AFFILIATION WITH THE PAST: NARRATING IDENTITY THROUGH

NEO-EDWARDIAN STYLE IN DIGITAL ERA

Daria Romanova

Department of Media Studies Centre for Fashion Studies Stockholm University MA Thesis 30 hp MA Fashion Studies Spring Semester 2020 Supervisor: Marie Helena Tengroth Ulväng ABSTRACT

The focus of this study is on the contemporary phenomenon of the adaptation the motifs of the European turn-of-the-century fashion – Edwardian fashion (1901-1910) – to daily or a near- daily sartorial practice, defined by the author as neo-Edwardian style. On the premises of ethnographic study, this thesis explores how people transform and embody their identities through garments by living images and motifs of ‘past’ to negotiate the meanings of their clothing, appearances and personalities in the present. There is a scarcity in academic studies on the subject of styles inspired by historical fashion and in particular the neo-Edwardian style as a form of identity formation and representation. By applying a multi-methodological approach, including both historiographic and ethnographic research, the thesis strives to define the role of the neo-Edwardian style as an embodied sartorial practice and motives for its adaptation in the 21st century. The findings show that the neo-Edwardian style serves as an alternative style choice, reflecting an individual taste and should be understood as a visible marker of identity narrative and connected to the sense of ‘true self’ expressed in the personal style.

Keywords: neo-Edwardian, sartorial style, identity, authenticity, nostalgia, historically- inspired fashion, period attire.

1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my supervisor Marie Helena Tengroth Ulväng for guiding me through theoretical muddles and helping to find my scientific path. I would also like to thank professors of the Centre for Fashion Studies, who taught us along the course of the past two years. To my family, who has always unconditionally believed in me and let me pursue my dream. There are no words to express how much I love you and how grateful I am for your support. Without you, I would never be who I am. To Mattias and Johanna – my other family away from home, whose hospitality, kindness and care saved me when my health let me down. I wholeheartedly thank all the participants of the study – Olga, Tom, Mila and Hattie – for your time, openness, trust and the invaluable contribution that shaped this thesis. You are my great inspiration, and I am so lucky and proud to be acquainted with such talented and elegant people. Lastly, I would like to thank those who helped me to sharpen this work. To Daniel and Tom, who selflessly sacrificed hours of their lives for close proof-reading of this thesis. And to my classmates for giving constructive feedbacks and sharing these two-years adventure with me.

2 TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION 4 AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 7 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 7  POSSESSIONS AS COMMUNICATOR OF IDENTITY 8  STYLE PRODUCTION AND THE ACT OF BECOMING 10 METHODOLOGY 12  NETNOGRAPHY AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA 14  INTERVIEWS AND QUESTIONNAIRE 16  PRESENTATION OF PARTICIPANTS 17 PREVIOUS RESEARCH 21 THESIS OUTLINE 28 BACKGROUND: EVOLUTION OF EDWARDIAN STYLE 29

ANALYSIS: 42 DEFINING NEO-EDWARDIAN STYLE 42 UNDERSTANDING NEO-EDWARDIAN STYLE 49  HYPOTHESIS I: BEYOND NOTIONS OF HISTORICAL COSTUMING 50  HYPOTHESIS II: NOSTALGIA AND IDEOLOGIES 56

DISCUSSION: 61 BECOMING ‘EDWARDIAN’ 61 EXPERIENCING AUTHENTIC SELF THROUGH DRESS 64

CONCLUSION 69 BIBLIOGRAPHY 73 APENDIX I: QUESTIONNAIRE 79 APENDIX II: GLOSSARY 80

3 INTRODUCTION

A slim, delicate figure of a young woman is energetically advancing through London’s streets. The hem of her long skirt rhythmically sways with every step, an elegant hairdo is finished with a tiny hat, bearing a resemblance to of the Mary Poppins iconic headpiece. Indeed, the woman looks like a heroine, who has stepped from the pages of an old book. However, her surrounding seems to be oddly inconsistent with the lady’s elegant outfit. Instead of rattling horse carriages and cobblestones that would have suited the London setting from the turn of the century, our heroine is surrounded by neon lights, Netflix advertising and bustling life of the English capital in the late 2010s; despite the seemingly old-fashion outfit of this ‘time-traveller’, in the pocket of her impeccably tailored coat, you would find a smartphone together with bank cards and other necessities of the modern time.

With the ubiquity of Internet resources and social media, an interest of the society in its past and cultural heritage resulted in a rise of a trend of incorporating elements of bygone styles and aesthetics into modern social, cultural and fashion discourses. Indeed, nowadays, the historical fashion motifs go far beyond museum collections. This year’s annual Met Gala’s theme was meant to be fashion and duration, and the red carpet had been originally conceived as a showcase of celebrities dressed in historically-inspired garments, exemplifying the eternal recurrence of fashion.1 Scholars such as Angela McRobbie and Alexandra Palmer note that the consumption of the bygone styles gains an increasing volume nowadays due to an overall shift of the general public’s interest in the aesthetic of bygone eras – ‘regularly featured within the pages of leading fashion and lifestyle magazines and is promoted as a sign of individuality and connoisseurship’.2 Due to the popularity of the trend, the word ‘vintage’ has been widely adopted as an obscure umbrella term that includes a multitude of

1 Unfortunately, the annual gala of The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. See Eanna Morrison Barrs, ‘The First Monday in May’, Fashion Unravelled (blog), May, 4, 2020, https://www.eannamorrisonbarrs.com/fashion-unravelled-blog/the- first-monday-in-may. 2 Angela McRobbie, Postmodernism and Popular Culture (England: Psychology Press, 1994); Alexandra Palmer, ‘Vintage Whores and Vintage Virgins, Second Hand Fashion in the Twenty-first Century’, in Old Clothes New Looks, Second Hand Fashion, eds. Alexandra Palmer and Hazel Clark (Oxford: Berg, 2005), 197.

4 contemporary anti-fashion styles based on reminiscences of bygone eras.3 However, in its original meaning, ‘vintage’ refers to garments and accessories which are more than twenty and yet not older than 100 years old.4 Therefore, only styles resembling historical periods between the 1920s and 1990s can be strictly defined as vintage. But what if one’s style is inspired by historical period stretching more than a century back in time? The subject of this study is a phenomenon of adopting fashion silhouette from the turn of the 20th century as a form of sartorial practice on a daily or nearly daily basis.5 In dress history, the style of the fin de siècle has different regional names.6 However, in the present research, I use its British name – ‘Edwardian’ – due to the spread of this term within the Anglophone world and therefore, in the international community. This name is an homage to King Edward the VII, whose relatively short reign (from 1901 to 1910) marked the heyday of the style.7 Despite the quite defined historical frames the style is attributed to, I argue that the modern perception of it stretches further back and forward in time due to the aesthetic cohesiveness of the style and includes fashion changes from the late Victorian era to the end of World War I, the span approximately between the 1890s and the late 1910s. In order to distinguish the modern interpretation from the original historical style, I propose to use a prefix ‘neo-’ that signifies that the style has affiliations with its historical origin, and yet situated in the contemporary fashion context, exhibits flexibility in combination of elements (sometimes from the different eras and epochs) and features the eponymous fashion to various degrees, that in its totality engender a contemporary sartorial practice. In this thesis, I aim to describe, analyse and define the neo-Edwardian style as a newly emerged alternative (non-mainstream) sartorial practice and comprehend motivations for adopting Edwardian aesthetic as a form of personal style. I base my understanding of the

3 Anti-fashion may be defined as an umbrella term for various styles and dress practices which are explicitly contrary to the mainstream fashion of the day. See Samantha Holland, Alternative Femininities: Body, Age and Identity (Oxford: Berg., 2004); Olivia Bullock, ‘Future Nostalgia’, The Chap 100, summer 2019, 88. 4 Julie McColl et al., ‘It’s Vintage Darling! An exploration of vintage fashion retailing’, The Journal of the Textile Institute 104, no. 2 (2013): 148. 5 Using the term ‘sartorial practice’, I refer to all matters of sartorial relevance – apparel pieces, jewellery, make- up, hairdo, bags, shoes, paraphernalia, et cetera – that constitute a personal style. 6 The term Fin de siècle in French literally means ‘end of the century’, a term which typically encompasses both the meaning of the similar English idiom turn of the century and also makes reference to the closing of one era and onset of another. See Talia Schaffer, Literature and Culture at the Fin de Siècle, (New York: Longman, 2007), 3. In different countries, it has a different name: Art Nouveau and La Belle Époque in France, Jugendstil in Germany and its variation – Jugend in Scandinavian countries, Stile Liberty in Italy, Modernismo in Spain, Modern [Модерн] (not to be confused with Modernism and Modern architecture) in Russia, Edwardian style in the UK. From Klaus-Jurgen Sembach, Art Nouveau: Utopia: Reconciling the Irreconcilable, trans. Charity Scott-Stokes (Köln: Taschen, 2016). 7 King Edward the VII passed away in 1910; however, in many sources, the Edwardian era often includes the following years leading up to World War I. Some historians even argue that the final break from Edwardian to Modern Britain has happened with the shift in parliamentary power from the Liberals to the Labour party in 1924. See Evangeline Holland, Edwardian England: A Guide to Everyday Life, 1900-1914 (England: Plum Bun Publishing, 2014) and Samuel Hynes, The Edwardian Turn of Mind (London: Random House, 2011).

5 sartorial on Elizabeth Wilson’s discussion on the social relevance of clothes and yet broaden her perspective by including the more ephemeral aspect of self-perception. Therefore, this study incorporates the whole spectrum of issues related to identity, appearance, style production and self-representation. I use the words style and sartorial/dress practice interchangeably, acknowledging that the definitions of these terms are to some extent different and the reader might be confused by such a switching. However, the decision to rotate these words is motivated by my desire to avoid repetitive overuse of the word ‘style’. In this empirical context, style is understood as a range of actions related to corporal adornment such as dressing, adding accessories, and modifying the body through make-up, hairstyle, et cetera. Therefore, style perceived as a multitude of elements: the dress, the dressed body and the way the clothing is worn to articulate a particular identity and constitute the production of a certain impression – ‘look’. When a totality of these looks forms a pattern, one can speak of emerging of a personal style. Hence, being constituted by sartorial practices, ‘style’ acts as an overarching and inclusive term, in which practices are incorporated. As it will be shown in the further analysis, the neo-Edwardian style incorporates a multitude of sources for the style production, primary of which is a revival of the eponymous historical style motifs. Being inextricably connected with the original fashion of the early 20th century, the modern phenomenon falls within the definition of ‘historically-inspired’ styles, which I use to refer to the garments or entire outfits (that can also be described as a ‘period attire’) that resembles the look of a particular historical fashion era and may consist (in different variations) of original historical and modern reproduction pieces, often based on historical patterns, materials and embellishments typical for the historical era.8 My initial attention to the topic was spawned by not only general interest but also personal attachment – being an admirer of the early 20th century aesthetic, I found ways to express myself by integrating Edwardian and World War I era fashion elements into my apparel style. Being personally acquainted with a handful of people who also practise inclusion of Edwardian style motifs in their wardrobes, I was bewildered to find that this subject has never been properly addressed neither in scholarly literature nor in media or press. It remains unclear why the revival of Edwardian style as contemporary dress practice has been neglected by scholars. Without wishing to go too far into the reasoning, I highlight the fact that there is a general scarcity of academic studies on the subject. The research findings will attempt to fill this gap by undertaking a study that incorporates both

8 Reproduction clothing are contemporary produced apparel pieces, which are based on historical patterns and entirely or partially styled after garments from a particular historical period.

6 historiographic (the evolution of Edwardian style) as well as ethnographic analysis (based on a number of interviews with the style practitioners). In effect, this project aims to introduce and define the concept of the neo-Edwardian style within the Academic discourse.

AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The main aim of this thesis is to ascertain and analyse the factors that contribute to the choice of the neo-Edwardian style as a sartorial practice regarding the notions of self- perception. To investigate this issue, I propose to consider the significant elements of the neo- Edwardian style production as well as what acts as a key characteristic of becoming a style practitioner. The analysis is followed by a discussion of the motives and processes behind adopting the neo-Edwardian style as a contemporary sartorial practice. In view of the above and based on the empirical data, I propose several research questions:

 What are the key characteristics of the neo-Edwardian style production?

 What motivates some people to incorporate aesthetic motifs of the Edwardian fashion into their sartorial style?

 What impact on identity does the act of practising this style have?

The exploration of these questions includes two hypotheses that are to be tested in order to define the nature of the style. I propose to assess the neo-Edwardian style from two different standpoints, in which the first one assumes that the people who adopt Edwardian aesthetic in their modern wardrobes are, essentially, full-time re-enactors and their clothes are a form of dressing-up, and the other one – that these people are driven to Edwardian aesthetic because of a sense of nostalgia for ‘better times’ which serves as an ideological background for an emerge of a new subcultural style.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

This section is developed as a move from defining the process of self-identity formation toward the production of style. I seek to explore the theoretical foundations of two key elements of this thesis: the relationship between identity and possessions and how the latter affect the construction of the former through the act of practising the style.

7 POSSESSIONS AS COMMUNICATOR OF IDENTITY Analysing cases of the neo-Edwardian style, I noticed that for each of the participants, this style means something different, something personal and related to the garments and ‘looks’ they wear. It is argued that in postmodernity, people build, maintain and communicate their identities partly by using the symbolic meaning associated with their possessions.9 Applying this view on the ethnographic study, I propose to read the sartorial practice of the neo-Edwardian style as a form of identity construction in a post-structural paradigm. For that, I turn to the theoretical perspective, laid out by Russel Belk, who argues in his seminal work ‘Possessions and the Extended Self’ (1988), that the things we possess become essential components of our sense of self, and therefore we understand our identities through the possessed objects – ‘knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally, we regard our possessions as parts of ourselves’.10 Therefore, it may be argued that in the process of wearing garments, the objects adopt particular roles in the consumer’s identity project – the functions of possessions in the extended self can be defined as the creation, enhancement, and preservation of the sense of identity, i.e. possessions facilitate the sense of who we are. William James states in his book The Principles of Psychology (1890), that ‘self is the sum total of all that he[/she] can call his[/her]’.11 In simple words, we are our possessions, both material and immaterial (such as social status). Therefore, I argue that the formation of style does not depend on a particular garment or a detail, but rather – a number of variables that constitute the creation of an overall impression (look) and become contextualised in the act of ‘being’ a style practitioner. The choice of Belk’s theory is also critical as this scholar conducted a number of studies, related to the phenomenon of people dressing up in costumes or re-enactment clothing, in which he examined the relationship of individuals with the past through consumption of certain goods.12 As Belk questions the reasons for acquiring and collecting antiquities, he argues that the answer partly lies in the ‘desire to identify with an era, place, or person to which we believe a desirable set of traits or values adheres’.13 This view is questionable in relation to my ethnographic material and thus will be tested in the form of hypotheses in the following analysis. According to the Belk’s theory, the self-narrative is carried out through continuous integration of particular possessions into the ongoing story about the self. The idea that ‘every

9 Avi Shankar, Richard Elliott, and James A. Fitchett, ‘Identity, Consumption and Narratives of Socialization’, Marketing Theory 9, no. 1 (2009): 76. 10 Russell W. Belk, ‘Possessions and the Extended Self’, Journal of Consumer Research 15, no. 2 (1988): 139. 11William James, ‘The Consciousness of Self’, in The Principles of Psychology (1890). https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin10.htm. 12 Russell W. Belk, ‘Halloween: An evolving American consumption ritual’, Advances in consumer research, 17 (1990): 508-517; Russell W. Belk and Janeen A. Costa, ‘The mountain man myth: A contemporary consuming fantasy’, Journal of Consumer Research 25, no. 3 (1998): 218-240. 13 Ibid., 149.

8 property is an extension of personality’ is supported by Georg Simmel, who writes that:

[…] in an aesthetic form, adornment creates a highly specific synthesis of the great convergent and divergent forces of the individual and society, namely, the elevation of the ego through existing for others, and the elevation of existing for others through the emphasis and extension of the ego.14

It may be assumed that the attempt to find a ‘special’ piece or an unconventional style is facilitated by the desire to highlight the individuality. ‘The practice of dressing in a certain style is influenced by contextually specific understandings of what this style might signify in a certain place and point in time’ and therefore, can be determined by a number of factors (however, in the scope of the present study, the most important is the aesthetic one).15 I propose to view individual narrative through consumption of particular objects, which in the application to the style means a representation of oneself through adornment. Hence, I use ethnographic interviews as a mean of revealing how people construct their identities around the neo-Edwardian style. Lastly, in order to read the meaning of the neo-Edwardian style as a form of identity marker, I refer to the theory of symbolic interactionism and in particular – an adaptation of the concept to the study of appearance and dress in the works of Gregory P. Stone, according to which appearance and dress, includes act as a medium of communication and therefore play a vital role in establishing a sense of self.16 That allies with Charlotte Nicklas and Annebella Pollen’s view of dress as ‘a fundamental means, indeed sometimes one of the only available ways, by which groups and individuals express and negotiate their identities’.17 In this process, style can be seen as an individual, lived experience, told by means of adornment. As the sociologist Joanne Entwistle argues, dressing is always a situated practice, where dress appears to be an epitome of bodily practices and which defines the actions as well as the interpretations of the body in culture.18 In other words, according to Entwistle, the very meaning of the act of dressing is in the fact that the latter makes the body suitable for a particular social situation: ‘Human bodies are dressed bodies. The social world is a world of dressed

14 David Frisby and Mike Featherstone, eds., Simmel on Culture: Selected Writings (London: Sage Publ., 1997), 204-210. 15 Philip Warkander, ‘“This is all fake, this is all plastic, this is me” A study of the interrelations between style, sexuality and gender in contemporary Stockholm’, (PhD diss., Stockholm University, 2013), 17. 16 Gregory P. Stone, ‘Appearance and the self’, in Human behavior and the social processes: An interactionist approach, ed. Arnold Marshall Rose (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1962), 86-118. 17 Charlotte Nicklas and Annebella Pollen, Dress History: New Directions in Theory and Practice (London; New Delhi; New York; Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016), 1. 18 Joanne Entwistle, The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015), 6.

9 bodies’.19 That may be explained in works of Wilson, who states the act of wearing clothes is involved in the process that continually situates people socially.20 Various aspects of social life, including fashion, convey the meaning of who we are (or want to seem) and thereby assists or impede communication with others. In the scope of the present study, the symbolic interactionism serves as a framework for studying the symbolic value and personal meaning of the neo-Edwardian style pieces based on their original historical associations. I seek to comprehend the role of the style in the process of constructing and expressing identities through garments by living images and motifs of ‘the past’ to negotiate the meanings of the clothing, appearances and identities in the present.

STYLE PRODUCTION AND THE ACT OF BECOMING As it has been discussed in the previous section, the formation of identity may be viewed as a repetitive act of interaction with possessions which I link to the understanding of identity proposed by Antony Giddens in his book Modernity and Self-Identity (1991). Giddens states that ‘in the post-traditional order of modernity, and against the backdrop of new forms of mediated experience, self-identity becomes a reflexively organised endeavour’.21 In other words, self- identity is no longer seen as something that is predisposed, but rather as something that ‘has to be routinely created and sustained in the reflexive activities of the individual’.22 According to Giddens’ theory of performativity, identity is created through both social interactions with other people and the multitude of choices which a person encounters daily. Hence, a personal style may be seen as a dynamic choice within possible options which requires constant adjustment and re- evaluation to reflect both the needs of individual and the enquiries of society, as certain routine customs incorporated into life habits and yet reflexively forgeable. In their totality, all daily decisions regarding dressing define how the world perceives an individual. Therefore, people reflexively form self-identity that acts as a frame for a consistent self-narrative. Applying this view on my material, what becomes evident here is that the study’s participants are engaged in a continuous project of self-reflection, self-presentation, and self- performance situated within rapidly changing circumstances of social life which values self- realisation and the freedom of choice in the multitude of milieux.23 Seeking to explain the mechanism behind the emerge of the neo-Edwardian style as a social phenomenon, I draw a

19 Joanne Entwistle, The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000), 6. 20 Elizabeth Wilson, Adorned in Dreams: Fashion, Dress and Modernity (London: I B Tauris, 2003), 3. 21 Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991), 5. 22 Ibid., 52. 23 Ibid., 215.

