07/09/2025
Can fashion spark a revolution?
This , discover how, in Dr. Claire Allen-Johnstone's fascinating study "Dress, Feminism, and New Woman Writing," fin-de-siècle authors used fashion in fiction to defy norms, assert freedom, and rewrite gender roles—one outfit at a time https://www.cambriapress.com/DressFeminismNewWomanWriting/
"We still have much to learn from the pioneering women writers who understood just what was at stake in sartorial politics. This illuminating and thought-provoking study will change the way you think about New Woman fiction." —Fiona Stafford, Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford
“Bringing new attention to New Woman authors and their works, Claire Allen-Johnstone highlights their contribution to more complete understandings of the forces of dress reform and creation of gender identities at the end of the nineteenth century. Detailed analysis of traces of the novelists’ own wardrobes and approaches to fashion bring their external appearances together with their interior, creative fictions, promoting wider awareness of the critical role of such sartorial biographies.” —Jenny Lister, Curator, Fashion and Textiles, 1800-1900, Victoria and Albert Museum