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Women's clothes and female honour in early modern London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2011

TIM REINKE-WILLIAMS
TIM REINKE-WILLIAMS
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, University of Northampton, Park Campus, Boughton Green Road, Northampton NN2 7AL.
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Abstract

This article explores how the reputations and agency of middling and plebeian women in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century London were affected by what they wore. Compared with provincial England, markets for women's clothes in the capital were more diverse and accessible. Ambiguous moral judgments were made of women based on their dress, but many sought to acquire good, fashionable attire as the right clothes would improve their options in terms of courtship, sociability and employment, as well as facilitating their ability to negotiate the metropolitan environment and providing them with a ready store of capital. Clothes were thus contested commodities which helped define the limits of the possible for women in early modern London.

Vêtements de femme et honneur féminin dans la londres moderne

L'ambition de cet article est de rechercher comment la réputation et l'action des femmes ordinaires ou de milieu très populaire, vivant à Londres aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles, étaient affectées par les vêtements qu'elles portaient. Si l'on compare avec la province anglaise, le marché du vêtement féminin était, dans la capitale, plus varié et plus accessible. La valeur morale des femmes était, de façon ambiguë, souvent estimée à l'aune de la robe qu'elles portaient. Mais beaucoup cherchaient à acquérir de bons atours qui soient à la mode, étant donné que des habits comme il faut ne manqueraient pas d'améliorer leurs chances de se faire courtiser, de se socialiser et d'être employée. Tout autant, un vêtement convenable les aiderait à s'adapter à l'environnement métropolitain et leur constituerait un capital immédiat. Pour les femmes de la Londres de l'époque moderne, les vêtements étaient par conséquent des produits contestés qui les aidaient à définir les limites du possible.

Frauenkleider und weibliche ehre im frühneuzeitlichen london

Dieser Beitrag untersucht, inwiefern Ansehen und Verhalten von Frauen in den Mittel- und Unterschichten im London des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts davon beeinflusst wurden, was sie anhatten. Im Vergleich zur englischen Provinz war in der Hauptstadt der Markt für Frauenkleidung reichhaltiger und leichter zugänglich. Auch wenn die Werturteile, die über Frauen auf Grund ihrer Kleidung gemacht wurden, mehrdeutig waren, setzten viele Frauen auf den Erwerb guter und modischer Kleidung, weil die richtige Garderobe ihre Handlungsmöglichkeiten beim Werben um Männer, im Bereich der Geselligkeit bei der Suche nach Beschäftigung verbesserten und es ihnen überdies erleichterte, sich in der Umgebung der Metropole zu bewegen, und sie dadurch nicht zuletzt über einen handlichen Kapitalstock verfügten. Kleider waren somit heiß umkämpfte Waren, die Frauen im frühneuzeitlichen London dabei halfen, die Grenzen des Möglichen abzustecken.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , May 2011 , pp. 69 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

ENDNOTES

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