10 parallel with Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, outlined in the book Gender Trouble (1990).24 Butler connects performativity directly to clothes, stating that the body is not gender per se, but rather becoming gendered within the act of social performance. By applying Butler’s theory and adapting it to the study of fashion Caroline Evans states that she would not be a skinhead before she gets the clothes and haircut; rather, she constitute herself as a skinhead through the act of dressing and acting as one.25 What becomes evident here is that the creation of a style happens in the point of intersection between actions, bodies and sartorial matters. Applying this view to my material, I argue that the practitioners of the neo-Edwardian style are not ‘Edwardians’ per se, but rather become associated with the certain historical era through clothing and forging a particular aesthetic. In this process of performing the neo-Edwardian style, the body ensures that an individual is contextually situated in time, space and social environment. Thus, it is possible to talk about embodied experiences of reflexively created and performed identity. A remark needs to be made here, that I do not draw a parallel between terms ‘performing’ and ‘theatricality’ despite their linguistic proximity. In the current study, the term ‘performing’ a style refers to the regularly repeated acts of choosing, dressing in and wearing adornments that in their totality create an impression resembled with the Edwardian style and situating them in the contemporary social context. The repetitive and reiterative nature of the performativity is linked to the notion of ‘becoming’, that has been originally introduced by a French philosopher Gilles Deleuze.26 The core of this theoretical frame is opposed to the static notion of ‘being’ and may be closely linked to Giddens’ argument on the conditions of the late-modernity where identity is not ‘fixed’, but rather fluid and routinely created as a ‘coherent, yet continuously revised biographical narrative’.27 Deleuze argues that each repetition can lead to a change and to a difference of what one was before, hence identity becomes a continuous process of transformation into ‘becoming-other’. Therefore, individuals create and reinforce coherent narratives of their identities through everyday decisions and behaviour. Applying this view on the study of the neo-Edwardian style, I argue that the state of being the style practitioner is a state of perpetual becoming one. While Butler’s theory of performativity is focused on the social constructiveness of identity, Deleuze views the repeated acts or performativity as a possible starting point for change in order to become something or someone else. Thus, combining and applying the

24 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (New York: Routledge, 1990). 25 Caroline Evans, ‘Dreams That Only Money Can Buy… Or, The Shy Tribe in Flight from Discourse’, Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture 1, no. 2 (1997): 181–182. 26 Gilles Deleuze, Difference and repetition (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014). 27 Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991), 5.

11 theories developed by Butler and Deleuze, I argue that the neo-Edwardian style is performative and therefore, the state of being neo-Edwardian is a matter of perpetually becoming one through a complex set of acts and interactions with the rest of the world (both material and social). Some of these actions are corporeal, i.e. related to the material world and can be instantiated by garments, paraphernalia or bodily adjustments such as hairdo or make- up; however, some of them are not articulated or pronounced in the material world and can be existing in forms of movements, glances, looks and overall impression. This consistent process of carefully assembling the ‘right’ look using clothes and accessories and therefore, contribute to the aesthetic coherence of the personal style. In Simmel’s words, the ‘aesthetic phenomenon of adornment indicates [...] the arena of man’s being-for-himself and being-for-the-other where these two opposite directions are mutually dependent as ends and means’.28 I argue that the act of dressing in the neo-Edwardian style is a powerful manifestation of internal aspects of individuality, and yet it is a social act. By means of dressing, an individual expresses the external self – the one, which self-actualises through the pleasure of being observed and gives pleasure to observe. It is, indeed, a peculiar sociological combination, where an emphasis on individuality is possible through the inclusion of others into the visual observation. This process can be seen as a simultaneous double reflection – ‘one adorns oneself for oneself, but can do so only by adornment for others’.29

METHODOLOGY

As it was highlighted earlier, there is a certain gap in scholarship concerning the adaptation of historical styles in the modern context. Precisely this lack sparked my interest to conduct research, due to the realisation that there is important information missing on the topic of historical style revival and contemporary dress practices. In the article ‘Putting things into words: ethnographic description and the silence of the social’ (2006), Stefan Hirschauer notes that an ethnographer is often confronted by the ‘silence of the social’, putting into words what was previously unspoken.30 According to Christine Hine, the ‘ethnographer’s immersion

28 David Patrick Frisby and Mike Featherstone, eds. Simmel on Culture: Selected Writings (London: Sage Publ., 1997), 207. 29 Ibid. 30 Stefan Hirschauer, ‘Puttings things into words: ethnographic description and the silence of the social’, Human Studies 29, no. 4 (2006): 414.

12 in the setting is key in developing an understanding of the strangeness of the everyday’.31 In this process, the researcher’s reflexive insights become a vital account of what is distinctive and noteworthy about the subject and setting. My style (being to some degree influenced by Edwardian and World War I fashion aesthetics) played a particular significance for the development of this study as I was not only an ‘outsider’, observing the practices of the neo- Edwardian style, but was involved in reflecting on how clothes endue my body and social identity with the sense of affiliations of the aesthetic in the focus of this project. This process made me both a researcher and a participant at the same time, and being an ‘insider’ from the beginning allowed me to establish a trusting environment during the interview sessions seamlessly.32 As I share a certain degree of affinity with the subject, the participants were able to see me as ‘like-minded’. Conducting the interviews, I noted that participants often refer to certain aspects of the neo-Edwardian style wearing matter-of-factly, implying that I possess insider’s knowledge about relationships between the bygone style practising and attitude of ordinary (mainstream dressed) people. My ability to bring insider knowledge to the interview process assisted with initial access to the communication with potential interviewees as well as facilitated the data analysis later. Taking this aspect into consideration, my study is designed as a discrete cultural reading with a constant switch between a descriptiveness of an insider’s point of view and objective analysis from academic standpoints. It is equally important for me as a researcher to be aware of the impact my clothes and style had on establishing connections with participants as well as the possibility for bias that may occur on the intersection between academic knowledge production and personal interests. Along the course of the research, I was conscious of potential bias opinion and a lack of objectivity due to my involvement, as well as an emotional attachment to the topic. Fortunately, the ethnographic field offers a scientifically reliable way of research perceiving the existing affinities between the ethnographer and the subject of study as one of the most effective and interesting ways to motivate a research design. I drew my inspiration from the field of auto-ethnography, understanding it in the words of George E. Marcus as: ‘reflexive forms of analysis and writing’.33 Such methods allow to preserve the personal dimension of a project and yet do not affect the quality or strength of the latter. In her study on methods for comprehending affective aspects of clothing (i.e. ‘feelings’ that participants experience in and towards the clothing they wear), I rely on Lucia Ruggerone who suggests that the affective dimension of being dressed is best to be investigated through methods that have a potential to

31 Christine Hine, Ethnography for the Internet. Embedded, Embodied and Everyday (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), 51. 32 Philip Warkander, ‘“This is all fake, this is all plastic, this is me” A study of the interrelations between style, sexuality and gender in contemporary Stockholm’ (PhD diss., Stockholm University, 2013), 17. 33 George E. Marcus, Ethnography through Thick and Thin (New Jersey: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998), 15.

13 include personal reflections of not only study participants, but also the ethnographic researcher. Amongst them, she especially emphasises the role of auto-ethnography and narrative accounts best suitable for this task.34 Accepting the fact that every single method contains certain limitations and, considering that fashion studies as a field are interdisciplinary, it is reasonable to propose a combined methodological approach for the research conducting – the research method has a multifaceted character, combining elements of classical ethnographic research with digital visual data collection on the premises of the discourse on identity and personal style. Conducting this research, I aim first to identify the key characteristics of the neo-Edwardian style and describe elements of the style production. Then I seek to define motivations of interviewees for adopting this style and therefore analyse data from the interviews and written reflections.

DATA COLLECTION: NETNOGRAPHY AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Originally this project was designed as an ethnographic study, utilising a number of sources of qualitative data collection, including in-depth face-to-face semi-structured interviews, participant observations as well as wardrobe studies. Along the course of the research, the events related to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in spring 2020 have restricted my access to the ethnographic fieldwork. Therefore, I sought a method that would allow me to, at least partially, fulfil my intentions. A solution was found in adopting a variation of the classical ethnographic method – netnography is a method specifically designed to study cultures and communities online. As much as its classical predecessor, netnography includes a number of related online research methods that adapt to the study of the created through computer-mediated social interaction.35 During the research it exhibited a range of benefits: on the one hand, netnography is equally immersive and descriptive compared to the traditional ethnographic approach; on the other – it is much faster, less demanding in terms of financial, physical or travel investments than other methods of conducting an investigation, especially taking into account the availability of the Internet in the Western world. Hence, netnography appeared to be a worthy substitute of the original methodological approach and allowed me not only reach out to the potential participants but also engage with their online social presence that, one may argue, play an equally important role in the 21st century alongside with real-life social existence. However, I have to point out that addressing the virtual space I do not engage into analysis of the

34 Lucia Ruggerone, ‘The Feeling of Being Dressed: Affect Studies and the Clothed Body’, Fashion Theory 21, no. 5 (2017): 586. 35 Gary M. Bowler Jr., ‘Netnography: A Method Specifically Designed to Study Cultures and Communities Online’, The Qualitative Report 15, no. 5 (2010): 1270.

14 representations of the participants’ net-identities. In the present study, the Instagram platform is utilised as a source of visual material and does not concern study of the participants’ behaviour on different social platforms across the Internet. At the beginning of the research, a preliminary visual analysis of the Instagram platform was conducted to identify significant visual aspects, that distinguish the neo-Edwardian style from the rest of the content of the social network. This work is heavily influenced by Christine Hine’s Ethnography for the Internet: Embedded, Embodied and Everyday (2015) and the method of online analysis proposed in it. I was employing an approach of dynamic visual screening for possible participants amongst Instagram accounts dedicated to historical fashion sewing and styles. As an outcome, four accounts were chosen based on their characteristics of exhibiting notable visual instances of the neo-Edwardian style. Unlike many other accounts dedicated to historical sewing, these accounts are focused primarily on exhibiting the style of their owners. The difference between these two groups is that former is focused on historical tailoring as a craft (or even art), but this practice does not involved adaptation of the period attire to the personal everyday wardrobe, preferring more ‘modern’ (and often perceived as more ‘practical’) style; the latter, on the other hand, practising wearing of historical and historically-inspired clothes daily, without dividing their wardrobes on ‘normal’ and ‘for special occasions’. These accounts are a representation of personal styles of their owners and therefore are interesting from a perspective of studying everyday dress practices. Hence, my initial use of social media and observation of Instagram accounts fall nicely into the realm of netnography. From the very early stages of the research, what became evident is that a part of this project would be concerned with the visual material related to the participants’ photos that represent their styles. However, I stress that this project is neither a study of digital presence of the participants nor visual analysis of their pictures. My interest lies in the area of personal reflections on the style production and motivations for its adaptation, rather than relationships between individuals and the society hence, the use of participants’ personal Instagram accounts act as an additional source of (mostly visual) material, which contributed valuable confirmation of or supporting views for the (net/eth)nographich analysis. In this study, the specific photographs that I utilised from participants’ personal Instagram aim provide relevant illustrations to specific themes in my research and to help to highlight my arguments by subsequently comparing them to the data I compiled through interviews.

15 DATA COLLECTION: INTERVIEWS AND QUESTIONNAIRE A number of the qualitative case study were performed to highlight the key characteristics of the style production as well as motivations to adopt the neo-Edwardian style to a personal style. In words of Paul D. Leedy and Jeanne Ellis Ormrod, a case study may be defined as ‘a type of qualitative research in which in-depth data are gathered relative to a single individual, program, or event, to learn more about an unknown or poorly understood situation’.36 The format of case studies proved to be beneficial for the research of the neo-Edwardian style as it includes personal experience and self-reflections in the form on open-ended interview answers which give insights in the relationship between dress and identity of the style practitioners. The objective of the data collection was to gather information about an adaptation of the Edwardian style motifs into daily sartorial style as well as to test hypotheses, discussed in the second chapter. All participants were presented with a choice to either fill in the questionnaire in the form of written reflections or participate in one-on-one interviews conducted over Zoom conference software. The interviews were recorded by a digital voice recorder with the results transcribed, then analysed alongside the written responses to identify key themes across the empirical research. Regardless of the method, each participant was asked a number of fixed open-ended questions, presented in Appendix 1. The questionnaire was designed to allow research participants to freely express their thoughts and share some personal experiences in case they would be willing to. The aim was to guide them to think critically and reflexively and share their observations and opinions regarding their styles and the role of the Edwardian aesthetic in them. My observation shows that often it was somewhat difficult for participants to speak about an experience that is lived and practised but not often discussed or fully reflexively comprehend. Two of four participants agreed to a semi-structured interview session via a video call on Zoom; one of the participants preferred to respond through solely typed and e-mailed written reflections, and the last participant filled in the written form and later agreed to a following up video call so I could probe to clarify certain aspects of what they had said in the written reflections. I assume that the personal contacts with two of the participants facilitated the ease and openness of their responses to the invitation for a one-on-one interview. In contrast, participants who did not know me earlier prefers to limit the answer in written form. This method undoubtedly allowed for greater privacy and control over the process, compared with the unpredictability of semi-structured interviews, as the participants of interviews had a tendency to diverge from the topic and include personal stories in the form of vignettes. On

36 Paul D. Leedy and Jeanne Ellis Ormrod, Practical research: Planning and design (New York: Pearson, 2010), 108.

16 the one hand, it provided a greater understanding of their experiences of the style practising; yet, on the other, complicated the process of transcription and analysis as not every single question’s answer was answered with equity of detail and some of them were merged into one answers which left me, as a researcher, wondering about some aspects of the participants’ experiences. Regardless, I found that all participants were engaged in the topic and expressed genuine interest in this thesis project. A consent form provided and signed by each participant enabled me to collect and analyse data through academic research. Each study participant was presented with a choice to either use a pseudonym to ensure anonymity or use their real names. All participants have preferred to use their real names, age and location. A paradox of understanding style as an ongoing production while simultaneously referring to particular practitioners of it raised certain concerns. Referring to the approach originally proposed by Howard S. Becker, the study participants are not to be analysed individually, but rather as coherent representatives of particular sartorial style. 37

PRESENTATION OF PARTICIPANTS Four participants – three female and one male, were chosen based on their styles, which exhibit certain inclinations towards Edwardian aesthetic (based on preliminary visual analysis of the participants’ personal Instagram accounts). All of them were interviewed (both via one-on-one video call or by filling in the questionnaire) in order to gain insight into motivations behind adopting motifs of the Edwardian style to their contemporary sartorial practices on a daily or near-daily basis as well as the aspect of style production. Despite such a gender imbalance in representative case studies, I believe it did not affect the outcomes of the research as I do not examine differences in motivations between genders or different age groups and treat all participants equally. This project relies on the quality rather than the quantity of interviews, i.e. personal narratives are more important than a broad (and generalised) sampling of the representation of experiences adopting the neo-Edwardian style. Two of the four participants were identified through the existing network, I had known them personally prior to the study, while two others were found through visual screening of the Instagram accounts dedicated to the historical fashion. All participants were recruited via direct messages on Instagram. In the process of selection, I was relying on Howard S. Becker’s approach of letting the material shape the research questions, letting them develop as I became acquainted with the material – this process helped me develop new research questions and formulate a number of hypotheses that

37 Howard S. Becker, Tricks of the Trade: How to Think About Your Research While You’re Doing it (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1998).

17 gave a better understanding of the nature of the neo-Edwardian style.38 This demonstrates how the process of selection does not only determine the starting point of the study but also influences what conclusions a researcher can draw from the empirical material. Individuals were selected based on their availability and relevance to this study, i.e. their styles their sartorial style exhibit, in some way or other, characteristics of the neo-Edwardian style. All the participants speak fluent English despite their origin or the native language of the place of origin, which facilitated the study and showed the Edwardian aesthetic is adopted as a minor sartorial style at least in two different parts of the world – Europe (the U.K.) and Asia (South Korea) which indicate an international spread of the phenomenon. The collected data was analysed through narrative analysis, based on common themes compared amongst the data. In this following section, I briefly introduce the participants of my study and discuss how they interpret the neo-Edwardian motifs in their styles.

38 Howard S. Becker, Tricks of the Trade: How to Think About Your Research While You’re Doing it (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1998), 121.

18 Tom Carradine, 38 y.o. [Kent, U.K.] – a singer, a pianist and an international phenomenon, specialising in music from the first half of the 20th century, performing a one-man ‘sing-a-long’ act.39 Regarding his style, Tom defines himself as an ‘Edwardian gentleman with a modern twist’. He adds that ‘it would be hard for me to wear modern clothes and look ‘right’ with the moustache’.

Figure 1: Photo from Tom’s Instagram account.

Figure 2: Collage from Tom’s Instagram account. In the note, to the post, Tom writes: ‘I enjoy ringing the changes and mixing styles, eras, patterns and materials. Hopefully pulling together a coherent look every time’.

Mila Akimova, 28 y.o., [originally from Russia, grew up in Cyprus, currently lives in South Korea] – a physics student and freelance editor. Mila describes her interpretation of Edwardian aesthetics as: ‘modest but daring, smart, attention to detail, a little intimidating but in a good way’.

Figure 3: Photo from Mila’s Instagram account.

Figure 4: Photo from Mila’s Instagram account. The vest and skirt are made by Mila, the blouse is 1930s vintage.

39 Musically, Tom plays across many different eras (from late Victorian up to 1940s), however, the majority of work he does relate to the music span of the Edwardian Era (the so-called ‘Victorian music hall’, started in the 1850s, with the height at the outbreak of WWI). Tom’s works are accessible through https://open.spotify.com/artist/2X9jTtjdAWhXquqOp6X1SG.

19 Olga Jonarska, 28 y.o., [originally from Poland, currently lives in London, the UK] – Edwardian fashion, culture and art enthusiast, striving to surround herself with all things Edwardian from her style to the elements of interior decór. Historical sewing is inextricably interconnected with her style – Olga is currently undertaking a degree in tailoring.

Figure 5: Photo from Olga’s Instagram account.

Figure 6: Photo from Olga’s Instagram account. Olga is dressed in an original WWI nurse’s dress with a detachable collar, boater hat and Edwardian boots. All pieces are antique.

Hattie Salisbury, 28 y.o. [Durham, U.K.] – librarian. Hattie describes her everyday style as casual vintage, with influences from the Edwardian era to the 1940s but with the most substantial influence been World War I era fashion as the war period allows her to adopt the Edwardian aesthetic but simpler, more practical and less frilly, than the earlier variation of the style.

Figure 7: Photo from Hattie’s Instagram account.

Figure 8: Photo from Hattie’s Instagram account. Edwardian style swimwear is made by Hattie.

20 PREVIOUS RESEARCH

The following literature review concerns scholarly works of various titles, in a greater or lesser degree related to the subject of this thesis. After a detailed review of cultural and sociological literature, I came to the realisation that the Edwardian style aesthetic revival is mostly researched within the context of design studies, as a style in a broader sense, i.e. an aesthetic system of decorative elements, incorporated in art, décor and interiors; however, these studies rarely if not at all include the fashion discourse. For instance, a chapter dedicated to Art Nouveau style revivals in a book Retro: The Culture of Revival (2006) by Elizabeth Guffey. Overall, the revive of the Edwardian aesthetic motifs in fashion for the past century has been largely untheorised and merely scarcely explored, predominantly within a discourse on post-war British youth subcultures.40 The most notable example of such studies is Christopher Breward’s ‘Style and Subversion: Postwar Poses and the Neo-Edwardian Suit in Mid- Twentieth-Century Britain’ (2002). The article gives an examination of how the first revive of the Edwardian style in the 1940s quickly transformed into Teddy boys – a group of South London young adults, who adopted elements of Edwardian man’s wear and mixed it with American zoot suit in order to create a distinctive style – a flamboyant opposition to the dominant culture.41 Despite this article analysing in various details the meaning and style production of the Teddy boys, the work has little application to the contemporary revival of the Edwardian aesthetic. Conducting my thesis project, I have not come across research specifically dedicated to the exploration of the neo-Edwardian style in the contemporary fashion context, despite this term being occasionally used amongst historical fashion enthusiasts. Scattered pieces of information (blog posts, vlogs (video blogs) and other forms of public media), mostly personal reflections of people who practise the style, became the point of departure for my inquisitiveness. Such a lack of previous scholarly research on the topic induced me to glean bit by bit pieces of information from a diverse range of sources to tackle the specificity of the phenomenon and contextualise the topic of the neo-Edwardian sartorial style within the broader socio-cultural context as much as define its place within academic knowledge. As the neo-Edwardian style falls under the category of historically-inspired clothing, in the following literature review I address a broad range of studies that touch upon such categories as vintage, historical recreation and subcultural formations, seeking to define similar themes and methods for applying to my study.

40 Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (Florence: Taylor and Francis, 2013). 41 Christopher Breward, ‘Style and Subversion: Postwar Poses and the Neo-Edwardian Suit in Mid-Twentieth- Century Britain’, Gender and History 14, no. 3 (2002): 560–583.

