ABSTRACT
This chapter examines what the clothes of Michael Field reveal about their aestheticism. Michael Field was two women: 'Michael' (Bradley) and 'Field' (Cooper). Just like their writings, their clothing was created in collaboration. The chapter presents Michael Field dress was a living form of aesthetic expression, an art, just as their writing. It explores Michael Field deliberately used dress as an expression of their dreams and desires. The chapter traces a genealogy of their clothes to argue that the choices they made about their dress evolved organically with the distinctive phases of their aestheticism and of their writings. It clearly illustrates their deliberate choice of matching dress designs to highlight the union of Michael and Field. Like 'Michael Field', Ricketts and Shannon lived together in 'fellowship' and were devout followers of the Cult of Beauty. Ricketts's design reflects an important change in the women's conceptualisation of dress: the reconfiguration of aesthetic clothes as costume.
