarchy, or a refreshing individualism. ![]() ![]() However, the social landscape of England-London, in particular-was unstable, with wealthy members of the middle station mingling with the nobility, aspiring and quick-witted young clerks becoming wealthy and respected city merchants, and naïve young country boys and girls rapidly acquiring city mannerisms and mores. In eighteenth-century England, the color of skin (for instance, ruddy or pale), physique, gait, and manner and style of dress were thought to proclaim one’s social status and occupation: a ruddy-faced, sturdy-legged milkmaid from Devonshire walked, talked, and looked differently from a pale, delicate, society miss from London, or so it was believed. ![]()
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