21 VINTAGE For the past few decades, studies related to pre-used garments and bygone styles consumption has evolved into a fully-formed field of intersectional studies on fashion, consumer behaviours, economics and sociology. The proximity of the neo-Edwardian dress practice to vintage fashion allows me to partially base the current research on the findings from vintage studies, focusing on works that tackle issues of identity, nostalgia and implementation of clothes from bygone eras to personal style in everyday life.42 In the article ‘The Rise of Vintage Fashion and the Vintage Consumer’ (2012), Tracy Diane Cassidy and Hannah Rose Bennett present outcomes of a study on key motivations for buying into the vintage market. According to authors, the wide spread of ‘retro styles’ phenomenon is due to the rise of the idealistic vision of the past in the popular culture in the form of nostalgia as a result of the current economic climate, change in attitudes to old items (from disdain to appreciation) as well as an overall reaction against ‘fast fashion’ and its lack of individuality.43 In the article ‘Hooked on Vintage!’ (2005), Marilyn DeLong, Barbara Heinemann, and Kathryn Reiley notice that vintage style consumers use original garments and mix them with contemporary apparels to create a unique style and thus new identities through altering the original historical motifs to suit their taste and impression they would like to convey.44 This idea is consonant with the edited volume Old Clothes, New Looks: Second-Hand Fashion (2005) by Alexandra Palmer and Hazel Clark (ed.) – a collection of essays focused on the history, the trading culture, and the contemporary re-evaluating of previously used clothing. Especially noticeable are essays by Heike Jenss (‘Sixties Dress Only! The Consumption of the Past in a Retro Scene’) and Alexandra Palmer (‘Vintage Whores and Vintage Virgins: Second Hand Fashion in the Twenty-first Century’), which provide an insight on the ‘symbol of fashion independence’ as vintage consumers buy into an aesthetic/style that they identify with as an individual, rather than what is projected to them via contemporary fashion industry. All of these works address the issues of the relationship between public image, self- identity and dress practices. What becomes apparent is that the tensions in the area of culture

42 Examples include: Marie‐Cécile Cervellon, Lindsey Carey, and Trine Harms, ‘Something old, something used: Determinants of women’s purchase of vintage fashion vs second‐hand fashion’, International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management 40, no. 12 (2012): 956-974; Aleit Veenstra and Giselinde Kuipers, ‘It Is Not Old‐Fashioned, It Is Vintage: Vintage Fashion and the Complexities of 21st Century Consumption Practices’, Sociology Compass 7, no. 5 (2013): 355–365; Julie McColl, Catherine Canning, Louise McBride, Karina Nobbs, and Linda Shearer, ‘It’s Vintage Darling! An exploration of vintage fashion retailing’, The Journal of The Textile Institute 104, no. 2 (2013): 140-150. 43 Tracy Diane Cassidy and Hannah Rose Bennett, ‘The Rise of Vintage Fashion and the Vintage Consumer’, Fashion Practice 4, no. 2 (2012): 239-261. 44 Marilyn DeLong, Barbara Heinemann, and Kathryn Reiley, ‘Hooked on Vintage!’ Fashion Theory 9, no. 1 (2005): 25-26.

22 and identity are situated between the notions of past and future and material artefact bridge this gap by situating fashion in the present and hence creating a diversity of cultural life. This notion is vital for the understanding of the production of the neo-Edwardian style as it will be shown in the following analysis in this thesis.

PORTRAYING HISTORY Diving deeper into the relationship between the neo-Edwardian style and its historical roots, I address an issue of historical re-creation known as re-enactment – a hobby-based activity of re-creating different historical eras in the form of organised public events by ‘donning a historical dress and emulating period behaviour’.45 In the study ‘The mountain man myth: A contemporary consuming fantasy’ (1998), Russell Belk and Janeen A. Costa bring up several crucial aspects for understanding the nature of the phenomenon of modern people dressing in a bygone style and acting on a paradigm of historically-inspired semi- theatrical environment. Focusing on the group of contemporary re-creators of the American cultural phenomenon of fur traders, the so-called ‘mountain men’, Belk steps beyond reading them merely as re-enactors, impersonating certain historical figures, and read them as a ‘transient consumption community predicated on invented traditions and the invocation of a mythic past to create and consume fantastic time and space’. 46 The concept of ‘mythical past’ is crucial for Belk’s perception of people’s engagement and adaptation of bygone styles in their consumption patterns. In the article ‘Identity construction among Confederate Civil War re-enactors: A study of dress, stage props, and discourse’ (2003), Mitchell D. Strauss argues that the symbolic nature of the re-enactment costume plays a vital role in the participation in historical events as it creates an alternate reality and identities for participants, allowing them to express their ideals and beliefs. Thus, wearing a historical costume act as an escape from the pressures of modern- day life, which is a result of postmodern society.47 An overview of the literature on the re-enactment scene showed that the studies predominantly dwell on the themes of theatricality and a desire for a fictional time and place that can give people a feeling of being someone else. However, these studies do not explore those who stepped beyond the concept of ‘dressing-up’ and chose the historical fashion as the

45 Mitchell D. Strauss, ‘A Framework for Assessing Military Dress Authenticity in Civil War Reenacting’, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 19, no. 4 (2001): 145. 46 Russell W. Belk and Janeen A. Costa, ‘The mountain man myth: A contemporary consuming fantasy’, Journal of Consumer Research 25, no. 3 (1998): 218. 47 Mitchell D. Strauss, ‘Identity construction among Confederate Civil War re-enactors: A study of dress, stage props, and discourse’, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 21, no. 4 (2003): 149-161.

23 daily personal style. As it was noted by Mike Albo in an article in Gentleman’s Quarterly (2009), ‘the [bygone] aesthetic moved beyond a Halloween costume into a lifestyle’, referring to the trend of incorporating elements of the late-nineteenth-century dress styles into man’s wardrobe in the late 2000s.48 Only a few studies address the question of why some people choose to wear historical style clothes outside the context of historical dress-up events, incorporating them into daily sartorial practices. One of the few examples of such works is Dina Cherise Smith’s master thesis ‘Historically-Inspired Dress as a Personal Style Choice’ (2006) that addresses the subject of historically-inspired apparel as a form of dress practice and bases its findings on a three-case ethnographic study. Despite being seemingly relevant to the subject of my thesis, on closer inspection, the work appears to contain some flaws, the major one of which is its fragmented character. The participants of the study do not exhibit a coherence with their sartorial practices, incorporating historical style in an on-and-off basis – describing the process of empirical data collection (interviewing), Smith mentions that the participants of the study were not dressed in the style of clothing that she was investigating.49 Consequently, Smith brings a parallel with the historical re-enactment scene where people dress up in historical clothes to perform/portray certain historical period; however, do not bring historical dress practice into their ordinary lives. On the contrary, in my study, historical fashion motifs constitute the production of personal style. The most significant aspect of Smith’s work is her assumption regarding the motivation of some people to adopt historically-inspired clothing to their style. According to Smith, this phenomenon may be treated as a form of full-time re-enactment (Smith views historically- inspired clothing as a form of fantasy dress which is worn to express creative imagination). This view is to be tested as a form of hypothesis in the analysis part of this thesis.50 I believe that my project is capable of beneficially contribute to the development of the ideas, sketched out in Smith’s research, by grounding them on more defined and clear examples. Regarding the issue of identity in relation to historically-inspired styles, I draw inspiration from Heike Jenss’s study of a contemporary phenomenon of a German Sixties scene in her article ‘Dressed in History: Retro Styles and the Construction of Authenticity in Youth Culture’ (2004). Jenss dwells upon a notion that past styles can be integrated into the process of identity construction and proposes to view such an immersion into bygone aesthetic not merely as a form

48 Mike Albo, ‘The turn of the century called...The Turn of the Century Called...’, G.Q. (America), December 1, 2009, https://www.gq.com/story/the-turn-of-the-century-called. 49 Dina C. Smith, ‘Historically-Inspired Dress as a Personal Style Choice’ (MA thesis, The University of Southern Mississippi, 2006), 118-119. 50 See Analysis’ part ‘Hypothesis II: Nostalgia and Ideologies’ on pages 56-60.

24 of historical performance, but as a consequence as well as a compensation of modernisation – the fascination with authenticity and aesthetic of the chosen epoch is viewed in opposition to the uniformity of the global mass-market. Fashioning Memory: Vintage Style and Youth Culture (2017) – is another work by Jenss, in which the author argues that despite the popularity of vintage and retro styles in varied youth cultures, the study of them is somewhat limited and may be potentially attributed to the traditional perception of fashion as a cultural area of innovations and perpetual renewal.51 Therefore, according to Jenss, the research of scholars working on second-hand markets, both in historical and contemporary contexts, has been invaluable to illuminate the circulation of objects and their investment with new meanings and values in the context of a highly diversified market, that caters to a wide range of consumers. Being a well-established field of sociological studies, subcultural studies provided a wide range of research on the subject of the motivations behind adopting historical forms of dress for subcultural styles and how these groups wear historical styles of dress, which appear costume-like or theatrical outside the socially-acceptable venues for wearing costumes (museums, theatres, film sets and re-enactment events). If vintage and re-enactment clothing has something in common – a certain affiliation with an accurate representation of a particular historical style, on the other side of the spectrum of adaptation of historical fashion motifs I propose to analyse an example of subcultural grouping, which style draw inspiration from the historical fashion. Victorian Goth style is loosely based on the upper-class fashion of the late 19th century; still, the adaptation of its elements (long skirts, corsets and lace decor for women and three-piece suit for man) is subjugated to the grim aesthetic of the subculture, that is being inspired by Gothic literature and the cult of macabre and mourning. According to Boehm-Schnitker and Gruss, neo-Victorianism embodies the project of historical revival, which ‘looks into the processes and politics of adaptation [and that] shape our contemporary perspectives of the past’.52 The literature on the Goth subculture provides some insights regarding the motives behind the appropriation of the elements of historical styles for the dress. In the book Gothic: Dark Glamour (2008), Valerie Steele and Jennifer Park note that subcultural members use dress to both construct their identity and communicate the cultural values and beliefs they share. This view inspires part of my second hypotheses regarding the nature of the neo-Edwardian style that I will test in the following analysis. Japanese Lolita subculture is strikingly different from the Victorian Goth aesthetic and revolves around ideals of sweetness and childhood that visually expressed in an ostentatious

51 Heike Jenss, Fashioning Memory: Vintage Style and Youth Culture (London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 10. 52 Nadine Boehm-Schnitker and Susanne Gruss, “Introduction: Spectacles and Things – Visual and Material Culture and/in Neo-Victorianism,” Neo-Victorian Studies 4, no. 2, (2011): 2.

25 variation of Victorian and Edwardian children’s clothing with an intensive influence of Rococo style.53 A few studies, including An Nguyen’s ‘Maiden’s Fashion As Eternal Becomings: Victorian Maidens and Sugar Sweet Cuties Donning Japanese Street Fashion in Japan and North America’ (2012) and Chancy J. Gatlin’s ‘The Fashion of Frill: The Art of Impression Management in the Atlanta Lolita and Japanese Street Fashion Community’ (2014) provides an understanding of the key characteristics of the Lolita style as well as outlined vital aspects of this subculture’s formation. Both Victorian Goth and Lolita subcultural styles are marked by pastiche form of appropriation – the ties to the historical styles they draw inspirations from are quite loose and may be recognised only in details as an overall look is subjugated to the subcultural style. As it may be seen in the studies of subcultures, clothes and style are equally used in two opposite processes: on the one hand, an individual uses dress to express difference from others and articulate their sense of ‘uniqueness’, on the other – dress act as a marker of belonging to a particular group, class and culture, connecting an individual to others. According to Philip Warkander, styles operate as a ‘form of distinction, linking some practices to each other through similarities in appearance, while at the same time distancing them from others’.54 By articulating tensions between conformity and differentiation, fashion expresses the contradictory desires to fit in and stand out, it is the ‘imitation of a given an example and satisfies the demand for social adaptation […] at the same time it satisfies in no less degree the need of differentiation, the tendency towards dissimilarity, the desire for change and contrast’.55 These studies on the relationship between fashion, style and identity, carried out within the framework of subcultural theory, gave me an idea regarding the explanation of the motifs behind the adaptation of the neo-Edwardian style. In particular, I propose to test an assumption that the subject of this thesis is a form of an emerging subculture with an ideological core in fascination with nostalgia as a longing for the past. I seek to analyse this assumption in the following chapter of this thesis.

THE ACT OF BECOMING Undoubtedly, clothing has a capacity to affect human beings – by being worn, a garment acquires certain relationship with the body of the wearer. It, therefore, becomes more than merely a piece of material and transit into the realm of feelings.

53 Bayli Berry, ‘Ethnographic Comparison of a Niche Fashion Group, Lolita’ (M.A. thesis, Florida Atlantic University, 2017), 6-8. 54 Philip Warkander, ‘“This is all fake, this is all plastic, this is me” A study of the interrelations between style, sexuality and gender in contemporary Stockholm’ (PhD diss., Stockholm University, 2013), 17 55 David Frisby and Mike Featherstone, eds., Simmel on Culture: Selected Writings (London: Sage Publ., 1997), 189.

26 According to the sociologist Joanne Entwistle, clothing is a fundamentally important aspect in the socialisation of a person, in the expression of their identity which fills the human body with social meaning, i.e. clothing not only contribute to the integration of an individual into society but also constituted their identity formation and representation.56 In her book The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory (2000), Entwistle analyses dress as a visual metaphor for identity – a shell, that is put on daily situates the body socially. Despite being a valuable contribution to the theoretical frame of this study, it is noteworthy that Entwistle’s view of a dressed body is situated within the social realm, hereby an individual adorns oneself for oneself and yet for others as the clothed body is understood in a social context. Entwistle defines as a daily ‘face-work’ performance (that includes the act of getting dressed) in which an individual consciously or unconsciously attend to these norms and expectations to be defined by others as ‘normal’.57 Another view of the relationship between the body and the dress is developed by sociologist Lucia Ruggerone, whom, referring to the Gilles Deleuze’s concept of becoming, views clothing as a powerful tool to transform oneself, and therefore the experience of dressing can be seen as a process of mutual becoming’ where – ‘clothes choose us as much as we choose them’.58 According to Ruggerone, this affective dimensions of dress directly influence the individual perception of themselves – the clothing has a capacity to either enrich, restrain or even deprive feelings of self-perception (as well as self-confidence and self-esteem). The author calls it ‘feeling of being dressed’ and defines it as the ‘affective practical experience of the clothed body in space’.59 Ruggerone bases her enquiry on Spinoza’s notion of the body, later adopted by Deleuze, which perceives the body as a dynamic system, capable of forming specific relations with other bodies and transform (the act of becoming) through encounters with other bodies endowed with their own set of affective (material and immaterial) capabilities.60 This adaptation of Deleuzian philosophy is closely connected to Butler’s theory of performativity that plays a vital role in the theoretical basis for my thesis project. Hence, bringing Ruggerone’s study, I perceive the everyday situation of getting dressed of ‘living in and through a clothed body’, which is consistent with Entwistle view on the social situation of the dressed body.61 This insight facilitates the discussion regarding the performative act of becoming, that I attribute to the vital

56 Joanne Entwistle, The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015), 114. 57 Ibid., 34. 58 Lucia Ruggerone, ‘The Feeling of Being Dressed: Affect Studies and the Clothed Body’, Fashion Theory 21, no. 5 (2017): 582-3. 59 Ibid., 577. 60 Ibid., 579. 61 Ibid., 581.

27 characteristics of the neo-Edwardian style production.62 Since historically-inspired styles as a personal style choice is a relatively new topic in the field of fashion studies, I build my analysis on a broad range of studies from different fields of scholarship. Piecing them all together I came to several realisations. I first define the nature of the neo-Edwardian style, drawing parallels with another form of historical fashion adaptation (namely – re-enactment and certain subcultures) and define which one of them or none applies to the definition of the neo-Edwardian style. Hence, I explore the motivations behind adopting the style. The gap in the scholarly literature revealed a necessity for a nuanced empirical study that may attempt to answer a few of the proposed questions and test assumptions regarding the phenomenon of the neo-Edwardian style.

THESIS OUTLINE

The outline of the thesis reflects the aim and research questions of this study regarding the neo-Edwardian style production and motivations of my interviewees to adopt the bygone aesthetic to their styles. In the following analysis, I give a comprehensive overview of the theme and issues that rose to prominence through the ethnographic study. The empirical data, collected during the interviews, is organised thematically and in relation to the theories that have been outlined in the introduction. Participants answers are mentioned in no particular order, as each of their responses is unique and insightful and suitable for different aspects of the analysis. Prior to the analytical chapters, I present a historiographic background, explaining the transformation of Edwardian stylistic motifs that led to the occurrence of the contemporary fashion phenomenon of the neo-Edwardian style. I trace the evolution of the (neo-)Edwardian style from its origin in the turn of the 20th century and onward through the whole century up to nowadays. This historiographical analysis aims to define precedents for reaching back in time and seeking inspiration Edwardian fashion aesthetic that has affected the dynamic of the style’s revival nowadays. The first chapter of this thesis highlights the vital aspects of the neo-Edwardian style production. I start with a description of the style, define its core features. I take a close look at the practice of the style – what kind of sartorial transition the participants have undergone; what constitutes the core of their style; how the style practitioners interpret/perceive reactions

62 As it will be further discussed in the section ‘Becoming “Edwardian”’ on pages 61-64.

28 of mainstream dresses people on their sartorial expressions and how they utilise Edwardian fashion motifs and aesthetics to ‘travel back in time’ and invigorate their contemporary everyday lives. The second part of the analysis provides a discussion based on the empirical data, seeking to give an explanation of motives for adopting the neo-Edwardian style. I attempt to answer a question regarding the nature of the style by posing two hypotheses regarding the style’s relations to the historical re-enactment and subcultural formations and testing them. In the following discussion, I propose to view the style as a performative act of becoming. I seek to define what is the key driving force behind the adaptation of the Edwardian aesthetic to the contemporary daily dress practices. I finish this part with a discussion of the complex relationships between style, identity and the sense of self in relation to personal sartorial style. In the conclusion I summarise findings and propose ideas for the future research.

BACKGROUND: EVOLUTI ON O F EDWARDIAN FASHION AESTHETI C

The phenomenon of re-imagination of the past is not exclusive in the form of the Edwardian style motifs adaptations. As noted, ‘fashion always occupies the dividing-line between the past and the future, [...] conveys a stronger feeling of the present’.63 In the scope of the present study, I focus on the revival of particularly Edwardian aesthetic in fashion. For a better understanding of the phenomenon of the neo-Edwardian style in the 21st century I lay out a historiographic background, the aim of which is to exemplify multiple occurrences of the Edwardian aesthetic revival from its origin in the turn of the 20th century up to present day. The transition from the 19th to the 20th century in Europe was marked by dramatic changes in many areas of human life, and this primarily affected the fashion industry. The new style of clothing that appeared was a reflection of the Art Nouveau aesthetic.64 The whole era that marked the heyday of Art Nouveau (the 1890s – 1910s), also referred to as la Belle Époque, which translates from French as a ‘beautiful epoch’. Originating in Belgium and France, this style quickly gained popularity all across Europe and came to the United Kingdom under the patronage of Prince Edward (future King Edward VII), who gave the name to the eponymous style in Britain. A smooth transition from Victorian fashion has coincided with the turn of the 20th century.

63 Olli Pyyhtinen, The Simmelian Legacy: A Science of Relations (London: Macmillan Education, 2017), 59. 64 For regional variations of the style, name see footnote on page 5.

29 Thus, the Edwardian era has become inextricably connected with not only the aesthetic of a new style but also with the technological advance and social modernisation of that time.65 As above-mentioned, when we speak of the Edwardian era nowadays, often it includes not only the actual period of King Edward the VII’s reign (from 1901 till 1910) but also preceding and following periods; the last decade of the Victorian era (the 1830s-1890s) and the period of the World War I (1914-1918). Such inclusion is possible because the Edwardian fashion has a recognisable and coherent aesthetic image as well as being placed in between two pronounced stylistic periods – the Victorian era and the 1920s Art Deco.66 As I have noticed, most of the Internet resources discuss this period between the mid-1890s and the end of the World War I (1918) under an umbrella term ‘Edwardian era’ (and thus the term the neo- Edwardian). Based on the empirical material, I propose to follow this slightly incorrect use of the term as it encompasses aesthetic that defines the style of my interviewees. In the following description, I focus mostly on the outer (often formal and semi-formal) wear as it constitutes the visual representation of the style image and I did not conduct research on adaptation of the historically appropriate underwear of my interviewees. For specific dress history terms see a glossary in Appendix 2. A standard male outfit of the late 1890s – late 1910s for formal tea, garden parties, receptions, and other daytime social occasions consisted of a three-piece suit – a cutaway or frock coat with high lapel (coat sleeves were already similar to that of the present day), combined with tight trousers (fixed in place with a belt or suspenders) and a vest (sometimes double-breasted in the 1900s), all of the same material; shirts were sometimes with pleated and starched front, detachable cuff and very high, standing collar combined with bow or ascot or string tie. The usual overgarment was a knee-length coat made of wool (or fur for winter), often narrow at the shoulder and wider in the skirt. If in the 1890s male hats were predominantly top hats of various height with a curled brim, by the mid-1900s the fashionable headdress for men became bowler or derby; for summer suitable options were round felt hat, boater or straw hat (the crown of these hat types varied in different decades, being low- crowned in 1890s, gradually growing in high in the first decade of the 20th century).

