Making, Selling and Wearing Boys' Clothes in late Victorian England

Notes:

Uses boys' clothes as a lens through which to deal with issues of mass consumption of standarised goods covering production, distribution and retailing practices. Has sections: 1] 'Raggedness and respectability'; 2] 'Designing boys clothes'; 3] 'Advertising boys clothes'; 4] 'Affording boys clothes'; 5] 'Consuming boys clothes'; 6] 'Age, employment and boys clothes'; 7] 'Masculine symbolism and boys clothes'. The author writes: 'I will examine the elements of fashion in the making of boys clothing. This will be done through analysis of sets of visual documents from mass manufacturers, bespoke tailors and female dressmakers ... These provided evidence of the stylistic differentiation in mass produced boys clothing in this period. Comparing and tracking the appearance of different types of garments in different sources gives us insight into the development of specialisation within different branches of the clothing industry. It indicates how manufacturers selected and directed current trends in order to maximise their own profit margins and market shares'. Whilst focuses heavily on consumption and cultural issues rather than business and industrial ones, sheds much light on the clothing industry, its product development, its markets and marketing, advertising, retailing, etc