ABSTRACT
The "Woman in Grey" is a ubiquitous figure in late-Victorian popular literature. She is an embodiment of the New Woman, a character codified by Sarah Grand in The North American Review in 1894 to represent new, or newly perceived, forms of femininity, and female agency, identity and sexuality. During the Victorian period, tweed had currency both as a fashionable cloth and a cultural symbol. Developments in fashion and tailoring techniques during the 1860s saw the informal shooting-jacket transformed into the casual lounge-jacket and its symbolic resonances were, alike, refashioned. As the cultural and literary currency of the "Woman in Grey" suggests, "the most popular material" for British female cyclists was tweed or wool and "dark grey, almost black" was the favoured colour. The "[New] Woman in Grey" is depicted as reader, cycling heroine and self-conscious autobiographical author, refashioning the social, sartorial, narrative and authorial conventions of the Victorian period.
