this book
Posted by Caroline on December 27, 1997 at 23:01:14:
In response to More from The History of Underclothes, written by Marie Bernadette on December 24, 1997 at 15:45:01
Marie,thanks for the quotes.Dr and Mrs Cunnington wrote several books about fashion and social history, and they always seem to talk a lot of common sense.This is a breath of fresh air after books full of rhetoric.
"The last quarter of the eighteenth century saw the The first was the development, spreading from the middle class and eventually reaching far beyond it, of that peculiar attitude of mind associated with the term 'prudery'."
Interesting..does he expand on this at all?Does he give an explanation for it?
The English spirit of moderation, however, checked the 'near-nudity' movement in this country except for a few daring exponents of the ultra-French modes. For a few years stays were discarded by the 'fashionables', but returned early in the new century."
I feel very relieved to read that! Some books would have you believe that half the world took sick and died because they went out in nothing but wet muslin! I have looked hard to find english examples of this craze, but apart from one reference to Caroline Lamb trying it out at a private dinner party, I cannot find any at all.
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