This inter-disciplinary study explores the role of dress and fashion in the novels of Virginia Woolf, examining them in a chronological sequence. I will show how Woolf’s own concerns with dress are reflected in her work in the development of her Modernist method of writing which employs clothing as particularly apt imagery with which to evoke tensions of surface and depth, and perception and reality. The investigation begins with a summary of previous discussions regarding the historical, social and psychological significance of dress, noting that the role of clothing in fiction is a comparatively under-investigated area. This study makes the nine major novels its primary focus, together with selected short stories, and it draws upon analysis from the fields of costume history, socio-cultural studies and literary criticism to explore and evaluate Woolf’s use of clothes in her fiction. Woolf’s open criticism of the ‘materialist’ writing of Victorian and Edwardian novelists such as Arnold Bennett led her to adopt a more sparing and subtle use of dress as a means of portraying character, drawing not merely upon the visual aspect but also upon the symbolic, sensual and psychological dimensions of wearing a garment, culminating in a phenomenon she described as ‘frock consciousness’. In this acknowledgement of the potential of clothing to influence human consciousness and psychology Woolf simultaneously reflects concerns of her time and anticipates feminist ‘reclaiming’ of fashion and dress as legitimate areas of academic study by late-twentieth-century writers such as Elizabeth Wilson. Clair Hughes writes that “novelists do not send their characters naked into the world, though critics have often acted as though they do.” (6). By placing dress at the centre of a consideration of Woolf’s fiction it opens up these texts to new readings and interpretations, to see them ‘in Woolf’s clothing’.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design / Sherry Haar / Nell Donnelly created a stylish, practical, affordable pink gingham apron frock in 1916, selling out her first order of 216 dresses the first morning at $1 apiece at Peck’s Dry Goods Company in Kansas City. This study investigates the forces behind the success of her dress, and finds that during the early 20th century, woman’s role became modernized, shifting from that of producer to consumer, and that clothing—in particular, the housedress—was a visible reflection of this shift. Specific attributes contributed to the success of the apron frock in design and social perspective. First, her housedress incorporated current design elements including kimono sleeves, empire waistline, waist yoke, asymmetrical front closure, and ruffle trimmings sensibly. Socially, mass advertising and mass media articles promoted fashion consciousness in women to look as pretty as those in the ad or article. As a result, integrating trendy design elements into an affordable housedress along with the growing demand for a stylish, yet practical housedress guaranteed the success of Nelly Don’s pink gingham apron frock. As such, the availability and value of the apron frock provide a vivid illustration of woman’s shifting role: its popularity as an alternative to old-fashioned Mother Hubbard housedresses demonstrates both women’s new consumer awareness as well as their growing involvement in the public sphere.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T19:31:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rita Morais de Andrade.pdf: 23449333 bytes, checksum: 74f47ffa48093966e3018dc47e55a7ec (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-20 / Universidade Anhembi Morumbi / This theses investigates the social and cultural circulation of a frock from its manufacture in a couture House atelier back in the 1920s Paris to its storage at Museu Paulista da Universidade de São Paulo in 1993, where it was catalogued as Boué Soeurs RG 7091. Searching trhough some of this object paths its manufacturing, the people who wore it, the cities where it circulated this paper proposes the interpretation of objetcs as a method to elaborate a dress cultural biography. The material analyses of RG 7091, approached here as a historical document, allowed to question the idea of a totalitarian fashion hegemony over all forms of dress. Through the interpretation of certain material aspects, elements and articulation of the dress, I discuss some timely and spacially perceptions as well as youthness and modesty. The material evidences of people s interference but also of time, climate, storage and circulation conditions over textiled clothes indicate sensitive meanings in the ways to dress the body / Esta tese investiga a circulação social e cultural de um vestido desde sua confecção num atelier de alta-costura em Paris na década de 1920 até seu armazenamento na reserva técnica do Museu Paulista da Universidade de São Paulo em 1993, quando ele foi catalogado como Boué Soeurs RG 7091. Percorrendo algumas trajetórias deste objeto sua confecção, os corpos que vestiu, as cidades por onde passou , esta pesquisa propõe um método interpretativo de objetos como método para a elaboração de uma biografia cultural do vestido. A análise material do RG 7091, tratado aqui como um documento histórico, permitiu colocar em xeque a idéia de hegemonia da moda sobre todas as formas de vestir. Através da interpretação de determinadas marcas, elementos e articulações do vestido, discutem-se aqui percepções de temporalidades e espacialidades, juventude e pudor. As evidências materiais das interferências dos sujeitos e outros atores (tempo, clima, condições de armazenagem) sobre as roupas feitas de tecido indicam formas sensíveis de vestir os corpos