This thesis examines the social impact of middle-class women’s fashion in nineteenth-century Britain. Using a blend of historical research and object analysis, this project reveals the juxtaposition between how fashion was written by its contemporaries versus how it actually appeared in real life. Victorian women's fashion is often portrayed both in history and the media as very restrictive and cumbersome to both the wearer and those around them. While this perception is not entirely untrue, it also perpetuates the idea that fashion is a frivolous commodity with no real purpose. This paper dives deeper into the possibility that fashion was used by women as a tool to solidify their position within the public sphere that was traditionally dominated by men. By focusing on the steel-cage crinoline and the department store of the nineteenth-century, this paper highlights how middle-class women used the popular fashion of the time to their advantage despite the public outcry against it. When comparing the steel-cage crinoline with previous skirt shaping devices and the similar public reactions they caused, the key difference was the scale and speed in which these devices were able to be produced, sold, and purchased by a wider consumer audience. Shopping had already been established as a primarily feminine activity and was a common reason for women to be seen in public. However, when the department store appeared in the nineteenth-century, it quickly became a haven for middle-class women since many upper-class ladies still patronized the traditional aristocratic shops and lower-class women typically had jobs. Upper-class women were also more likely to wear steel-cage crinolines of extreme measurements to distinguish themselves from the other social classes and working women may have not worn one at all. This meant that a majority of average sized crinolines would have been worn by the middle-class women who were most likely to frequent the department stores. This paper brings to the surface some of these women' s voices that have traditionally been stifled by the mass amount of media focused mostly on the extreme crinoline wearers and not the experience of most women. Comparing the shopping experience for middle-class women in the eras before, during, and after the popularity of the steel-cage crinoline reveals the ways women used the device as a tool to solidify their position within the public sphere. Women surely existed in public before the crinoline, but this existence was limited by their lack of visibility and thus their autonomy. However, as the popularity of the crinoline began to dissipate in the latter half of the century there would be a new trend of ‘women only’ spaces that emerged. This timeline shows how the crinoline’s visibility granted women more autonomy in the public sphere and how its disappearance endangered this freedom, resulting in feminine defined spaces designed to preserve it. This paper therefore contributes to the academic conversation on the public sphere by highlighting lived experiences from ordinary women as well as the before and after effect of the steel-cage crinoline on Victorian society.
