University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Afro-American Studies Faculty Publication Series Afro-American Studies 2008 Arming the Slaves: From Classical Times to the Modern Age – Edited by Christopher Leslie Brown and Philip D. Morgan Manisha Sinha University of Massachusetts - Amherst, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/afroam_faculty_pubs Part of the African American Studies Commons Recommended Citation Sinha, Manisha, "Arming the Slaves: From Classical Times to the Modern Age – Edited by Christopher Leslie Brown and Philip D. Morgan" (2008). The Historian. 99. 10.1111/j.1540-6563.2008.00221_68.x This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Afro-American Studies at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Afro-American Studies Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. © 2008 Phi Alpha Theta BOOK REVIEWS EDITORIAL OFFICE: Elliott Hall IV, Ohio Wesleyan University; Delaware, OH 43015. TELEPHONE: 740-368-3642. Facsimile: 740-368-3643. E-MAIL ADDRESS: [email protected] WEB ADDRESS: http://go.owu.edu/~brhistor EDITOR RICHARD SPALL Ohio Wesleyan University REGIONAL SUB-EDITORS Robert Dietle Richard B. Allen (Modern Western Europe) (Africa, Middle East, and South Asia) Western Kentucky University Framingham State College Douglas R. Bisson Betty Dessants (Early Modern Europe) (United States Since 1865) Belmont University Shippensburg University Helen S. Hundley Nigel Kennell & Stefanie Kennell (Russia and Eastern Europe) (Ancient World) Wichita State University Memorial University of Newfoundland Jose C. Moya Paulette L. Pepin (Latin America) (Medieval Europe) University of California at Los Angeles University of New Haven Susan Mitchell Sommers Richard Spall (Britain and the Empire) (Historiography) Saint Vincent College Ohio Wesleyan University Sally Hadden Peter Worthing (United States) (East Asia and the Pacific) Florida State University Texas Christian University STUDENT EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS SENIOR ASSISTANTS Jennifer Kirsop Ryan Jarvis Scarlett Rebman Kara Reiter Kaleigh Felisberto Colin Magruder Abraham Gustavson Ryan Colopy Patrick O’Connor Jesse Hysell Janna Dagley Alex Branstool Lauren McCullough Sean Kennedy Zak Gomes Greg Stull Mark Lovering Troy Jeffrey Eric Francis Ben Malecki Olivia Talbott WORD PROCESSING:LAURIE GEORGE &VALERIE HAMILL 516 THE H ISTORIAN REVIEW ESSAY “FASHION AND FABRIC:NEW HISTORIES OF CLOTHES MARKETING IN MODERN BRITAIN.” Fashion for the People: A History of Clothing at Marks & Spencer. By Rachel Worth. (New York, N.Y.: Berg, 2007. Pp. xii, 155. $89.95.) The National Fabric: Fashion, Britishness, Globalization. By Alison Goodrum. (New York, N.Y.: Berg, 2005. Pp. xi, 243. $89.95.) Nationality in dress is the visual manifestation of a communal cultural identity, often idealistic and nostalgic but rarely conforming to individual realities. Most historians of dress are uncomfortable with such a concept, which lends itself all too easily to stereotype and fails to include another crucial factor in social identity, that of class. No discussion of British society, culture, or history can escape the issue of social class, which proves to be an underlining theme in these recent publications. Local distinction in sartorial style is a phenomenon countering the globalization of clothing manufacture that has resulted in the “homogenization” of contemporary fashion and a worldwide flood of standardized jeans, T-shirts, etc. Both books under review examine how British garment industries created fashions to be sold within Britain and beyond and discuss how what appealed to Britons might or might not sell to the Americans, French, and Japanese, whose concept of “Britishness” proved to be something quite different. Alison Goodrum’s The National Fabric is the less satisfying of the two books, retaining large chunks of what appears to be an undigested Ph.D. thesis, particu- larly chapter two. The excessive theorizing, in keeping with much literature on the subject of cultural studies, will be of little interest to readers outside the field of fashion history, and specialists in dress and culture will have read it all before in every other fashion book published by Berg. The title is slightly misleading; the book is not a general assessment of dress, nationality, and globalization in Britain, but an examination of these in the context of two specific companies and how each one’s interpretation of “Britishness” sells within and outside Britain. Mul- berry, under the direction of Roger Saul, has based its aesthetic on a stereotype of the British upper class in the 1930s: the tweeds, the leather, the tailoring, the floral dresses, the “huntin’, fishin’, shootin’ ” gear (77). Goodrum’s analysis illustrates that although such a look has had huge and perennial appeal to foreign markets, it has been less reliable commercially on the home front, for within Britain the attraction of such elitist nostalgia is limited. Mulberry had great success in the B OOK R EVIEWS 517 1980s as the “faux Sloane” look sold well to new-moneyed youth, but by the 1990s, opposing strands in the nation’s sartorial narrative reappeared and Mulberry experienced financial difficulties at home while continuing to sell well abroad. The author’s choice of the designer Paul Smith is welcome in the dialogue on fashion, which focuses predominantly on women’s dress. Paul Smith is unique with his roots in and continued emphasis on men’s fashion, his financial success within and beyond Britain, and his commercial endurance over two decades of changing fashion. Paul Smith’s background is middle class, and he does not take the romanticism of aristocratic dress at all seriously, although he clearly recog- nizes its appeal. His style cleverly embraces the stereotypes of English tailoring and country-garden associations, but manages to imbue them with elements of eccentricity and originality attractive to British, as well as foreign, customers. Both Mulberry and Paul Smith price their wares at the high end of the market; the latter’s shirts sell for £95 (about $200), while Mulberry’s customers include Madonna and Victoria Beckham. Goodrum’s analysis excels by including hard financial evidence, discussions of both companies’ style and clientele, an exami- nation of advertising, and interviews with Roger Saul and Paul Smith. Particularly commendable is her investigation of the health of the British fashion industry as a whole. New Labour’s “Cool Britannia” spin is exposed for its utter hypocrisy— politicians hobnobbing with fashion designers and pop stars, all the while starving the British garment industry and young fashion graduates of financial support and commercial incentives. Rachel Worth’s Fashion for the People examines the industry from a different perspective, the democratization of fashion by the company Marks & Spencer, and offers interesting comparisons with and echoes of the story related by Goodrum’s The National Fabric. Worth’s book is an engaging read, her argu- ments are well developed in a lucid style with excellent use of source material. The author’s research is based on the extensive archives held by Marks & Spencer, an exceptional treasure in a world where few businesses bother to document them- selves and even fewer commercial archives survive. Michael Marks began selling accessories and sewing notions in a market stall in Manchester in the 1880s. Astute business practice and competitively priced essentials led to the incorporation with partner Tom Spencer in 1903 and the creation of Marks & Spencer. By the 1930s, food and clothing, in particular women’s dress, were their most profitable commodities. Michael Marks’s son, Simon, toured the United States in 1924, where he studied the manufacturing and merchandising of ready-to-wear clothing and set about revolutionizing Marks & 518 THE H ISTORIAN Spencer on his return. The Marks & Spencer archive documents the establishment of a textile laboratory and a design department in the 1930s; the company was the first in Britain to recognize the importance of innovation in both materials and style, and that excellence in these two fields was interdependent. All of the new man-made textiles were tested and developed by Marks & Spencer, as well as new dyestuffs, and they pioneered consistency in lighting, display, and monitoring stock and sales. Until World War II, the company’s primary market was the working class, providing affordable, simplified versions of fashionable dress. Worth argues that after World War II, the shift in the Marks & Spencer customer base from working to middle class reflects the overall improvement of living standards in Britain. With this change in the social circumstances of their clientele came a new rela- tionship with fashion, which Marks & Spencer has negotiated in a variety of ways, such as seasonal collaborations with name designers (including Paul Smith) and the use of couture fashion models Claudia Schiffer and Linda Evangelista in their advertising. The Marks & Spencer story provides another angle on “Britishness” and dress. In offering fashion to the masses, Marks & Spencer came to personify British dress within Britain. Their tailored suits, knitwear, simple shirts, and dresses, once watered-down versions of 1930s or 1950s fashionable daywear, became classics in their own right, and even, in decades when the nostalgia for English simplicity waxed,