Regarding the footwear, the turn of the 20th century was the beginning of modern shoemaking. The outfit might be accompanied with such accessories as a long umbrella, a walking stick or a cane, leather or chamois gloves for out-of-doors, watch in the vest pocket, nose glasses, pince-nez on a cord. Amongst typical materials for menswear were serge, twill,

65 Evangeline Holland, Edwardian England: A Guide to Everyday Life, 1900-1914 (England: Plum Bun Publishing, 2014) and Simon Heffer, Age of Decadence: Britain 1880 To 1914 (New York: Penguin Random House, 2017). 66 Simon Heffer, Age of Decadence: Britain 1880 To 1914 (New York: Penguin Random House, 2017).

30 tweed and homespun for a formal suit during wintertime (preferred colours were black, grey, dark brown and dark blue, checked/striped pattern for trousers worn with a dark coat), cashmere, piqué, corded silk, or checked vest; flannel, seersucker and linen for a summer suit, consisted of typically white, or duck trousers and a dark jacket.67

Figure 9: Fashion plate, 1907. Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) repository.68

Unlike menswear, female fashion witnessed a series of dramatic changes, and in approximately 20 years, the fashionable silhouette had changed a few times. In the late 1890s, women's silhouettes were defined by the hourglass shape with wasp-waist (achievable with a tight-laced corset) and voluptuous puffed in the shoulder area sleeve (leg-o’-mutton sleeve), narrowing from the elbow.69 Bodies and skirts were mainly separate, united by a belt (especially in the early 1900s), sometimes made in a 1-piece dress (Princess style). Skirts were plain, with gores in front and fullness in back, day time skirt length was to ankle or instep, bell-shaped skirts were particularly in vogue between 1892 and 1907. They were smooth at top, flaring from hip to floor. Starting from the 1909 ankle-length skirts were dominating daywear due to their practicality, Then the skirt started to narrow and by 1910

67 Daniel Milford-Cottam, Edwardian Fashion (Oxford: Shire Publications, 2016). 68Retrieved from https://www.metmuseum.org/art/libraries-and-research-centers/watson-digital-collections/costume- institute-collections/costume-institute-fashion-plates 69 Elizabeth Ewing and Alice Mackrell, History of Twentieth Century Fashion (London: B.T. Batsford, 2005), 14.

31 were shaped like a column (hobble skirt); from c. 1914 dress gradually became fuller and required extra support (underwear crinoline/hoop skirt). This silhouette remained during the war. Around 1900-8 bodices and blouses (often light colours) had loose waists, that made the figure larger in the bust, with a high collar (fine lace or fabric) up until 1910, starting from 1909 they became less voluptuous, the collar dropped to the base of throat around 1912 and lower, to the sailor collars and v-shaped neckline by 1914, which remain popular during and after the war years. In the early 1900s, the shape of sleeves changed from the puff of the 1890s, became tight from shoulder to the elbow, then full, and gathered at the wrist. By 1910, the overall tendency to simplification introduced kimono sleeve (long, set-in sleeves were fashionable until 1914).70

Fig 10: 1896 Fig 11: 1907 Fig 12: 1913 Fig 13: 1915

Figure 10-13: Fashion plates from various magazines of the 1890s-1910s. Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) repository. 71

Typical in the late 1890s coiffure started to become gradually looser; the previous Grecian style gave way to Pompadour style (soft and puffy hairdo with use of hair pad (hair rat)), which became an iconic hairstyle of the era and was immortalised in illustrations of Charles Dana Gibson, who crystallised the idea of fashionable beauty – a slender, elegant and graceful silhouette, with a narrow waist (created as a proportional illusion between the padded areas of bust and hips). The heroine of those illustrations that was called The Gibson Girl (after the name of their creators) was a modern, ambitious young woman, who practices sports activities, and is not a stranger in dealing with the opposite sex. Her image reflected the fashion of the youthful

70 Carolyn G. Bradley, Western World Costume: An Outline History (Mineola, New York: Dover Publications inc., 2001), 330-369. 71Retrieved from https://www.metmuseum.org/art/libraries-and-research-centers/watson-digital-collections/costume- institute-collections/costume-institute-fashion-plates.

32 and fleeting beauty, inspired by nature, that dominated European fashion. The Edwardian style was the swan song of the world that was drastically changed by the events of the World War I. Fashion did not escape the influence of those social changes and by the early 1920s Edwardian style survived only in wardrobes of the older generation, giving way to the new, daring fashion experimentations during the interwar period. However, despite dying out with the rise of new Art Deco aesthetic in the 1920s, Edwardian motifs have never entirely left fashion – the fashionable female silhouette of the 1940s with broad, squared shoulders, wide lapels and curled, pinned-up hairstyle exhibit particular reminiscences with the hourglass silhouette of the 1890s and the Edwardian style coiffures.72 However, the true revival of the Edwardian fashion aesthetic emerged in male fashion. It all started in London’s West End in 1948 when a group of Savile Row tailors attempted to initiate and introduce a new style inspired by the late 19th – early 20th-century male fashion. The distinctive features of this new style were Edwardian jackets trimmed with half collars of velvet and the trend was soon named by newspapers as ‘The New Edwardian Look’, due to unmistakable allusions on the clothes from the beginning of the 20th century.73 In an article Future Nostalgia, Olivia Bullock gives an extended description of these posh young New Edwardians, whose looks were comprised of:

[…] single-breasted suits with long-waisted four-button jackets with short lapels, square-cut fronts and slanted pockets. Trousers were narrow and often pleat- fronted, paired with a double-breasted waistcoat in a complementary pattern or check. Crisp white shirts with cutaway collars and Windsor knotted ties, trilbies and half-boots or toe-capped shoes completed the outfit. Hair was worn a little tousled and longer than convention dictated.74

Special attention was on details – ‘bowler hats, polished shoes [..], rolled umbrellas […], velvet collars, embellished waistcoats, ticket pockets, covered buttons and turned-back cuffs recall the ostentation of the Edwardian [era]’.75 As much as their 150-year-old predecessors, the mid-twentieth-century London dandies showed adherence to the accepted rules of dressing, and yet, in their capacity to combine conservatism and innovation, their looks were

72 Carolyn G. Bradley, Western World Costume: An Outline History (Mineola, New York: Dover Publications inc., 2001), 392-4. 73 Harry Hopkins, The New Look: A Social History of the Forties and Fifties (London: Secker and Warburg, 1964), 427–8. 74 Olivia Bullock, ‘Future Nostalgia’, The Chap 100 (summer 2019), 88. 75 Christopher Breward, ‘Style and Subversion: Postwar Poses and the Neo-Edwardian Suit in Mid-Twentieth- Century Britain’, Gender and History 14, no. 3 (November 2002): 561–562.

33 equally presenting sentimental nostalgia and a sharp sense of modernity.76 The style initially conceived as suitable for the young aristocratic men (the style was shortly associated with officers in His Majesty’s Guards)77 that were seeking ways to show their social positions and wealth in the rapidly changing post-war world. The turn of the style formation happened, when a group of South London working-class teenagers adopted this first neo-Edwardian style, however, modified it by introducing American fashion influence: long-drape jackets of the Edwardian cut, tight trousers and hats were mixed with such accessories as Maverick ties and Silk Patterned Waistcoats as well as a tied-up curly hairstyle popular in the USA.78 This style of working-class youngsters has inimically carried the original name, however, in 1953 (September 23rd), the Daily Express newspaper shortened the name to ‘Teddy’ (as a nickname for Edward) and hence coined the term ‘Teddy boy’.79 Despite the elegant roots of their style, these new ‘Edwardians’ soon became labelled as juvenile delinquents. Getting such unappealing publicity, the new Edwardian style was rapidly re-appraised and quickly abandoned by the middle class, who was unwilling to share sartorial code with these young working-class males as early as 1951-1952. Initially worn by the middle and upper classes for a short period and further appropriated by the working class youth, this first revival of the Edwardian aesthetics was predominantly in male fashion and acted as a counterpart to the Dior’s New Look romantic escapism across the English Channel. The fact that the style formed amongst British teenagers was no coincidence – in the immediate post-war era, people were searching for a sense of identity and purpose.80 Very much like the discourse on identity within the context of modernity, self- identification of those people was shattered, distorted and flexible due to the recent war. As it is stated in the introduction to The Edwardian Teddy boy website: the ‘Working Class Edwardian Style’ had been created on the street by the street and by working-class teenagers, not by Saville Row or the fashion designers.81 As it may be seen from the quote, those British working-class teenagers, practising adaptation of Edwardian fashion, were representing the avant-garde of that nation’s emerging youth subculture. The initial success of the New Edwardian look and its further variants in ‘both ‘upper-class’ and avant-garde circles’ Breward attributes it to:

76 Harry Hopkins, The New Look: A Social History of the Forties and Fifties (London: Secker and Warburg, 1964). 77 Elizabeth E. Guffey, Retro: The Culture of Revival (London: Reaktion Books, 2006), 102. 78 Amy Helen Bell, ‘Teddy boys and Girls as Neo-flâneurs in Postwar London’, The Literary London Journal 11, no. 2 (2014): 7. 79 Ibid., 9. 80 Jim Grieves, ‘Style as Metaphor for Strategic Action: Teddy boys, Authenticity, and Identity’, Theory, Culture and Society 1, no. 2 (1982): 37-38. 81 The most diverse and complete digital resource on the subject I have managed to find during my research. ‘History of the British Teddy Boy and Culture’, The Edwardian Teddy boy, accessed February 8, 2020, http://www.edwardianteddyboy.com.

34

[…] the combination of constrained means, a rather ‘raffish’ relaxation of moral and social codes, together with a nostalgic yearning for leisured prewar lifestyles dictated a dress code which was by turns tightly controlled, impossibly presumptuous, often misleading and rather sentimental in its effects.82

Referring to the texts like Paul Rock and Stanley Cohen’s essay of 1970, Breward favours an idea that ‘clothing and material culture might aid a negotiated sense of self- identification rather than disguise some older notion of authenticity’.83 Notwithstanding transformation into a subculture in the 1950s, Edwardian style has not gone entirely in the next decade – as Feldman-Barrett notes in her article, the captivation of the Victorian and Edwardian fashion aesthetics continued during the height of 1960s ‘Swinging London’.84 Guffey attributes another revival of the aesthetic partially to the Aubrey Beardsley exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert museum in 1966. Two years earlier, Time magazine declared that ‘the revival of Art Nouveau’ (that Guffey calls an ‘Art Nouveau fever’) had influenced the popular culture of both Western Europe and Northern America.85 In the late 1960s, fashion designer Laura Ashley launched a brand, presented modernised versions of Victorian nightshirts and Edwardian-style dresses. Her style, described in Contemporary Fashion, ‘possessed old world charm with individual rustic freshness, reflected in traditional beliefs of bygone days’.86 The distinctive trademarks of Laura Ashley garments were, amongst other things, lace trimming, full puffed sleeves, pin-tucked bodices and traditional floral prints. Targeting the middle-class customers and retailing at affordable prices, this was one of the first mainstream clothing lines which re-actualised romantic simplicity and gave way to the fashion movement that was tuned in to the spirit of the times as a reaction to the youth revolution of the 1960s – ‘a move towards romanticism, conservation, and world peace, an alternative to modern living, pop culture, mass-produced clothing, and vivid Parisian fashions’.87 Looking to escape from the turbulent socio-political changes of the late 1960s – early 1970s, the hippie subculture was highlight influenced by a romantic image of the bucolic past – ‘nostalgia became the new fashion inspiration, and

82 Christopher Breward, ‘Style and Subversion: Postwar Poses and the Neo-Edwardian Suit in Mid-Twentieth- Century Britain’, Gender and History 14, no. 3 (November 2002): 572. 83 Ibid., 565. 84Christine Feldman-Barrett, ‘Time Machine Fashion: Neo-Victorian Style in Twenty-First Century Subcultures’, Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies 18, no. 3 (2013): 74. 85 Elizabeth E. Guffey, Retro: The Culture of Revival (London: Reaktion Books, 2006), 8, 58. 86 Brown, Carol Mary and Nelly Rhodes, ‘Laura Ashley’, in Contemporary Fashion, 2nd ed., ed. Taryn Benbow- Pfalzgraf (Detroit: St James Press, 2002), 31. 87 Ibid.

35 hippies adorned themselves in flea market finds of granny [Edwardian era] dresses’.88 However, it was not re-creation of the by-gown styles, but rather an eclectic combination of vintage clothes, handcrafted garments and pieces from other cultures. The Hippy movement, in its turn, has inspired the mainstream fashion of the 1970s, which soon developed a romantic fashion movement. The aesthetic mood of this style is accurately captured in a post in an arty online blog Byron’s Muse:

An idealised countryside haven where a maiden in white spends her days in romantic pursuits such as pressing flowers, strolling in the meadows, picking apples, lounging on dozens of soft cushions with floral patterns and daydreaming while the gold rays of the sun and gentle breeze peek through the flimsy white curtains, reading long nineteenth-century novels by Turgenev or Flaubert in forest glades, Beatrix Potter’s witty, innocent world of animals, illustrations by Sarah Key, all the while being dressed in beautiful pastel colours that evoke the softness of Edwardian lace, Lilian Gish and Mary Pickford’s flouncy girlish dresses, long flowing dresses with floral prints and delicate embroidery, straw hats decorated with flowers and ribbons, lace gloves, pretty stockings, and hair in a soft bun with a few locks elegantly framing the face, or all in big rag curls with a large white or blue bow, resembling a hairstyle of a little Victorian schoolgirl.89

It is widely acknowledged that the film industry has a certain influence on fashion. Many films from the 1960s and 1970s are set around the turn-of-the-century, however, their costumes are not always historically accurate. Most important for the film industry was to bring the romantic flavour of the revived Edwardian aesthetic. The emphasis was on the romantic look of heroines: long cotton gowns in pastel colours with lace turtle-necks, large white feathers, straw hats as exemplified in an Australian mystery drama Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) [Fig. 14].

88 José Blanco F., ed., Clothing and Fashion: American Fashion from Head to Toe [4 volumes]: volume 4. The post-war period into the 21st century (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2016), 305. 89 ‘Edwardian Daydreams of the 1970s – Lace, Pastel Colours, Countryside Idyll’, Byron’s Muse (blog), accessed April 7, 2020, https://byronsmuse.wordpress.com/2017/09/08/edwardian-daydreams-of-the-1970s-lace- pastel-colours-countryside-idyll.

36 Figure 14: Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), dir. Peter Weir. Retrieved from https://www.mediaweek.com.au/foxtel-picnic-at-hanging-rock-premiere.

The influence of the Edwardian style can be seen not only in visual arts of that time but also in female fashion, including everyday clothes. Starting from the 1960s, some designers have been drawing inspiration and freely incorporated characteristic details of Victorian and Edwardian fashion in modern clothes. ‘Button-up necks, illusion necklines and butterfly or angel sleeves on dresses cut either without a waist or a higher-fitting empire waist’ – the quintessential elements of neo-Edwardian 1970s style.90 The popularity of such historical reveries of the turn-of-the-century was so high that in 1964 a California-based fashion company Arpeja launched its youth-oriented division ‘Young Edwardian’ that was focused predominantly on producing trendy and affordable Edwardian style- inspired clothes (until its closure in 1994).91 Despite the popularity of the trend, the overall ideas of ‘practicality’ and contemporary materials remain up-to-date – corsets have not witnessed a revival, as well as multi-layered petticoats and lingerie have not come back together with the romantic aesthetic of the original fashion style of the Edwardian times. It was just a nostalgic gesture in which corsets and petticoats were merely stylish accents rather than methods to achieving the proper Edwardian S-curve silhouette. Longer dresses, soft, romantic style of Gibson’s girls with voluptuous hairdo – the romantic neo- Edwardian look was often featured in fashion editorials of 1970 (such as, for instance, Pattie Boyd and Twiggy’s photo shoot for Vogue, 1969). This idea of beauty was opposed to the aggressive, provocative minimalism of the 1960s: long hair with curls instead of the previous ‘bob’ haircut, flowing lace dresses in comparison to the mini dress of the 1960s. There two aesthetics could not be more different and yet coexisted in time and space. Icons of the decade – Barbra Streisand, Catherine

90 Sammy Davis, ‘How 1970s Fashion Trends Stand Out in History’, Vintage Life, accessed May 4, 2020, https://sammydvintage.com/vintage-style/70s/1970s-fashion. 91 ‘Young Edwardian,’ Vintage Fashion Guild, accessed March 17, 2020, https://vintagefashionguild.org/label- resource/young-edwardian.

37 Deneuve, Brigitte Bardot, Jerry Hall, Jane Birkin – all were inspired by the mood of this Edwardian revival. There was something dreamy and otherworldly about those images. Even the image of the 1970s is now connected to that re-actualisation of Edwardian motifs – in the film Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, 1999) set in the 1970s, the wardrobes of heroines are marked by pastel colours, florals patterns and long romantic dresses. Just as it was in the 1960s-70s, the popularity of historical styles nowadays can be partially attributed to the rise of historical cinematography with particular attention to costumes. Starting from the film adaptation of the Titanic (1997) dramatic story, the contemporary movie industry largely favours Edwardian Era: such successful television projects as Downton Abbey, Mr Selfridge, Suffragette, and other films and TV shows are set in the turn-of-the-century Europe.92 Such a boost of the renewed interest in the fashion of 1890- 1918 has marked the 100th anniversary of the period. This may be explained in words of Caroline Evans, who writes in her book Fashion at the Edge: Spectacle, Modernity and Deathliness (2012), that the tendency of fashion to look back and return forms and images from the past may reveal interesting aspects of the present as a reflection in the historical mirror, adding, that ‘if modern fashion loops back to these earlier discourses of the body perhaps it is because it never really left them’.93 It is noteworthy how much people nowadays, even those who have never been interested in the dress history before, start considering the elegant looks of Edwardian ladies and gentlemen and searching for Edwardian inspired clothing, shoes, and accessories. The secret of such attention of the Edwardian Era may be hidden in its timelessness and romantic look: ephemeral lace tea dresses in pastel colours, wide-brim hats with ostrich feathers, white linen suits for men, and straw boater hats. Contemporary fashion easily plays with the forms and images of previous eras, borrowing and transforming them, using citation as an artistic tool. In search of new forms and images, modern designers turn to the historical heritage of the European costume, which acts as a source for creative inspiration and stylisation, looking for something that can meet the needs of the present. A free interpretation and combination of various historical styles and trends by expressive means of bricolage and the eclectic, existing within the framework of the aesthetic concept of postmodernism, reflects some kind of ‘game of charades’, which is intrinsic to the works of prominent couturier such as Jean-Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood. These designers created a whole trend in High Fashion, which can be described as a retrospective of historical costumes – use of various historical images and their reinterpretation

92 Tanya Mohn, ‘Downton Abbey’ boosts interest in products inspired by ‘bygone era’, TODAY (NBC news), January 28, 2013, https://www.today.com/money/downton-abbey-boosts-interest-products-inspired-bygone-era-1C8138531. 93 Caroline Evans, Fashion at the Edge: Spectacle, Modernity and Deathliness (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 11, 305-306.

38 within a new, mode context, create a fashion that carries traces of history, but with elements of irony and grotesque. Through such a return to historical styles and aesthetics in modern fashion, one can see a process of re-actualisation of forms and images of the past.94 Historical motifs, common in modern clothing, may be seen as a conscious reproduction of various distinctive elements and features of garments of the bygone era. If at the beginning of the 20th century, art and culture were set to a progressive, cutting-edge contemporary art and novelty, the end of the century has been marked by the shift towards interest to historical styles as well as their inclusion into art and fashion in various forms and adaptations. An interest in the past had revived in the early 1970s, after the fading of the youth riot across Europe, when left-wing moods gave way to a ‘new conservatism’. The ideas of novelty that had been nourishing art and politics before were revaluated with a growing sense that ‘the future was yesterday’. Modern works are often full of allusions to classical art, quoting, compiling, rethinking and evidentially turning previous artistic findings into a collage. The postmodern era is marked by the search for cultural roots and the revival of traditions in the form of retro styles. Historical novels, memoirs, biographies, classical literature, theatre and art are especially popular. In the concept of postmodernity, each text, including fashion image, can be seen as a new fabric woven from old quotes which represent an aesthetic and stylistic code of the past, the way of thinking or traditions that were in those times. One of the latest issues of Vogue magazine (March 2020) features the revival of Edwardian fashion – ‘a beautiful, old-meets-new trend in which fashion’s latest gilded age comes replete with high-collars, puffed sleeves, [and] delicate lawn dresses’.95 According to the article from the magazine’s website, these ‘modern pieces employ century-old silhouettes and ornate detailing like lace, resulting in garments that feel both yesteryear and entirely new age’.96 Fast-fashion brands are following haute couture houses in the appropriation of the romantic look of the turn-of-the- century fashion.97 Such brands as H&M and Zara regularly use Edwardian motifs (mostly through their interpretation in the 1970s) in their collections, especially for design such garments as blouses, tops and dresses; a Swedish fashion brand KappAhl launched a collection ‘Vintage Stories’, (Spring 2011), drawing inspiration from La Belle Époque.98 Another form of appropriating Edwardian style motifs may be found in several

94 Caroline Evans, Fashion at the Edge: Spectacle, Modernity and Deathliness (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 25-28. 95 Rachel Besser, ‘The New Edwardian: Why Fashion’s Gilded Age Is Back’, Vogue, February, 18t, 2020, https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/edwardian-clothing. 96 Ibid. 97Baya Simons, ‘Edwardian fashion reigns for autumn’, Financial Times, August 23, 2019, https://www.ft.com/content/c4f93cbe-c03b-11e9-b350-db00d509634e. 98 ‘Turn-of-the-century romance in new wrapping brings us vintage stories 2011’, KappAhl, accessed April 12, 2020, https://lifeandstyle.kappahl.com/en/container/press/press-releases/press-releases/2011-02-09.

