Dressed to Kill : British Naval Uniform, Masculinity and Contemporary Fashions, 1748-1857

This fully updated and expanded second edition of the 2007 publication provides a detailed analysis of naval uniform and its historical, social and economic contexts. An extensive catalogue of uniforms from the collection of the National Maritime Museum is accompanied by a selection of patterns which examine the construction of the garments, as well as personal papers, diaries, fiction and other period artefacts. Amy Miller demonstrates the significance of male fashion and uniform in the forging of a national, hierarchical and gendered identity in the 18th and 19th centuries. This new edition contains additional research that provides a greater understanding of the political and social changes that impacted not only what the Royal Navy wore, but why they wore it. Parliamentary records, newspapers and museum archives give a greater contextualisation of the relationship that naval uniform represented – that of a confluence of politics and economics, fashion and popular culture.