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Article: The Three-Piece Suit and Modern Masculinity: England, 1550-1850.(Reviews)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Journal of Social History
- Article date:
- March 22, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Journal of Social History. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Three-Piece Suit and Modern Masculinity: England, 1550-1850. By David Kuchta (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. x plus 303pp. $45).
Although this work is not about fashion per se, it does have a lot to say about how clothes make the man. The notion here is that men's attire between 1550-1850 played a crucial role in defining masculinity. The author merely uses the three-piece suit, Charles II's innovation, as a vehicle, even metaphor, for saying what he wants to say about this evolving ideology and the authority that it engendered.
Kuchta divides his Three Piece Suit into three chronological parts. The first, which he calls "The Old ...