ABSTRACT
The emergence of a modern fashion industry in the second half of the nineteenth century transformed the way in which the British population conceptualised dress, particularly those from lower income groups. As the work of scholars such as John Benson, Gareth Shaw, W. H. Fraser and more recently Brett Shannon has shown, developments in garment production, marketing and retailing allowed these groups to make and buy clothing that adhered to fashion trends for the first time.1 Amongst the bourgeoisie, the fear that such developments would lead to a democratisation in dress pervades late nineteenth-century cultural discourse. As a group who carved out their social position in relation to such commodities, fashionable dress was the perfect vehicle by which to express wealth and leisure. It followed that any process which widened the demographic of fashion was a potential threat to the existing social hierarchy.