39 subcultural styles, most prominent of which are Victorian Goth, Japanese Lolita and Steampunk. In these cases, the elements of Victorian and Edwardian fashion are freely mixed and reshaped to create a particular subcultural look that has no intention to be even remotely historically accurate.99 An important aspect of such Edwardian aesthetic adaptation is similar to the Teddy boys – the original fashion is subjugated to the role of a marker of oddness and rebel against dominant cultural and social customs. The opposite attitude to the historical accuracy can be found amongst historical re- enactors, for how the adaptation of the Edwardian fashion plays a significant role in re- creation of the historical era. The past two decades have witnessed a significant development of the civil re-enactment in the form of balls, dinner parties, picnics and other social activities that were popular in the Edwardian times. An important aspect that sets historical re- enactment asides is focused on historical accuracy and attention to the research. Besides, the act of adaptation of Edwardian fashion has a temporary character, i.e. a majority of re- enactors wear contemporary (often mainstream) clothing on a daily basis and dress-up in historical costume only for the sake of accurately re-creating the epoch. From the TV screens to the Internet space, the new Edwardian style has recently reached the furthest frontiers of technologies and made its presence on social networks. Examples of the neo-Edwardian style may be found predominantly on two social platforms – Instagram, which provides visual data for my research and YouTube.100 Reading through dress history, what becomes apparent is that one of the most powerful forces that push fashion-forward is a constant look backwards. This process of constant repetitions and retrospections in fashion has been in the focus of attention of many philosophers and scholars, such as Walter Benjamin, who described it as a ‘tiger’s leap into the past’.101 In Benjamin’s work, history is seen as being fulfilled by the here-and-now [Jetztzeit], and the present is always intertwined with the past.102 Applying this logic to fashion, it may be perceived as a constant repetitive act of citation and recitation of the motifs from the past fashions, incorporating them into the contemporary fashion context through acts

99 The role of the Edwardian aesthetic in the formation of the subcultural styles will be explicitly discussed in a section ‘Hypothesis II: Nostalgia and Ideologies’ of the analysis on pages 56-60. 100 Such as a video ‘Making A (Modern!) Edwardian Walking Skirt || Historical Style’ by Bernadette Banner – a popular YouTube vlogger, dress history expert and authentic historical sewing practices enthusiast. In that video Banner makes an attempt to interpret an Edwardian walking skirt pattern to the practicality of modern big city life. See Bernadette Banner, ‘Making A (Modern!) Edwardian Walking Skirt || Historical Style’, YouTube, August 17, 2018. video, 12:51, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnlzX2A4PGg&t=29s. 101 Walter Benjamin, On the Concept of History, trans. Dennis Redmond, (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1974). Retried from Marxist Internet Archive http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/benjamin/1940/history.htm 102 Zeitgeist – ‘the paradoxical dynamic of novelty and repetition […], the myth of fashion as always striving for the new is a counter-tale of fashion looping back to earlier moments of modernity in the present’. See Caroline Evans, Fashion at the Edge: Spectacle, Modernity and Deathliness (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), 306.

40 of transformation. We live in the era of stylistic pluralism – never before have people been so liberated in ways of self-expression. The perpetual struggle of individuals for the distinctive manifestation of their personality marks the postmodern era, stylistic diversion of which draws inspiration from different sources, amongst which one of the most noticeable is the past – the very idea of adopting elements of the bygone styles charm people. Hence, I propose to view neo-Edwardian style as a part of the endless repetitions of past images, characterising postmodern fashion. This sartorial time travelling may be seen as an opportunity to not only immerse in the aesthetic of the favourable period but re-connect with those times. Despite the cyclical nature of fashion and examples of a constant return, adaptation and appropriation of the Edwardian aesthetics throughout the history of the 20th – 21st century range from the Teddy boys of the 1950s to anyone nowadays who admires or is inspired by Edwardian features/styles in their way of dressing. What remains constant is its character of timeless classic and the romantic flavour, which speak to people of different epochs and cultures.

41 ANALYSIS

DEFINING NEO - EDWARDIAN STYLE

Setting the task of investigating the conditions of the neo-Edwardian style production and striving to comprehend the essence of this style, I propose to have a close look at the key characteristics of this style production and seek to define what transforms these people into modern Edwardians. I start with studying the style from the material perspective, defining it as a form of relationship between people and their possessions. Then I move forward from the consideration of clothing as objects to look instead at how the dress is an embodied activity and one that is embedded within social relations. The neo-Edwardian style may be defined as a contemporary sartorial practice that is falling under an umbrella term of historically-inspired styles, rooted in the aesthetic of the Edwardian era and involves incorporating various elements of the original eponymous style with the added possibility to mix them with pieces of vintage styles from different historical eras as long as an overall impression reminisces the fashionable silhouette of the turn of the 20th century. As it became apparent from the interviews, historical references play a vital role in constructing the style as deliberately anachronistic. Indeed, my observations of the interviewees’ style through their Instagram accounts as well as video call conversations have given me a comprehension of the style being quite fluid and yet aligned with a distinctive image, an impression of the bygone era a century ago. Diversity of the outfits and stylistic divergences, depending on how far an individual chooses to take it (from painstaking attention to details to more minor or subtle ways), has given me fruitful material for study. Describing their style, the interviewees pointed on some typical garments of the Edwardian era that they adopt most frequently. For women, neo-Edwardian wardrobe includes variations of high collar cotton blouses with lace décor combined with a full-length walking skirt (this set could be considered the most ‘iconic’ Edwardian look, exemplified in numerous pictures and films [Fig. 14], long dresses with typical Edwardian cut focusing on the sleeves and an hour-glass silhouette [Fig. 10]. Accessories also play a vital role as the female participants of the study – Olga, Hattie and Mila – mentioned a diverse range of hats and hairdo styles, appropriate for an Edwardian look. Footwear seemed to be a subject of personal choice and comfort. For instance, Mila is a devoted customer of an independent historical

42 reproduction footwear brand American Duchess.103 Olga has some original Edwardian footwear but does not use them often due to their fragility; instead, she prefers modern second-hand shoes with Edwardian-inspired design and shape. When it comes to men’s wear, Tom – the only male participant of this study – describes his typical outfit as a black stroller suit that consists of a slightly cutaway jacket with a waistcoat, straight morning dress trousers (high-waisted trousers with braces), cotton shirt with a stiff double-round collar and a bowler hat (optionally – a semi-formal homburg or boater hat) [Fig. 1]. For Summer, he prefers typical Edwardian picnic attire – a linen suit with a boater (straw boater hat) or a pair of cream flannel trousers combined with a dark jacket. Apart from a couple of pairs of military boots, Tom wears modern shoes as, according to him, male footwear has not changed drastically since Edwardian times.

STYLE AS A PATCHWORK: COLLECTING, CHANGING, COMBINING The notions of ‘look’ and impression seem to play crucial roles for interviewees as their style showed a great deal of compilation. According to Hattie, it is often about styling – ‘one can put together several pieces of clothing that may be modern, but when arranged and paired well with the right accessories, it can give a compelling historical or vintage look’. Existence of a particular historical image of the Edwardian era inevitably raises a question regarding its reproduction. Therefore, it may be argued, for them, the feeling of ‘being’ in style is a matter of impression. I was curious to see whether there are any specific criteria to be applied to one’s style to determine does it fall under the category of the neo-Edwardian style. Seeking to comprehend this issue, I draw a parallel with a Lolita style – an (originally Japanese) subcultural fashion style, the aesthetic definition of which revolve around a lavish version of the Victorian and Edwardian children’s clothing. The most definitive garments and accessories of this subculture – petticoats, bonnets, frills and bows – in their totality constitute elaborate and fastidiously curated outfits. As Bayli Berry notes, there are certain strict rules of how ‘proper’ Lolita should look like and ‘without these rules, the fashion would not have a distinct look at all, and therefore could not be called a distinct name’.104 Thus, these rules, understood and adopted by all Lolitas, appear to be what enables Lolita fashion to exist.

103 American Duchess – a brand of historically accurate footwear, launched in 2011 as small scale production and currently based in Reno, Nevada (USA). Originating in a popular historical costuming blog with the same name, American Duchess as a brand was launch as a reaction on a vacant market niche for elegant, affordable, comfortable and historically accurate footwear that was suitable for daily use, i.e. not theatrical props. In their e- mail subscription promotion, they state that ‘Edwardian style shoes are a great option for those of us who want to do some daily time travel’. Retrieved from ‘About American Duchess’, American Duchess, accessed March 21, 2020, https://www.american-duchess.com/about-us. 104 Bayli Berry, ‘Ethnographic Comparison of a Niche Fashion Group, Lolita’ (MA thesis, Florida Atlantic University, 2017), 39.

43 On the contrary, when I asked the participants of my study regarding their styles, the interviewees’ replies were similar and stated that there are no particular rules or a ‘quintessential garment’ (such as petticoat in case of Lolita) that one has to adapt to build an impression of the era. In her interview, Olga stresses, that adaptation of the Edwardian style motifs is a matter of one’s personal preferences, and Mila says that she does not think ‘fashion should have rules’. However, despite such a liberal approach of the participants to defining their styles, I have noted that there is one uniting aspect that has to be taken into consideration – an aesthetic, each piece of the outfit would subjugate to – ‘as if it was from the [Edwardian] period’, says Olga. The interviews showed that the neo-Edwardian style enthusiasts do not limit themselves to only antique/historically accurate garments and often do not disdain newly made pieces, when the look aligns with the aesthetics of the Edwardian era fashion. Mila says that she does not think a ‘perfect historical accuracy exists’. In her Instagram account Mila writes that:

None of my looks are accurate either, and I think 100% historical accuracy is a myth anyhow - it doesn’t exist. I am not wearing a costume, the looks you see here are all outfits I wear in regular daily life, for work, school, study etc. Of course I take liberties, and sometimes I intentionally change things (which is why I roasted myself too!). And different people prefer different levels of ‘liberties’. I personally wear a corset and other foundation garments but I totally get that a lot of people prefer not to. And it’s great we have the freedom to. Because thankfully we don’t live in the past. That is different to companies and film makers thinking that people cannot handle anything unless it is hyper sexualised. Often, the end product is completely unrecognizable and the essence of the original inspiration is lost.

Yet it is still important for her as well as all other participants, that the outfit looks as ‘authentic’ as possible given what they have in their possessions. Most things Mila buys are vintage or based on historical patterns; however, it does not have to be exclusively vintage or antique or an accurate replica. According to Mila’s interview, she often mixes clothes from various eras and decades (for instance, her favourite hat she wears with her ‘iconic’ Edwardian walking suite [Fig. 4] is a 1950s boater). But she always tries to make them look as consistent as possible – ‘it is more of an intention, it isn’t about perfection’. According to Tom, one of the problems with neo-Edwardian style is that because we are so far away from that era, it is difficult to find pieces that are in excellent condition that one could wear every day. Indeed, objects from Edwardian era circulate in the modern world

44 mostly in the form of historical artefacts in the museum and private collections, rarely – in antique stores, with predictably high price tags, though. ‘Very difficult to find, too fragile’ – these are epithets regarding the Edwardian time clothes that have occurred through the interviews and occasionally mentioned in relevant YouTube videos. Therefore, all participants of my study are involved in a creative venture of searching, combining, re-making and adjusting pieces of both antique and vintage, but also modern production. All three female participants – Hattie, Olga and Mila – have a passion for historical sewing and not only adjust purchased garments, but also make pieces of their clothing based on historical patterns. Tom does not express interest in making his clothes, however, he mentioned being interested in hunting for vintage and theatrical/film costumes from 1950-60s, as they are wearable – ‘I can wear them regularly without worrying about them falling apart’. When Olga collates pieces, produced in different periods, she always aims for the same aesthetic. In one look she may combine, for instance, an antique original Edwardian blouse, a skirt made by herself and based on the historical pattern, a vintage 1970s jacket, modern Edwardian-inspired shoes and accessories and jewellery of various epochs (for instance, 1930s gloves, a/or 1940s hat, antique hatpins). Despite such a broad range of clothing types, one aspect would be the same – Olga carefully chooses garment pieces and style them in a way the whole ensemble gives an intended impression – ‘it is a skill to consciously mix-and- match pieces’ – says Olga. Drawing parallels with vintage fashion styles (such as the 1930s, the 1940s or 1950s, for instance), she states, that ‘if you can get the whole look, with all accessories – a gown, gloves, a hat, a proper hairstyle and jewellery, it is spot on and it makes such a huge impact on the viewer. Therefore, it may be argued that an impression of objects is determined not only by their characteristics but also by relations to and with other objects. This is what Belk describes as ‘only a complete ensemble of consumption objects may be able to represent the diverse and possibly incongruous aspects of the total self’.105 Hence, the neo- Edwardian style may be seen as a system, every element of which is coordinated with each other to create a specific impression, reminiscent of the fashion of the turn of the 20th century. What becomes evident from the interviews, is that the practice of adopting the neo- Edwardian style may be defined in three terms: collecting, changing, combining. Therefore, I propose to perceive this style as a patchwork that aims to create a certain impression of the bygone era and yet does not subjugate to any particular rules. This view should not be confused with the notion of ‘bricolage’, typical for subcultural styles – displacement of items, compared to their original practical meaning, breaking with the origin of things in order to

105 Russell W. Belk, ‘Possessions and the Extended Self’, Journal of Consumer Research 15, no. 2 (1988): 140.

45 give them new meanings.106 In contrast to a ‘carnivalesque’ mode of the subcultural appropriations and bricolage, the neo-Edwardian style strives to recreate an original ideal of Edwardian fashion, and for that, it is rather important to use elements the way it was appropriate back in Edwardian times.

DRESS AS A TIME MACHINE Talking about the impression that style makes on other people, Olga calls clothing a powerful tool, which allows an individual to manipulate one’s image in the way people perceive them by means of associations. She brings examples, of people reacting to her style and how those who are not familiar with historically-inspired fashion styles, immediately referring to popular period dramas such as Downton Abbey or just upper class or higher society, trying to comprehend the neo-Edwardian style. Indeed, historical and historically- inspired clothing is undoubtedly among the material objects that are capable of providing a sense of time travel. In her book Fashioning Memory: Vintage Style and Youth Culture (2017), Heike Jenss states that ‘an expanding memory culture propelled through the accumulation and circulation of the past in material and visual culture’.107 These historical artefacts and personal possession act as a time machine, capable of evoking past eras, lives and narratives. To quote Jenss, wearing fashions of the past ‘opens up an imaginary time travel, technically realised through the interconnection of dress and space’.108 According to a philosopher William Joske, material objects are frequently associated with non-material things.109 In the study of the American Civil War re-enactors, Mitchell Strauss points out the significance of costume and props for creating the illusion of travelling back in time.110 For my interviewees, who clearly never lived (or not even been born) in the period, they now recall with their clothes, the Edwardian era is not distant history but rather a living moment that belongs ‘to the world of the present, even as they propose an entirely different relationship to the present, its spaces and its objects’.111 In their sartorial journeys into history, these people show that ‘the past’ does not mean something far removed from the present moment. By adopting and utilising clothing that had been ordinary in the earlier modern times and putting it into the present context, these sartorial practices re-actualise the style and ‘attribute new symbolic values to

106 Philip Warkander, ‘“This is all fake, this is all plastic, this is me” A study of the interrelations between style, sexuality and gender in contemporary Stockholm’ (PhD diss., Stockholm University, 2013), 242. 107 Heike Jenss, Fashioning Memory: Vintage Style and Youth Culture (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 1. 108 Heike Jenss, ‘Dressed in History: Retro Styles and the Construction of Authenticity in Youth Culture’, Fashion Theory 8, no. 4 (2004): 390-1. 109 William David Joske, Material objects (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1967), 1-2. 110 Mitchell D. Strauss ‘A Framework for Assessing Military Dress Authenticity in Civil War Re-Enacting’, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 19, no. 4 (2001): 147. 111 David L. Pike, ‘After images of the Victorian City’, Journal of Victorian Culture 15, no.2 (2010): 266.

46 clothing by altering them or by combining specific items in new ways’.112 In her writing on the subject of adopting the 1960s fashion as a lifestyle (2004), Jenss shows, this revision of the past may be a more interesting and fulfilling alternative way to live in the present.113 As Tom explains the choice of his style – ‘we lack something in the modern style, and therefore we try to bring it from the past – culture, aesthetic beauty, music, dances’. Therefore, I argue, that adaptation of bygone aesthetic may be viewed as an enrichment of one’s contemporary life, rather than escapist time-travelling – the practitioners of history- inspired neo-Edwardian style reinvent or subvert the aesthetic, imagery and fashion forms of the bygone style according to the needs of the modern world. According to the interviewees, there is something special about putting on clothing that is rooted in a particular historical period – it makes them feel powerful to be able to channel the past. Even though we cannot step back in time, we still can put on clothes from a favourite era and experience at least a bit of what it was like to live in that era. As Elizabeth Wilson notices, clothing manifest cultural phenomena by fulfilling aesthetic, social and communicative functions and setting boundaries between the self and the outer world.114 Bringing in a subjective experience of the neo-Edwardian style wearer, I feel that by incorporating vintage and historically-inspired style pieces into my wardrobe I acquire new, immersive understanding of those time, beyond one-dimensional view through written accounts. Besides, wearing unconventional, non-mainstream clothing can open up new possibilities because people look at you differently. You become a guide into the past and every so often illustrate that individual style serves as a connecting point to not only like- minded style enthusiasts but also for reaching to other people. Therefore, I argue, that the value of the neo-Edwardian style is in its sartorial symbolism – these people appropriate elements and forms of Edwardian style and adapt them to their daily dress practices because they resonate with their aesthetic aspirations. Clothing allows us to communicate with others by telling them who we are and allowing us to learn who they are. This insight derives from symbolic interactionism, a sociological school of thought that examines how various aspects of social life, including fashion, convey meaning and thereby assist or impede communication, organise and structure cognitive processes through symbolic representation.115 Those who deal with the images and forms of historical style clothes combine

112 Diana Crane and Laura Bovone. ‘Approaches to Material Culture: The Sociology of Fashion and Clothing’, Poetics 34 (2006): 323. 113 Heike Jenss, ‘Dressed in History: Retro Styles and the Construction of Authenticity in Youth Culture’, Fashion Theory 8, no. 4 (2004). 114 Elizabeth Wilson, Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity (London: I B Tauris, 2003 [1985]), 3. 115 Robert Brym and John Lie, Sociology: Pop Culture to Social Structure (Belmont, California: Cengage, 2012).

47 and rethink images, giving historically developed forms a different content, thereby expanding the palette of symbolic metaphors of the costume.

COMFORT AND RESTRICTIONS Studying academic literature on the issue of anti-fashion dress practices, what becomes evident is that there is a certain scale of eccentricity each practitioner chooses to which degree they dare to step up. According to some scholars, people who involved in historically-inspired and vintage dress practices often exhibit faceted style identities, often draw a distinction between clothing worn during work hours and during their leisure time.116 In the article ‘On Vintage Values: The Experience of Second-hand Fashion Reacquisition’ (2015), some participants of the study maintain two separate wardrobes, in which vintage is reserved ‘just for fun’, while others wear the same clothing for both work and leisure time, just changing certain details and accessories.117 This devisor of wardrobe on ‘public’ and ‘private’ can be explained by Goffman’s concept of the ‘backstage’ – in order to maintain a particular impression of their style participants make a conscious selection of what is presented to the world and what is kept behind closed doors.118 What becomes apparent from my ethnographic study, those who practice the neo- Edwardian style do not divide their wardrobes on ‘modern, comfortable’ for staying at home and ‘Edwardian-inspired’ for going out. According to the interviewees, people often assume, seeing someone dressed in the neo-Edwardian style, that it must be quite uncomfortable to wear such ‘restrictive’ (by the standards of modern mass-market) clothing. According to Hattie, she does not understand when people say that dresses and skirts are restrictive or impractical. All three female participants of the study mentioned doing all kinds of everyday activities such as going to work, playing sports, going hiking or doing housework wearing either dress or a skirt. Tom says that he is occasionally asked, whether he feels stuffy or constrained by his attire, especially if he wears an Edwardian high Imperial collar. He replies that he feels ‘much more comfortable in that than going out with no collar on at all’. For Tom, the Edwardian look had originally been predominantly a performance/rehearsing/work meetings related

116 Examples include: Marie‐Cécile Cervellon, Lindsey Carey, and Trine Harms, ‘Something old, something used: Determinants of women’s purchase of vintage fashion vs second‐hand fashion’, International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management 40, no. 12 (2012): 956-974; Julie McColl, Catherine Canning, Louise McBride, Karina Nobbs, and Linda Shearer, ‘It’s Vintage Darling! An exploration of vintage fashion retailing’, The Journal of the Textile Institute 104, no. 2 (2013): 140-150. 117 Anne E. Bowser et al., ‘On Vintage Values: The Experience of Second-hand Fashion Reacquisition’, Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – CHI’15 (2015): 897–906. 118 Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (New York: Doubleday, 1959), 67.

