Introduction : that strange, ridic'lous vice -- The many faces of fashion in the early eighteenth century -- Fops and coquettes : gender, sexuality, and status -- Country modes : cultural politics and political resistance -- New duties and old desires on the eve of revolution -- A contest of modes in revolutionary Philadelphia -- Fashion and nation -- Epilogue : political habits and citizenship's corset : the 1790s and beyond
Summary
In the see-and-be-seen port cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, fashion, a form of power and distinction, was conceptually feminized yet pursued by both men and women across class ranks. Haulman shows that elite men and women in these cities relied on fashion to present their status but also attempted to undercut its ability to do so for others. Disdain for others' fashionability was a means of safeguarding social position in cities where the modes of dress were particularly fluid and a way to maintain gender hierarchy in a world in which women's power as consumers was ex
