All the Rage: Power, Pain, Pleasure – Stories from the Frontline of Beauty, 1860-1960 Author : Virginia Nicholson ISBN-13 : 978-0349014319 Publisher : Virago Guideline Price : £25 “Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than to merely keep us warm. They change our view of the world, and the world’s view of us.” Nearly a century after Virginia Woolf wrote these lines in her novel Orlando, her great-niece Virginia Nicholson has written a brilliant new book telling the story of how women’s lives were transformed by fashion from the 1860s to the 1950s.
During the first three decades of the 20th century, the western world saw one of the most profound social revolutions in history. In a relatively short period of time, women went from covering up almost all of their bodies to exposing their arms, legs and backs in skimpy swimsuits. One of the most compelling aspects of Nicholson’s book is how she explores the ensuing tension between liberation and regulation; having been freed from our corsets and long cumbersome skirts, we are now expected to be our own corsets, moulding our increasingly exposed bodies to conform to new ideals and expectations.
Throughout the book Nicholson examines another recurring source of tension and anxiety – the genuine joy women often found in self-adornment, and the fact that we are still constantly judged by our physical appearance, however we choose to present ourselves. Nicholson, the author of four bri.