48 outfit, however, nowadays, he wears Edwardian-inspired clothing for any social occasions – ‘I do not feel stuffy in it, I could still wear it to social occasions or drinks with friends, being around, running errands and such’ – says Tom. Olga agrees with Tom, saying that:

Many people think that Edwardian clothing must be very warm because you wear so many layers, but in reality, if you wear only natural fibres and you dress reasonably, you do not feel that hot even you are in a corset or layers of undergarments.

When she was in her early twenties, there was a period of Olga’s life when she experimented with wearing a corset daily for about a year. She was driven by an interest to see how it felt. According to Olga, people asked her whether she felt too hot in it or could not breathe. An observation that Olga shared with me is that she got used to the feeling of wearing a corset every day to the point she started to feel ‘as if it was a part of her body’, which is not restrictive in any way. Despite not wearing a corset every day nowadays, Olga still uses it quite often when dressed full-Edwardian outfit. She says that the Edwardian clothing is cut in a way it does not look well (floppy and messy) unless one wears a proper foundation. The silhouette played a vital role in creating an impression. She always dressed appropriately to the occasion, and therefore, it is vital to plan ahead what would she be doing and what may happen. Going to work or doing something casual such as grocery, Olga prefers non- restrictive Edwardian style clothes (such as blouses and skirts) and something that will not suffer any damage (in case of fragile antique garments). On the other hand, when she goes to a party with friends, Olga allows herself to dress as extravagantly as she likes.

UNDERSTANDING NEO - EDWARDIAN STYLE

The analysis of the neo-Edwardian style raised a question regarding the nature of the style and what motivates the participants of this study to adopt the Edwardian aesthetic in their everyday sartorial practices. Conducting the qualitative case study, I noted that interviewees drew parallels with re-enactment as well as certain subcultures and yet clearly do not classify themselves belonging to any of them in an attempt to explain their style practices. Outside the ethnographic study, I have also noted that the scarcity of literature and overall information on the subject leads to a certain confusion when I try to explain the

49 phenomenon to some ordinary people – a few private conversations with those who are not involved in any form of period dress practices have shown a great deal of misunderstanding when it comes to distinguishing such history-related phenomenon as re-enactment and vintage/historically-inspired dress practices. For some people, the neo-Edwardian style seems to be a form of an obscure subcultural style.119 Meanwhile, others perceive it as merely a temporary ‘roles’ that wearers assume on special occasions.120 Such confusion led to the formulation of a question regarding the nature of the neo-Edwardian style – how should those be perceived who stepped beyond the concept of ‘dressing up’ for special occasions and chose the historical fashion as the daily personal style? Hence, in order to understand the neo- Edwardian style, it is crucial to define what does set this practice aside from any others. In simple terms, to define what this practice is, I first need to define what this practice is not. There are two hypotheses that I formulated based on the scholarly literature review and during conducting the ethnographic research:

1. People who adopt Edwardian aesthetic in their modern wardrobes are, essentially, full- time re-enactors and their clothes are a form of dressing-up; 2. These people are driven to Edwardian aesthetic because of a sense of nostalgia for ‘better times’ which serves as an ideological background for an emerge of a new subcultural style;

I am eager to test these assumptions, and therefore I build my enquiry by exploring the notion of historical re-enactment, costumes and subcultural styles, and juxtaposing them to the neo-Edwardian style practice.

HYPOTHESIS I: BEYOND NOTIONS OF HISTORICAL COSTUMING As it was discussed earlier, despite being rooted in the aesthetic of the Edwardian Era, the neo-Edwardian style is a unique personal adaptation of stylistic motifs through the lens of one’s perception. However, due to the ties to the historical fashion, the modern adaptation of the Edwardian style may be mistakenly viewed as a form of dressing-up. This hypothesis lies in the

119 An interpretation of the term ‘subculture’ has been repeatedly changed along the history of youth subcultures starting from its dawn in the 1960s. Basing my notion on John Clarke’s Resistance through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post War Britain, I propose to define distinctive characteristics of ‘traditional’ subcultures as ‘reasonably tight boundaries, distinctive shapes, which have cohered around particular activities, focal concerns and territorial spaces’. See John Clarke et al., ‘Subcultures, cultures and class’, in Resistance through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post War Britain, eds. Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson (London: Routledge, 1990), 14. 120 Due to the popularisation of history on media and the Internet, a lot of people nowadays get occasionally dressed-up in historical costumes, usually as a part of historical re-enactment or cosplay (costume play – a form of dressing-up in order to achieve resemblance with a certain, often fictional, character).

50 core of Dina Smith’s PhD study of historically-inspired styles adaptation as sartorial practices.121 The notion of historical authenticity plays a core role in participation in re-enactment events – historical costumes are garments with the purpose to recreate a realistic and accurate representation of a particular historical period by using authentic historical patterns and techniques of production.122 These garments are not clothes per se, but rather the costumes one wears for fun or educational purposes. Despite seeking inspiration in the Edwardian era, these modern neo-Edwardians practice their period style on an everyday basis and not only in certain kinds of situations or contexts (historical re-enactment events or living history museums) in which the outfit is worn. Commenting on such an attitude, Tom says: ‘we are not tied up to be historically accurate; we can pick and choose both eras either side [of the Edwardian period]’ that is Victorian and the 1910s-1920s respectively. He does not live a life of historical/vintage ‘purist’. By historical ‘purism’ I mean immersive attempts to ‘live’ in a historical era, that may be exemplified by the experimental study This Victorian Life.123 Other examples may be television miniseries The 1900 House (2000) and The Edwardian Country House (2002).124 My interviewees do not reject modern technologies to recreate historically-accurate mode of living in Edwardian times. The style, influencing certain aspects of their lives (first and foremost dress, but also elements of home decor) does not, however, prevail over comfortable existence in the realm of the 21st century. The contrast may be seen in comparison to Jenss’s study of the Sixties scene in Germany, which lifestyle is a complete creation of the mythic 1960s – ‘living in a matching home, decorated with Sixties furniture, the self-created Sixties world is a product of complete immersion into the style’.125 According to Jenss, the importance of the consumption

121 Smith, Dina Cherise, Historically-Inspired Dress as a Personal Style Choice (MA thesis, University of Southern Mississippi, 2011), https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/smith_dina_c_201108_ms.pdf. 122 In the scope of the present study, the term ‘costume’ is understood as clothing for ‘out-of-every-day social role or activity [that include] dress for the theatre, folk, or other festivals, ceremonies, and rituals’. See Mary Ellen Roach- Higgins and Joanne B. Eicher, ‘Dress and Identity’, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 10, no. 4 (1992): 3; Mitchell D. Strauss, ‘A Framework for Assessing Military Dress Authenticity in Civil War Reenacting’, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 19, no. 4 (2001): 145. 123 A long-term auto-ethnographic study of the culture, dress and technology of the late 19th century, conducted by an American couple of Sarah and Gabriel Chrisman. For more than ten years they have been living as if it was the 1880s – their house is stripped of any modern technologies (except electricity and computers) and their lifestyle (including clothing, food and leisure time) is subject of the late Victorian era re-creation. See Sarah A. Chrisman, This Victorian Life: Modern Adventures in Nineteenth-Century Culture, Cooking, Fashion, and Technology (New York: Skyhorse Publishing 2015). 124 Both projects re historical reality television programmes, depicting two independent three-month immersive live history experiments, in which participants (all – volunteers) are given the identities of turn-of-the-century people from the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ classes – an aristocratic family and their servants in a house/mention. The experiments aim to re-create everyday life in a rich country estate in the early Edwardian era with the focus on the relationship between classes and participants’ reflections on the immersive experience. See projects’ websites: https://www.pbs.org/manorhouse and https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-1900-house. 125 Heike Jenss, ‘Dressed in History: Retro Styles and the Construction of Authenticity in Youth Culture’, Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture 8, no. 4 (2004): 390.

51 of the authentic articles in regard to that vintage style ad well as an overall dedication to the chosen historical aesthetic (the 1960s) is crucial the group of style enthusiasts in her study.126 Unlike participants of Jenss’ study, my interviewees incorporate pieces of the historical fashion into their sartorial practice in an organic way and yet does it freely, every time defining how much ‘in style’ they want to be. Olga highlights that even in everyday life, it is important for her to keep the look ‘as Edwardian as possible’. However, she does not call herself a re-enactor, since she does not aim to portray 100 per cent accurate Edwardian era, because ‘we live in a different time’. Regarding the historical accuracy of his outfits, Tom says that he does not mind ‘mixing and matching’ elements of different decades and even epochs as long as an overall look can be loosely attributed to a particular historical era, for instance, the Edwardian one. It is interesting to note, that when it comes to working/participate in specific historical events (such as the commemoration of World War I in 2014, for instance), Tom tries to be more historically accurate – ‘when there are historical re-enactors around I would endeavour to be as precise as I can’. He also adds that in an ordinary, day-to-day situation of social gathering with friends or running errands, he would ‘relax those rules for myself’. Such a liberal attitude to historical accuracy I view in the light of perceiving the neo-Edwardian style as a personal style and therefore a reflection of one’s life. As above-noted, depending on the circumstances, my interviewees adjust their look to match the context and yet stay true to the favoured aesthetic. This fluidity proves my argument that the neo-Edwardian style does not subjugate to the ‘historical’ rules of the original Edwardian style. Comparing to the difference between a mirror and a prism, in which the former reflects the light, while the letter breaks it up into constituent spectral colours, the re-enactment strives to re-create (mirror) the original historical forms, while the neo-Edwardian style creates a diversity of forms reminiscent to the original style. Hattie’s answer regarding historical accuracy was similar to Tom – if it is for a re-enactment of a historical themed event or vintage festival, she will do her best to make it look historically appropriate. ‘I think historical accuracy is very important for these kinds of events’ – says Hattie – ‘it makes the whole event better if people do research first and put time and effort into their outfits and be mindful of historical accuracy’. Nevertheless, regarding her daily style, Hattie likes taking aspects of Edwardian and World War I fashion and incorporate them into her outfits [Fig. 15] so that people who are also interested will recognise these features, but the outfit should not look ‘too costumey or attention-seeking’ for the general public.

126 Heike Jenss, ‘Dressed in History: Retro Styles and the Construction of Authenticity in Youth Culture’, Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture 8, no. 4 (2004): 388.

52

Figure 15: Collage from Hattie’s Instagram account. The dress made by Hattie herself and based on a 1915 fashion plate (on the right). It is not an exact copy as she took inspiration from several places.

Another comparison with re-enactment may be drawn here – being a hobby-based activity, historical costuming dressing-up is a form of theatrical acting, and therefore re- enactors are most often happy to engage in a conversation with people as well as pose for photos. According to Mitchell D. Strauss, such interest from the general public is perceived as an opportunity to educate the audience, informing about the favourite historical period.127 Therefore, an attitude toward ‘being observed’ is generally relaxed and friendly amongst re- enactors, for whom it is an opportunity to ‘show off’. Meanwhile, the study shows that since neo-Edwardian style adopters do not perceive their clothes as costumes, public attention viewed as a general curiosity to their style as much as it would have been a case with any other unconventional sartorial practice. Tom says that initially, he was struggling with reactions from the general public that he meets daily on the streets and the process of defining his style as well as getting comfortable to practice it was a gradual transition. Retrospectively, Tom considers the moustache gave him permission to wear vintage/reproduction clothes and carry his style through – ‘with facial furniture like this it is hard to wear anything but [historically inspired attire]. People expect some sort of theatricality or British eccentricity, silliness’.

127 Mitchell D. Strauss, ‘Identity construction among Confederate Civil War re-enactors: A study of dress, stage props, and discourse’, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 21, no. 4 (2003).

53 Figure 16: Story from Olga’s Instagram account in which she refers to the reaction of people in the public transport on her outfit. The capture says: ‘People’s facial expressions on the train: always priceless.

The interview with Olga proves that point – ‘the more you dive into the style, the more extravagant it becomes’, – says Olga – ‘the less you actually notice how people because you just stop paying attention’. Olga calls the public transport a place of casual attention to her from strangers. Usually, people cast a glance, rarely staring and occasionally try to take a picture [Fig. 16]. Hattie, who usually tones down her look to an Edwardian-inspired vintage style, says that she usually gets nice compliments, especially from work friends. However, would she be dressed ‘in full Edwardian dress’, the attention would be much more pronounced. When it comes to every day/work-related occasion, Hattie aims for a vaguely Edwardian/World War I/vintage feel without needing to adhere to the accuracy of any particular year as it does not need to be defined as such. She finds it more comfortable to wear clothes influenced by the mid-1910s style in everyday life as the hem-lengths were shorter and styles looked more ‘casual’ (by modern standards) – ‘I like this style’ – says Hattie – ‘as it allows an Edwardian aesthetic but simpler than earlier Edwardian styles, more pared-down, practical and less frilly’. Mila says that since she is a very introverted person, she used to react emotionally to people staring at her, perceiving it as an indirect invasion into her personal space. She certainly gets more attention being dressed in Edwardian attire, as historically, this style has never been adopted in South Korea (where Mila lives currently), and most people associate it with art. What became apparent from the interviews, is that neo-Edwardian style outfits are perceived by the interviewees as ordinary clothes. They have been adhering to such a style in everyday clothes for so long that they do not have the feeling being dressed inadequately to an everyday situation, despite evident discrepancy (acknowledged by the participants themselves) in comparison to the dressed in mainstream clothing crowd. This can be explained through Jukka Gronow and Alan Warde’s analysis of consumption routines, where clothes are involved in everyday bodily practices that make them often invisible to the people who practice them.128

128 Jukka Gronow and Alan Warde, Ordinary Сonsumption (London: Routledge, 2001).

54 Lastly, the notion of ‘role’ plays a vital role in understanding the phenomenon of historical re- enactment. According to Strauss, re-enactors utilise historical associations to build an impression of another persona.129 This element of theatricality described by Kimberly Miller-Spillman as acting out and dressing for non-realistic roles such as nobility or military of the bygone era.130 This process of ‘self-exploration and confirmation’131 is similar to gaining an ideal sense of self through wearing costumes of the time in which re-enactors would like to be. In this situation, costume allows individuals to construct a fantasy identity. Within the framework of symbolic interactionism, Stone discusses the act of socialisation which refers to the acting out of roles and its relationship to identity construction. The adaptation of his theory in the work of Miller-Spillman, explains the act of wearing historical costumes and historically-inspired clothing as a form of fantastic roles as their identities are anachronistic, meaning they are out of their original time and place. According to Smith, who bases her enquiry on the works of Miller-Spillman, Strauss, Belk and Costa, there is a wide range of personal motivations for participating in re-enactment events and wearing historical costumes as a hobby – amongst which one of the most prominent is an ‘opportunity to play a role ‘larger than life’.132 According to Strauss, participation and re-enacting and wearing of historical costumes implies taking on completely new identities – a form of escapism into illusionary/historical fantasy setting, assuming another persona.133 Hence, through dressing up in historical costumes, re-enactors can express a part of themselves that otherwise they would not be able to express in modern, daily life.134 Indeed, Strauss states that the symbolic nature of re-enactment costumes serves as a motivating factor. Therefore, it may be argued that re-enactment inevitable include some forms of theatricality, role-play and carnivalesque – for re-enactors, the act of dressing in historical costumes is more than pretending to step back in time, it is a role-play, where one adopts characteristics of another, ‘theatrical’ version of an ideal self, as it is shown in works of Hall and Belk and Costa.135

129 Mitchell D. Strauss, ‘Identity construction among Confederate Civil War re-enactors: A study of dress, stage props, and discourse’, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 21, no. 4 (2003): 149. 130 Kimberly A. Miller-Spillman, ‘Dress: Private and secret self-expression’, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 15, no. 4 (1997): 224. 131 Rory Turner, ‘Bloodless battles: The Civil War re-enacted’, The Drama Review 34, no. 4 (1990): 134. 132 Mitchell D. Strauss ‘A Framework for Assessing Military Dress Authenticity in Civil War Re-Enacting’, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 19, no. 4 (2001): 150. 133 Ibid., 147. 134 In their study on mountain man re-enactors, Belk and Costa argue that by temporarily adopting the rugged lifestyle of American frontiers explorers, these people venture intro ‘partaking of a deeply rooted American mythology. This mythology emphasises values of freedom and independence more than worldly success and material achievement’. The desire for a more mystical way of living, ‘freedom from government, bureaucracy, rushed schedules, and imposed obligations’ is expressed through possessions, both material and immaterial: costumes, appearance, manner, and grooming, et cetera. See Russell W. Belk and Janeen A. Costa, ‘The mountain man myth: A contemporary consuming fantasy’, Journal of Consumer Research, 25, no.3 (1998): 234-5. 135 Ibid.

55 On the contrary, the neo-Edwardian style practitioners are drawn to the style due to its ability to convey their identities. As it may be seen, search for self-identity lies in the core of historically-inspired dress practices whether they are limited to merely dressing-up for historical re-enactment events or build a personal style centred around particular historical fashion motifs. Being deeply rooted in history, both re-enactment dresses and the neo- Edwardian style share certain similarities in their symbolic nature and association with the past. However, the neo-Edwardian style does not have an aim to be effective in an accurate representation of the original Edwardian era fashion. It is a personal taste and choice-based adaptation of the eponymous historical fashion. It does not imply playing any role or even pretend to be anybody else by themselves dressed in an old-fashioned way. All participants highlighted that they are not living historians or full-time re-enactors despite the overlapping areas of interests. The interviews have shown, that for the neo- Edwardians historical accuracy is significant only to a certain degree and each of the style practitioners decides on multiple occasions how far on the scale of historical accuracy they want to go, depending on how comfortable it feels. As the interviewees do not use setting and manner in addition to appearance to construct their historic or semi-historic personas, I argue that neo-Edwardian sartorial practice is not a form of costume dressing-up but rather a personal style choice and the adaptation of the historical style motifs does not equal to the act of performing history. By adopting their period style, neo-Edwardian enthusiasts seek to express their identities. In their cultural practices, they create a lifestyle that is inspired by the aesthetic of the Edwardian epoch and yet not restricted to its accurate re-creation.

HYPOTHESIS II: NOSTALGIA AND IDEOLOGIES The phenomenon of re-imagination of the past is not exclusive in the form of the neo- Edwardian style. The rejection of consumerism and mass production in favour of an anachronistic alternative may be treated as a form of mindful disobedience that serves as the political and ideological ground for the development of a diverse range of subcultures and alternative cultural tribes. Being a niche fashion, the practice of wearing the neo-Edwardian style might be assumed to be a form of alternative subcultural fashion, the way to differentiate oneself from the conventionality of mainstream fashion choices. Seeking to comprehend such a correlation, I propose to analyse an example of the Victoriana and Edwardian fashions adaptation in a subcultural context – Victorian Goths. Visual attributions of this subculture are focused on the elevation and idealisation of the macabre until it becomes the central tenant of

56 their aesthetic. As Valerie Steele suggests, ‘elements of Victorian [and Edwardian] fashion, such as mourning dress and corsets, became incorporated into goth style, precisely because (from a modern perspective) they seemed desirably ‘dark’, ‘romantic’, ‘mysterious’ and ‘macabre’’.136 Holland enhances this idea, suggesting that black clothing is associated with resistance which is intrinsically presented within the Goth subculture.137 As Entwistle notes, ‘the style of the subcultures articulates the particular issues or problems that the youth attend to and attempt to resolve’.138 It is also not focused on specific cultural motifs (for instance, mourning, decade, death). The idea that members express certain values and ideals (oppositional to the mainstream culture) employing appearance and stylistic choices which, in its turn, creates a sense of belonging, is strongly connected to the perception of the subculture.139 In her book, Hollander argues that those who dress in vintage ‘full-time’ show sufficient cohesiveness as a group and thus can be referred to as a subcultural group. Applying this notion on the study of the neo-Edwardian style I propose the second hypothesis – a presumably subcultural nature of the neo-Edwardian style with the ideological ground that may be defined as the sense of nostalgia, a romanticised view of the past that acts as a motivation to wear historically-inspired clothing. Indeed, the affiliations with the past, as well as adaptation of the bygone style brings a question regarding connections between the adaptation of bygone era aesthetics and a sense of longing for ‘better times’. In this study, I propose to comprehend nostalgia as a form of longing for an idealised past, which does not necessarily tie to personal memories. The most appropriate definition of this form of nostalgia I found in Belk’s study, who defines nostalgia as a sadness without an object and states that the relevance of nostalgic longing to the self:

[…] nostalgia (like long-term memory, like reminiscence, like daydreaming) is deeply implicated in our sense of who we are, what we are about, and (though possibly with much less inner clarity) whither we go. In short, nostalgia is [...] a readily accessible psychological lens [...] for the never-ending work of constructing, maintaining, and reconstructing our identities.140

136 Valerie Steele and Jennifer Park, Gothic: Dark Glamour (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 105. 137 Samantha Holland, Alternative Femininities: Body, Age and Identity (Oxford: Berg., 2004), 73. 138 Joanne Entwistle, The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015), 132. 139 Caroline Evans defines the term ‘subculture’ as a ‘group with common interests whose identity and social status are, somehow, against the grain – marginal rather than central, in opposition to, and disenfranchised from, the mainstream’. See Caroline Evans, ‘Dreams That Only Money Can Buy… Or, The Shy Tribe in Flight from Discourse’, Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture 1, no. 2 (1997): 181; Ted Polhemus, Streetstyle: From Sidewalk to Catwalk (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994). 140 Russell W. Belk, ‘Possessions and the Extended Self’, Journal of Consumer Research 15, no. 2 (1988): 149.

