‘I Have Been a Collector of Costumes’: Women, Dress Histories and the Temporalities of Eighteenth‐Century Fashion

Abstract

By the early nineteenth century, the ‘costume book’ genre was well established as a catalogue of national habits. These chronologically, socially and geographically devised sartorial indexes to the world strove to use dress as a means of categorising and delineating humankind. Such publications espouse a sense of neat chronological evolution, situated within a framework of masculine progress. While the majority of published costume books from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were authored by men, this article explores the myriad ways in which women too constructed, subverted and engaged in sartorial histories. Published dress histories attempted to use dress as a means of constructing a coherent chronological narrative of a national heritage. Yet amateur women, such as Catherine Hutton, Mary White and Laetitia Powell, used pens, scissors, paste and needles to reach back through that time‐tunnel, borrowing from and taking possession of the sartorial past.

Exploring the Integration and Value of Chinese Traditional Elements and Modern Clothing Design under Big Data Technology

“…With the development of the times, more and more designers have begun to pay attention to and use the elements of traditional Chinese costumes and integrate them into modern costume design, creating a series of unique works [5][6]. This cultural heritage and innovation can not only satisfy modern people's pursuit of beauty but also help to promote the dissemination and development of Chinese traditional culture [7].…”