57 Janelle L. Wilson views industrialisation, urbanisation, rapid social and technological changes leading to a sense of powerlessness, that causes individuals and groups to seek comfort in the mythical, ‘better’ past.141 In the paradigm of fashion it may be defined by Barbara Vinken’s words, who describes it as mode de cent ans – a style that in addition to retreating to an ideal time, it retreats into a better world of a fictional past.142 Because historical costume or historically-inspired dress is only copied, they create entirely new time, one that is romanticised and ideal, as opposed to travelling to the actual past. Vinken, applying this notion to retro/revival styles, calls them ‘démodé’ which stands for ‘no longer fashionable’.143 She continues, stating that the most significant tendency of the mode de cent ans is to seek an escape in an idealistic past, in which ‘time stands still, or to displace itself into other times and other structures of time, into a time outside of a time’.144 Hence, the understanding of nostalgia proposes an idea of escapism, as much as in the case of re- enactment hobby. According to Hall, nostalgia is ‘not simply longing for the past, but a response to conditions in the present’.145 Indeed, the age of global outsourcing and mass- production clothing, which led to a market flooded with low-quality trendy clothing, is marked by the desire for more original, unique styles coincided with the search for better quality. As Belk notes in his essay, aesthetic preference for bygone era items (i.e. antiquities) over currently produced artefacts may be explained by a search for the ‘sympathetic magic (contagion) of possessions’ just as we seek to extend our selves by incorporating or owning particular objects.146 As McCracken describes it, quoted in Belk:

[…] through idealised and nostalgic visions of the ‘golden age’ of a misty past, [individuals] use the past to maintain values that never existed. With such an unassailable image of the past, antiques from that era become powerful symbols by which we may listen to the past and hear it confer its imagined virtues upon us.147

141 In her book Nostalgia (2005), Janelle Wilson writes that ‘nostalgia is especially likely to exist when a society is under pressure, providing a framework for people to think about what is going wrong and what should be done about it. In this instance, nostalgia is ideological to the degree that images of the past are appealing (albeit distorted), and individuals buy into past visions without a great deal of critical appraisal. Rather than deal with reality today, we can retreat to a comfortable past that never existed or that belonged to someone else’ from Janelle L. Wilson, Nostalgia (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2005), 45. 142 Barbara Vinken, Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and Cycles in the Fashion System, trans. Mark Hewson (Oxford: Berg, 2005), 36. 143 Ibid., 67 144 Ibid. 145 Dennis Hall, ‘Civil War Reenactors and the postmodern sense of history’, Journal of American Culture 17, no. 3 (1994): 9. 146 Russell W. Belk, ‘Possessions and the Extended Self’, Journal of Consumer Research 15, no. 2 (1988): 149. 147 Ibid., 149.

58 According to Tracy Diane Cassidy and Hannah Rose Bennett, nostalgia exhibits a significant role in previous styles of consumption, as they have the ability to ‘represent past eras as stories are interweaved within the garments’.148 In this case, nostalgia is understood as a feeling of loss, an idea that something is lacking in present society and can be found only in the past.149 As a part of the material data analysis, I noted a theme of strong modern values, that the participants highlighted through their interviews and filled in questionnaires. According to Olga, many people when they see someone dressed in the neo-Edwardian style immediately assume that this person must be of very old-fashioned, traditional, conservative values and their style acts as a tool to enact those old-fashioned values and ideals. Indeed, modern society has a particular imaginative narrative regarding the Edwardian era that partially formed by TV shows, films and books, set around the turn of the century. However, the examination of the empirical material, as well as online research, have shown that people who are into the neo-Edwardian styles extravaganza are very open-minded, are not afraid to experiment with their gender identity, cross-dressing and challenge modern standards of beauty. For Olga, the Edwardian period is strongly associated with the feminist agenda and women’s rights that she strongly supports. She stresses that despite admiration for the cultural scene around fin de siècle, her values are modern. In support of these ideas, I discovered a recently occurring hashtag on Instagram #vintagestylenotvintagevalues. The idea that old-fashioned clothes are not equal to old-fashioned values is expressed by Tom as ‘I can respect the history, learn from it, without being bound by it’. Being asked regarding longing for living in another, ‘better time’, Mila says that ‘I don’t want to live in the past at all. It is just an aesthetic thing’. Amongst things that the participants would like to see more in the modern life they mentioned good manners, gentlemen-/lady-like behaviour and putting more attention to quality in the production of clothing, but apart from that, they all agreed that wearing historically-inspired style brings a realisation that although one may love some aspects of a historical period (especially the aesthetic), other things in that period certainly do not deserve to be brought back. What becomes evident is that unlike youth subculture described above (Lolita and Victorian Goth), neo-Edwardians seek neither an escape or transcendence from regular society nor ideological rebel against its values and restrictions. Neither of the interviewees pointed out on any affiliations with subcultural styles either in the past nor in present days. Most common answers to the question were negative and can be summarised by Mila’s words: ‘I always just did my own thing’. Olga says that no subculture would have represented

148 Tracy Diane Cassidy and Hannah Rose Bennett, ‘The Rise of Vintage Fashion and the Vintage Consumer’, Fashion Practice 4, no. 2 (2012): 242. 149 Fred Davis, Yearning for yesterday: A sociology of nostalgia (New York: Macmillan, 1979).

59 her values, beliefs and outlook of the world’. Thus it may be argued, that the neo-Edwardian style enthusiasts do not belong to any known or newly emerging subculture. Furthermore, conducting the interviews, I noticed that the participants were mentioning subcultural styles (such as Goth and Lolita) as an example of a different attitude to the style formation and behaviour in comparison to their experiences of wearing Edwardian-inspired clothing and how unrestricted and utterly ‘normal’ they feel about it. I see it as a sign of postmodernity, that does not require a rebellion for expressing one’s identity. Merging a bygone aesthetic with modern living, the neo-Edwardians in my study express their identities without confronting the dominant fashion order as it implies pluralism of styles and continuously reiterating the sense of one-self utilising clothing. Taking this assumption regarding the nostalgic ideology in the ethnographic material, I have noticed that the neo-Edwardian style practitioners do not seek to escape ‘the banality of life’, but rather enrich their being. They do not perceive themselves as a subculture, and therefore there is no ideological frame to follow or use as a form of rebellion. Each of the participants of this study exhibits a unique interpretation of the Edwardian aesthetic and yet strive to keep a recognisable impression of the era. It is also important to remember that the neo-Edwardian style is not and never will be truly ‘Edwardian’. The time of this style, as much as the reign of the eponymous monarch, have long gone and what we are witnessing nowadays is a reinterpretation, adaptation of visual elements without a revive ideological or social values of the time. The style I investigate in this study does not belong to the dominant fashion, and yet it does may not be considered a mark of a defined subculture culture.

60 DISCUSSION

BECOMING ‘EDWARDIAN’

Regarding practising the neo-Edwardian style, Tom says that ‘you can have the right clothes, but there is something about the way you wear it’. This shows the existence of profoundly important interconnections between identity, style and performativity. Caroline Evans argues that ‘I am not a skinhead before I get the clothes and haircut; rather, I constitute myself as a skinhead through the act of dressing and acting as one […]’.150 Basing my understanding on Evans’ quote, I propose to perceive neo-Edwardian style as a form of identity creation through the act of dressing in the style. As Entwistle stated, the experience of using clothes is embodied and therefore – personal.151 Indeed, the participants of this study were not born nor lived in the original Edwardian era; thus, they cannot be strictly called Edwardians. Their bodies are not bodies of Edwardians, but the act of dressing in clothes that are reminiscent of the original historical style endue them with a symbolic connection with the past time. The presence, achieved through an interaction between the adorned body and the clothes plays the primary factor in pinpoint the sartorial ‘being’ of the style. As Wilson argues, the act of wearing clothes is part of what continually situated people socially. Therefore the style is inherently located within corporal discourse in which body perceived as not merely a physical entity, but as an ‘action-system […] and its practical immersion in the interactions of day-to-day life is an essential part of the sustaining of a coherent sense of self-identity’.152 Applying Butler’s theory of performative actions on the material, I view the neo- Edwardian style as a sartorial practice that consists of continually reiterating acts of choosing and dressing in Edwardian-inspired clothing. The presence, achieved through an interaction between the adorned body and the clothes plays the primary factor in pinpoint the sartorial ‘being’ of this style. The transformation implies a repetitive act of getting dressed, trying on and discarding options before one finds the right twist of the style they wish to convey. All the interviewees noted that if one is interested in incorporating historical or vintage styles in everyday wardrobe, it is beneficial to adopt an aggregative mindset, accepting that a stylistically coherent historical wardrobe does not emerge overnight, it is a process of

150 Caroline Evans, ‘Dreams That Only Money Can Buy… Or, The Shy Tribe In Flight from Discourse’, Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture 1, no. 2 (1997): 181–182. 151 Joanne Entwistle, The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015), 34. 152 Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991), 99.

61 gradually buying more and more pieces, trying different combinations, searching for what suits one individually and has specific characteristics to convey a recognisable image of the Edwardian epoch. The transition takes time – depending on circumstances, financial characteristics as well as access to the vintage and antique clothes markets (both physical and online), it may take from a couple of months up to several years. Historically, people would not have gone out and bought a whole new wardrobe in one day (unless they were extremely wealthy). People accumulated clothing slowly over the whole life because the clothes were supposed to last a lifetime in comparison to one-season-quality fast fashion. Thus, wearing the neo-Edwardian style requires switching one’s mindset towards a more sustainable approach – it is alright to have a certain amount of clothing, and you do not need to wear something new every time you go out as the use of accessories allows great variety. ‘It is better to have clothes that will last for years’ – says Olga.153 She mentioned a span of approximately ten years of a gradual transition from wearing pieces of clothing that were vaguely similar to the Edwardian aesthetic to custom made historically appropriate and antique pieces of fine taste. Olga has always been searching for the sartorial pieces and accessories that may convey her aesthetic taste – it has been a process or searching what suits her personality. She also highlighted how a gradual process of learning dress history and getting acquainted with numerous pictures of the fashionable dresses of the period helped her to sharpen the understanding of what she likes and how she can include favourable silhouettes into her wardrobe. According to Olga, it is about getting acquainted with the different materials, silhouettes, diligently browsing the Internet for visual material such as periodic illustration, fashion plates, portraits and paintings, as well as images of actual garments from museum collections. For instance, for one of her sewing projects, Olga was researching the 19th-century language of flowers and for another the suffragette movement in Britain. As Samantha Hollander notices, unlike current mainstream fashion, vintage and historically- inspired dress practices require specific knowledge of dress history.154 I argue that this specific knowledge is not only beneficial but often essential for building a wardrobe and performing the style. Therefore, persistent research and study of favourable historical period vital for the successful acquisition of vintage goods as well as beneficial for bonding within the vintage community. Apart from both academic and populistic works on dress history, such knowledge

153 Neither Olga, not Mila do not buy any modern mass-market brands as they have nothing even resembling the historical pieces. For them, the question of fashion ethic plays a significant role – rejecting fast-fashion clothing they aim for more sustainable and ecologically friendly approach. They both buy consciously mostly second- hand from unknown brands, produced predominantly between the 1940s-1980s, small business and vintage/antique stores. 154 Samantha Holland, Modern Vintage Homes and Leisure Lives Ghosts and Glamour (London: Palgrave Macmillan UK 2018): 121.

62 can also be acquired through studying historical fashion editorials and photos, visiting museums and private collections and reading personal accounts of bygone trends (such as diaries). ‘Through historical research and digging within archives or looking at museum pieces one recognises the actual sense of style’ – says Tom, who has been developing his style since 2005 – from buying some good quality mass-market shirts and jackets (that he would still wear with jeans), to gradually developing the confidence to be well-dressed (one of the first pieces Tom bought was a vintage 1970s overcoat with Edwardian-inspired look) and eventually fully defining the neo-Edwardian wardrobe he feels proud of – this is the clothes that ‘make you stand and feel different, historically connected to Edwardian gentlemen and that era as a whole’ – says Tom.

Figure 17: Collage from Tom’s Instagram account.

Showing a collage from his private Instagram account [Fig. 17], Tom marvels how much his style has changed over the past ten years. In both pictures, Tom is dressed in the same outfit – trousers, shoes, jacket and hat (with exceptions of waistcoat, stiff collar and bow-tie in the right picture). But the change in the overall impression is striking. Commenting on this comparison, Tom says that looking at those pictures, he does not at all align himself with the man on the left, he was still finding his feet in historically-inspired/vintage style and did not quite understand how it all works. ‘On the right – that’s me’ says Tom, adding that he feels confident in who he is. ‘This shows that style is not about clothes, it is about the person’ – says Tom – ‘the best demonstration that elegance is not a matter of clothes but a matter of attitude’. In support of this statement, I quote Joanne Entwistle, who notes that the ‘dressed body

63 can articulate particular identities, making them recognisable. Style is then, that combination of dress and the way in which it is worn’.155 Describing the issue of practising and polishing skills and knowledge required to immerse into a particular dress practice, Entwistle notes:

The individual and very personal act of getting dressed is an act of preparing the body for the social world, making it appropriate, acceptable, indeed respectable and possibly even desirably also. Getting dressed is an ongoing practice, requiring knowledge, techniques and skills, from learning how to tie our shoelaces and do up our buttons as children, to an understanding about colours, textures and fabrics and how to weave them together to suit our bodies and our lives.156

Applying this notion on the subject of this thesis, I argue, that the neo-Edwardian style is a dynamic project, intertwined with a constant process of self-reflection and constant reiterations. The process of finding and acquiring of a historical wardrobe (consisting either of old/antique or newly-produced, retro-style-inspired reproduction origin) involves the process of getting dressed and physically acquainted with the sense of materials (such as the softness or heaviness of certain types of fabric). Therefore, it may be suggested, that for a successful adaptation of the neo- Edwardian style, one is required to not only replicate a correct fashionable silhouette of the era but also get a deeper understanding of culture and society of that time.

EXPERIENCING AUTHENTIC SELF THROUGH DRESS

An idea regarding the conceptualisation of self in forms of bygone eras arose throughout the interviewing for this project. By testing the hypotheses, I came to realisation that the adaptation of the Edwardian aesthetic is dictated by neither a desire to dress-up in order to re- create a historical figure, nor by any ideological value of resistance against the contemporary times. However, the question regarding the motivation of the interviewees to practice the neo- Edwardian style remains unclear. What became apparent from the ethnographic data collection, is that people adopting Edwardian aesthetic, view their styles as a part of who they are. ‘It came naturally, just felt right’, ‘that speaks to me’ – were common remarks when participants were reflecting upon

155 Joanne Entwistle, The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015), 132. 156 Ibid., 7.

64 why did they choose Edwardian aesthetic as a form of personal style. All of the participants acknowledged that the path of finding and embracing their current personal styles was triggered by a desire to feel comfortable on a new level of self-expression, that otherwise would not be possible to express fully though mainstream clothing. Participants offered numerous accounts in which they connect their appearance to their personality and the emotion of who they perceive themselves to be. In his interview, Tom says:

The moustache is me. Work-wise, the performing and the sharing my love of music from the turn of the century – is me. There is no act about it. This is me being me. I feel comfortable in Edwardian dress. I, kind of, found myself.

For Olga, the reason to be interested in making her clothes had been her long-lasting struggle with the way to dress and inability to feel like herself – the mainstream clothing brought uncomfortable feelings as if a look is not representing the ‘true’ her. The same way, Hattie says that at the age of 18 she decided to stop wearing jeans as it involved more stressful decisions in the morning than putting on a dress and in the latter, she felt more feminine, more ‘herself’. Lucia Ruggerone argues that the ways people choose to adorn themselves impact them beyond merely a surface level – the feelings we experience about and in our clothes may be understood through the notion of affecting clothing.157 My approach to the understanding the relationship between the neo-Edwardian style and its practitioners is based on the non- rational, sensory accounts that are to be understood as one of the key characteristics of embodied practice. This obscure ‘true self’ that participants stressed as the most important aspect behind their choice of the neo-Edwardian aesthetic, as the ‘authentic’ self, that described in words of Rebecca Erickson as the one which ‘fulfils the expectations or commitments one has for self’.158 Therefore, choosing and wearing particular style may be viewed as ‘people’s emotional experiences of being true or untrue to one’s self, and people’s ideas about what their true self is’, i.e. there is the ideal self – the self that we aspire to be and the ought self – the one we feel we should be.159 In the present thesis by ‘dressing authentically’ I understand the act of dressing in a way that feels ‘like the best version of

157 Lucia Ruggerone, ‘The Feeling of Being Dressed: Affect Studies and the Clothed Body’, Fashion Theory 21, no. 5 (2017): 581. 158 Rebecca Erickson, 1995. ‘The Importance of Authenticity for Self and Society’, Symbolic Interaction 18 (1995): 131. 159 Phillip Vannini and Alexis Franzese, ‘The Authenticity of Self: Conceptualisation, Personal Experience, and Practice’, Sociology Compass 2: (2008): 163; Mary Ellen Roach-Higgins and Joanne B. Eicher, ‘Dress and Identity’, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 10, no. 4 (1992): 5-6.

65 yourself’ – as Tom put it. In order to understand the meaning of the neo-Edwardian style for their practitioners, I argue that conventional expectations for the contemporary dress styles conflict with what the participants feel most authentically represents of their identities. For years Olga had been trying to find a style that would have suited her and went through different phases – she had a period of wearing clothing inspired by hippy style, but it did not feel ‘right’. Regarding this search, Olga remembers: ‘it felt as I was trying to chase something and find the right style and it never came until I actually discovered Edwardian. At that moment, it felt everything has “clicked”’. As Phillip Vannini and Alexis Franzese note, there is a great advantage of approaching authenticity as a performative act, since ‘“doing” authenticity – as opposed to idealising about it – is invariably messy and continuously resulting in change and the becoming of self’, i.e. becoming increasingly aware of oneself, including appearance, and ability to act upon it, adjust and shape it. 160 In her book You Are What You Wear (2012), Jennifer Baumgartner, attribute stylistic preferences to personal aspirations. Describes the ways clothing inherently represent the wearer, she states that:

Our clothing is the physical representation of our perceptions, our dissatisfactions, and our desires. When we look beyond the physical to our internal workings, we can create a change at the core. […] Taking care of yourself begins with self- discovery. The clothing you put on your back is an incredibly accurate indicator of what you think of yourself and your life.161

There are researchers, such as Goffman, who state that style choices are dictated primarily by the external social forces and clothing is ‘intended to be worn in public space; we dress for others, not for ourselves’.162 However, I argue that viewing dress as merely a form of social influence minimises the role of individuality. Had clothes been only an unequivocal marker of social position, there were no cases of people choosing to practice any unconventional styles and dress practices, despite the possibility of questioning their social status. This search may take different forms and come in various degrees: from modest attempts to bring some colours or accessories into the wardrobe to utterly outlandish

160 Phillip Vannini and Alexis Franzese, ‘The Authenticity of Self: Conceptualisation, Personal Experience, and Practice’, Sociology Compass 2 (2008): 1632. 161 Jennifer Baumgartner, You Are What You Wear: What Your Clothes Reveal About You (Boston: Da Capo Press, 2012), xv-xvi. 162 Diana Crane, Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), 237.

66 examples of nonchalant disregarding of social judgment. One of the most prominent examples of such is a 96-year-old American fashion icon, Iris Apfel. Her life and unique style are mentioned in countless documentaries, the most notable one is Iris (Albert Maysles, 2015). In the film, she emphasises that her style is a reflection of her inner self, and it is all based on the gut feeling. She states that ‘it just has to feel right with me’, referring to the daily evaluation of garments and accessories, that has to be most ‘authentic’ to who she is and what she wants to present on that particular day.163 Regardless, the benefits of dressing for one’s truth of spirit often worth an attempt and potential danger of facing judgmental commentary. One of the most prominent outcomes of dressing ‘authentically’ in regards to the feeling of the ‘true’ self are the senses of empowerment and poise, the rise of self-esteem, increase of self-confidence and self- awareness.164 In simple words, the wearer feels happier, more confident, and comfortable in their skin. Discovering who an individual is in an aesthetic sense can be enlightening. This concept is similar to the James’ perception of clothes as a form of ‘material self’ (alongside with the body and the social Self, the spiritual Self and the pure Ego) where an identity goes: ‘[…] beyond the physical of the body to include material goods’.165 That idea is further developed in the theoretical works of Belk, who states that by means of (sartorial) possessions, an individual extends their identity into the world. Combining these views with Giddens’ theory of self-reflection, I argue that style can serve as a sufficient medium of identity narrative – by incorporating the Edwardian aesthetic into their daily styles, the participants of this study enhance the image of themselves as a reflexive identity project. By that I mean, borrowing styles from the past allows one to adopt a language most suitable for expressing one’s personality – a style acts as a visual metaphor for identity and hence it is capable of empowering the scene of personal authenticity, reinforce who they really are. What may be understood from these findings is that a well pronounced personal style represents a higher level of self-awareness and authenticity. In the process of choosing clothes, an individual expresses their taste. Dress is, therefore, the means by which ‘identities are marked out and sustained’.166 In the contemporary cultural context, the body is the site of identity negotiations that include constant dialogue between who we are, whom we want to be and whom we feel we have to be. In the post-traditional order of late-modernity, these

163 Iris. Dir. Albert Maysles. Prods. Laura Coxson, Rebekah Maysles, Jennifer Ash Rudick. Magnolia Pictures, 2014. 164 George Brescia, Change Your Clothes, Change Your Life: Because You Can’t Go Naked (New York: Gallery Books, 2014), 266-267. 165 William James, ‘The Consciousness of Self’. The Principles of Psychology (1890). https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin10.htm. 166 Joanne Entwistle, The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015), 117.

67 tensions are exaggerated since identities are no longer subjected to social and class limitations, which is further enhanced by the anonymity of urban conglomerates. In the increasingly fragmented world of post-modernity, fashion, dress and consumption provide ways of dealing with ambivalence by offering possibilities for creating and re-creating oneself. In this process, an elusive sense of authenticity, as a feeling of being true to one’s self, plays a significant role. In case of the neo-Edwardian style, the adaptation of this multi- faceted sartorial practice serve as frames for our embodied self, adornment intensifies or enlarges the impression of the personality by operating as ‘visual metaphor for identity’ and therefore enhances the sense of self, bringing the feeling of content.167

167 Fred Davis, Fashion, culture, and identity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1992), 25.

68 CONCLUSION

This thesis study was focused on the contemporary fashion phenomenon of neo- Edwardian style as a form of the original Edwardian fashion (1901-1910) revival. The purpose of this thesis was to explore the individual motivations for incorporating Edwardian aesthetic into one’s daily sartorial practises. To meet this aim, I conducted a qualitative study – I was seeking to comprehend how participants transform and embody their identities through garments by living images and motifs of ‘the past’ in the contemporary social context. The initial literature review showed a dearth of information on the subject – due to the narrow specification and rather fluid frames of the stylistic attribution, the neo-Edwardian style and its adaptation as a daily or a near-daily dress practice have been largely neglected by the scholars. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to add scholarly knowledge to the field of socio-cultural aspects of dress and introducer the neo-Edwardian style to Academia. Being a historically-inspired style, the neo-Edwardian style may be defined as a hybrid form of sartorial practices, that incorporates different sources of garments (antique, vintage, handmade, bespoke, reproduction and mass-market) in the quest to create a particular ‘look’, which exhibits reminiscences of the fashion style of the Edwardian era. The style draws inspiration from the style of the early 20th century; however, it is a sartorial practice, situated at the beginning of the 21st century. These people immerse themselves into the fashion of early 1900, freely combine elements of that style to create unique looks. According to the findings, derived from the analysis of the empirical data, I argue, that the adoption of Edwardian motifs in the modern fashion discourse challenges the idea that historical clothes are cumbersome and utterly impractical, bringing back the Edwardian aesthetic in a fresh and distinct manner. As the stylistic motifs were removed from its original context, the Edwardian style revival of the 21st century has certain characteristics that distinguish it from the eponymous turn-of-the-century style. However, it does carry a particular antithetical meaning, connected to the period with which it is associated. I argue that the tensions within the neo-Edwardian style are situated between the notions of past and future and material artefact bridge this gap by situating fashion in the present and hence creating a diversity of cultural life. The garments, therefore, may be seen as the bearers of nostalgic cues by expressing associations with the past and therefore, sufficiently provide a sense of time travel. However, it is noteworthy that nostalgia plays a lesser role in the choice of this style than I had initially presumed. The interviewees have indicated that the participants chose the neo-Edwardian style predominantly for its aesthetic characteristics and not because of potential opportunity

69 for escapism in an idealistic world of the past. Better quality and more elaborate embellishment of the Edwardian era fashion was also mentioned as a reason for its appeal for the interviewees. However, being a century away from the actual Edwardian era, modern neo- Edwardians often have to often settle for newly-produced, reproduction clothing due to their durability characteristics over the original antique pieces. This intrinsic need for a creative compilation in relation to the neo-Edwardian style (that I described in terms of collecting, changing, combining), I propose to view as a form of stylistic patchwork, each element of which is a subject to a particular (Edwardian) aesthetic that makes all pieces work together, creating a unique image. The role of impression plays a vital significance in this process as the participants noted that one might put together several pieces of clothing of different origin (antique, vintage, newly-produced reproduction or even mass-market), but by arranging them and pairing well with the right accessories, it can give a compelling ‘Edwardian’ impression. What should also be noted here is that participants stressed that the same rule applied in the opposite direction and even having all authentic pieces it may not work on a person without some basic knowledge about the Edwardian fashion and its characteristics. In this process the right hairdo, make-up and even accessories play a vital role, that shows that a neo-Edwardian style, despite not being entirely bound to the historical accuracy, still exhibit ties to its stylistic roots and a careful balance between recreation and adaptation of the Edwardian style elements is vital for a successful practice of the neo-Edwardian style. Such a complex and multi-faceted production of the neo-Edwardian style, as well as its connection to the historical period, appear to pose some questions regarding the nature of the style. Conducting the literature review and preliminary research, I formulated several assumptions that were put into two hypotheses that I tested to define the nature of the style as well as at least partially explain personal motivations behind its adaptation. The first hypothesis was built upon the assumption that the neo-Edwardian style has much in common with historical costuming and the wearers of this historically-inspired style are full-time re-enactors. The ethnographic study has shown some evidence that counter that argument. First of all, the attitude of the interviewees towards historical accuracy of their closing appeared to be fluid and fluctuating depending on the presumable social setting my interviewees participate in (for instance, for socialisation with friends they choose to go for an extravagant full-Edwardian look while running errands or doing housework they would instead choose some form of modern reproduction/home-made clothing with ‘Edwardian vibe’). Second of all, being a hobby-based activity, re-enactment presumes wearing period attire within event setting, i.e. occasionally. At the same time, for the participants of this study,

70 Edwardian-inspired clothing constitutes their everyday wardrobe to a greater or lesser degree. When an individual adorned themselves in period attire on a daily or nearly daily basis, it is no longer a costume but rather clothing, that implies the development of a certain intimate relationship between a body and garments, as well as becomes a marker of identity. Therefore, I categorise re-enactment clothing as costumes while addressing the neo-Edwardian garments as clothing that constitute the production of an individual style. Lastly, the interviewees highlighted that they had never had an intention to assume a historic persona or a fictional character using their dress, manners and setting. Thus, I attempted to show that the neo- Edwardian style may not be treated as a form of historical re-enactment or dress-up costuming as the clothing is worn on a regular. My second hypothesis was dealing with presumable subcultural nature of the style, built on ties to nostalgia as a form of ideological ground. As was outlined above, nostalgia in the form of an idealised view of ‘better-times’ does not dominate the reasoning behind choosing the neo-Edwardian style. The interviewees have noted that despite their admiration of the culture and art of the era, they would not want to live in the past and their clothes do not correlate to old values and therefore, do not portray the past the way it was. Juxtaposing the neo-Edwardian style to subcultural styles that borrow elements of the Edwardian aesthetic (Victorian goth), the neo-Edwardian style did not exhibit similarities apart from the same source of stylistic inspiration – it does not bear an ideological meaning or focus on a particular cultural motif (as morning, decade, death in case of Victorian goth). Such a diverse and broad range of topics is worth studying in their own right; however, in the present thesis, I had no intention to go deeper into the (post)subcultural theory discussion and utilised parallels with existing subcultures as merely a frame to define the nature of the neo-Edwardian style and to contextualise the empirical data in the postmodern fashion discourse. I argue that the neo-Edwardian style should not be treated as a subcultural style at least until a study that would prove the opposite is undertaken. The motivation behind choosing the neo-Edwardian style was found in participants’ responses. As it became apparent, the style of neo-Edwardian style enthusiasts is strongly linked to their perception of ‘true’ selves with no correlation to cultural or class belonging. Being a marker of the dressed body, clothes bare a significant role in representation of what they feel as the internal ‘true’ self. Recognising the impact clothing has over its wearer (both physical and mental), I argue to view the neo-Edwardian style as a sufficient medium for the expression one’s identity in the mould of a bygone era. Those with strong personal style derive intrinsic pleasure from the act of getting dressed as it facilitates the feel of being

71 contented with the way they present themselves to the world and what image they portray. This realisation brought me to my argument regarding the performativity of clothing. As I pointed out, the clothes bear very little power over us until it is put on. In this act of connection between the body and the adornment, the style is born as repetitive reiterations of this act. Basing my reading of the neo-Edwardian style on Butler’s theory of performativity, I argue that the practice of this style is not static, the bodies and identities of my interviewees are not ‘Edwardian’ per se (as they have never lived in the actual Edwardian era), but rather become Edwardian by regularly dressing in Edwardian-inspired clothing that in the repetitiveness of this act created a pattern that serves as a marker of personal style which, in case of the participants of this style, is the neo-Edwardian. Being a rich and only slightly explored, the subject of the neo-Edwardian style as a sartorial practice and socio-cultural phenomenon has a potential for future research. In my study, I have only briefly touched upon the relationship between the style and subcultural fashion, and it would be worth exploring what are ties between practitioners of the style as a group and if it is, indeed, not a subculture, then would it be reasonable to denote it as another form of stylistic tribe. As the participants of my study were recruited through only semi- random selection, based on the strong stylistic expression of the Edwardian aesthetic, it may be worth exploring the adaptation of the style in all its forms, i.e. from vivid examples (such as participants of this study) to subtler ways of adopting Edwardian aesthetic to the modern sartorial contest. I also see a room for discussion on the topic of the digital representations of the style. In the present study, the Instagram platform was utilised as mostly an additional source of visual data, while an application of this method to a study of the presentation a stylistic image on social networks as a form of blogging may be an interesting enquiry from the standpoint of the Fashion and Media studies combination. To conclude, I propose to consider the neo-Edwardian style a form of alternative sartorial style, situated on an intersection of multiple social and cultural phenomena and in its core serves as a form of identity re-presentation.

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Strauss, Mitchell D. ‘Identity construction among Confederate Civil War reenactors: A study of dress, stage props, and discourse’. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 21, no. 4 (2003): 149-161.

Thoreau, Henry David. ‘Walking’. In The Making of the American Essay, edited by John D’Agata, 167–95. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016

Turner, Rory. ‘Bloodless battles: The Civil War reenacted’. The Drama Review 34, no. 4 (1990): 123-136.

Vannini, Phillip, and Alexis Franzese. ‘The Authenticity of Self: Conceptualisation, Personal Experience, and Practice’. Sociology Compass 2 (2008): 1621–1637.

Veenstra, Aleit, and Giselinde Kuipers. ‘It Is Not Old‐Fashioned, It Is Vintage: Vintage Fashion and the Complexities of 21st Century Consumption Practices’. Sociology Compass 7, no. 5 (2013): 355–365.

Vinken, Barbara. Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and Cycles in the Fashion System. Translated by Mark Hewson. Oxford: Berg, 2005.

Warkander, Philip. ‘“This is all fake, this is all plastic, this is me” A study of the interrelations between style, sexuality and gender in contemporary Stockholm’. PhD diss., Stockholm University, 2013.

Wilson, Elizabeth. Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity. London: I B Tauris, 2003.

Wilson, Janelle L. Nostalgia. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2005.

77 WEBSITES , BLOGS A N D M E D I A

Albo, Mike. ‘The turn of the century called...The Turn of the Century Called’. GQ (America), December 1, 2009. https://www.gq.com/story/the-turn-of-the-century-called.

American Duchess. ‘About American Duchess’. Accessed March 21, 2020. https://www.american-duchess.com/about-us.

Banner, Bernadette. ‘Making A (Modern!) Edwardian Walking Skirt || Historical Style’. YouTube, August 17, 2018. Video, 12:51. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnlzX2A4PGg&t=29s.

Benjamin, Walter. On the Concept of History. Translated by Dennis Redmond. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1974, Retried from Marxist Internet Archive. http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/benjamin/1940/history.htm.

Besser, Rachel. ‘The New Edwardian: Why Fashion's Gilded Age Is Back’. Vogue, February 18, 2020. https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/edwardian-clothing.

Byron’s Muse (blog). ‘Edwardian Daydreams of the 1970s – Lace, Pastel Colours, Countryside Idyll’. Accessed April 7, 2020. https://byronsmuse.wordpress.com/2017/09/08/edwardian-daydreams- of-the-1970s-lace-pastel-colours-countryside-idyll.

Davis, Sammy. ‘How 1970s Fashion Trends Stand Out in History’. Vintage Life, accessed May 4, 2020. https://sammydvintage.com/vintage-style/70s/1970s-fashion.

Iris. Dir. Albert Maysles. Prods. Laura Coxson, Rebekah Maysles, Jennifer Ash Rudick. Magnolia Pictures, 2014.

James, William. ‘The Consciousness of Self’. The Principles of Psychology (1890). https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin10.htm.

KappAhl. ‘Turn-of-the-century romance in new wrapping brings us vintage stories 2011’. Accessed April 12, 2020. https://lifeandstyle.kappahl.com/en/container/press/press- releases/press-releases/2011-02-09.

Mohn, Tanya. ‘Downton Abbey’ boosts interest in products inspired by ‘bygone era’. TODAY (NBC news), January 28, 2013. https://www.today.com/money/downton- abbey-boosts-interest-products-inspired-bygone-era-1C8138531.

Morrison Barrs, Eanna. ‘The First Monday in May’. Fashion Unravelled blog, May, 1, 2020. https://www.eannamorrisonbarrs.com/fashion-unravelled-blog/the-first-monday-in-may.

Simons, Baya. ‘Edwardian fashion reigns for autumn’. Financial Times, August 23, 2019. https://www.ft.com/content/c4f93cbe-c03b-11e9-b350-db00d509634e.

The Edwardian Teddy boy. ‘History of the British Teddy Boy and Culture’. Accessed February 8, 2020. http://www.edwardianteddyboy.com.

Vintage Fashion Guild. ‘Young Edwardian’. Accessed March 17, 2020. https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.

78 APPENDIX I

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QUESTIONNAIRE

1. A few words about yourself? 2. How would you describe your style? 3. When and how did you become interested in historical clothes/styles? 4. When did you start dressing the way you do nowadays? Would you mind to tell a concise story of your personal style evolution? 5. Have you ever had any affiliations with subculture(s)/subcultural style(s) in the past? 6. How people dressed in mainstream react to your style? How do you perceive their reactions? 7. Do you feel restricted by your style? Is there is anything you ‘cannot do’ because of the clothes you wear? 8. How do you acquire your clothes? Do you buy/make/order garments? (any special brands/sources?) 9. Do you have clothes from the mass market in your wardrobe? If so, which occasions would you wear it to? 10. What kind of clothes do you wear at home? On family gatherings? Does seasonal change or particular weather (too hot/cold) affect your choice in favour of practical, modern clothes? 11. Is ‘historical accuracy’ important for you in an outfit? 12. Would you buy a modern item ‘inspired by’ a historical style or do you stick to purely antique/vintage pieces or at least accurate replicas based on historical patterns? 13. Do you mix epochs? Do special occasions require more attention to historical accuracy? 14. How would you define neo-Edwardian style? 15. How would you describe an image of a modern Edwardian? 16. What is the most important aspect in a ‘style’ in your opinion? 17. What kind of content do you upload on Instagram? 18. Is there any discrepancy between the content you post and the style you wear on a daily basis? 19. How did you discover historical fashion scene?

79 APPENDIX II

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GLOSSARY (based on Western World Costume: An Outline History (2001) by Carolyn G. Bradley)168

 Ascot tie – wide hanging tie with one end twisted and thrown over the other end.  Bishop sleeve – sleeve fairly full from shoulder to wrist, gathered into a snug wristband.  Boater (straw) hat – a semi-formal summer hat made of straw, with stiff, flat brim and crown and often decorated with a ribbon around the crown. In the turn of the century for worn by children, men and (often young) women.  Bowler (or derby) hat – stiff, felt hat with a low, round crown and narrow brim; the bowler is the British term for the derby has a slightly wider brim and roll at the sides.  Cashmere – a type of wool fibre obtained from cashmere and pashmina goats. It has been used to make yarn, textiles and clothing for hundreds of years. It is named after an Indian region Kashmir where the yarn and associated wool items of clothing have produced for hundreds of years.  Chamois gloves – gloves made of a very fine quality porous leather of chamois – a type of European mountain goat.  Derby – another name of Bowler, typically used in the U.S.A.  Double-round collar – most popular shape of collar for daytime wear from the late 19th century till approximately 1930. It is characterized by the rounded off points and narrow spacing between them.  Flannel – a soft woven fabric, of various fibres. Originally made from wool, in Edwardian era most common bland was of mixtures of silk and cotton.  Frock coat – double-breasted coat having a long skirt of equal length in front and back.  Gibson Girl blouse – a blouse with a high neck, turnover collar, small black tie and sleeves with a large puff at shoulder.  Grosgrain – a type of ‘corded’ fabric with prominent ribs; often used in ribbons, vestments, and ceremonial cloths.  Hair rat – padding that is worn to make the hair extend outward from the head.  Half collar – a type of stand collar cut.  Hobble skirt – very narrow skirt.  Homburg – felt hat with a rolled brim and creased crown; allegedly named after the city Bad Homburg (Bad Homburg vor der Höhe), Germany.  Hoop skirt – a circular framework used to expand a woman's skirt.  Imperial collar – a type of detachable collar, characterized by its high and lack of wings, starched and fastened to the shirt by studs.

168 Carolyn G. Bradley, Western World Costume: An Outline History, (Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, inc., 2001).

80  Kimono sleeve – sleeve and waist cut in one piece.  Lapel – folded flaps of cloth on the front of a jacket or coat.  Leg-o'-mutton sleeve – very wide at the shoulder, tapering down to the wrist.  Linen – a type of natural fibre of flax plant; light, breathable, durable in wear and quickly dries. It is often used in production on spring and summer wear.  Lounge suit – mail suit, consisted of a matching jacket and trousers, worn during the day time.  Maverick tie – an early form of a bowtie, characterised by long hanging strings, which make it more similar to an ascot or cravat tie rather than the modern bowtie. Was developed and initially popular in America.  Morning dress trousers – a type of male formal dress, consisting of a morning coat, waistcoat, and formal trousers.  Pannier – the puff formed by looping the upper skirt.  Pince-nez – a type of glasses, places supported on the face without earpieces, by pinching the bridge of the nose which is reflected in the name (from French pincer, ‘to pinch’, and nez, ‘nose’).  Piqué – a type of woven fabric, characterized by raised parallel cords or geometric designs due to the conditions of production. Often made of cotton yarn.  Pompadour hairstyle – a hairdo formed by combed hair straight up and back from the forehead to form some voluptuous puff on the top of the head with a few curls displayed at the side or back; named after Mme de Pompadour.  Prince Albert coat – double-breast frock coat with a flat collar, often of velvet, named after Prince Alber of Britain.  Princess style – costume having bodice and skirt cut in one, fitted from the shoulder to hip or beyond.  Sailor collar – an open-cut collar, with square back and square or V-neck cut at the front.  Seersucker (also railroad stripe) – a type of thin, all-cotton fabric with a striped or chequered pattern, widely used for making shirts and clothing for spring and summer wear.  Straw hat – same as boater.  Stresemann – a variation of stroller suit, named after a German foreign secretary Gustav Stresemann, characterized by a black, single-breasted lounge coat instead of a morning coat. The term did not exist before 1925.  Stroller suit – is semi-formal male day attire.  Turned-back cuff – a cuff, intrinsically connected to the garment's sleeve and rolled backwards, towards the body of the garment.  Victorian era – the rain of Queen Victoria of the British Empire (1837-1901).

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