It’s hard not to consider the role fashion had in European society when reading Lady Montagu’s letters. She certainly takes great pains to describe the clothing, accessories, and hairstyles of her contemporaries in these foreign settings. So much so that I think some of the men in our class would probably rather poke their eyes out than read one more sentence about how someone’s dress was put together or how artfully these women arranged their hair.
While I’ll admit I find the descriptions tedious at times, I can completely buy into the fact that she may have truly spent the time and energy in describing them in the actual letters she sent to her sisters and the other women back in England. Fashion was very important to the aristocracy. It was a mark of prestige to be a trend-setter.
In the European world women of rank had little else to occupy them – they certainly didn’t have full-time jobs or rigorous studies to keep them busy. If they were educated it was in “various skills that contribute to the moral development and the "display" quality of a wife: music, drawing, singing, painting, and so on. So while men were learning the new sciences and philosophies, all that was offered to women in education was decorative ‘accomplishments.’” (Cited)
It’s also not likely these upper class women spent their time taking care of their homes. Most of the nobility would have servants to take care of the everyday mundane tasks like cleaning and laundering.
Although the age of Enlightenment would eventually lead these women into new arenas of education and break down some of the gender barriers so prevalent in the day, this didn’t happen until near the end of the 18th century. For more info on women’s rights and how the Enlightenment started them down the path to equality, visit this website and scroll down to ORIGINS. It’s not a rosy picture, but at least the concept was tossed around.
During Lady Montagu’s letter writing days it would have been perfectly reasonable to expect her sisters and the other ladies would want to hear about the continental fashions. It would have been gender appropriate content, which likely helps explain why her letters to Pope contain very little mention of such frivolities.
Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, while trying to research the Age of Enlightenment and the role of women during this period, I found a very interesting article regarding the attitude toward sex during this period in time. While it doesn’t mention that the women were reading these publications, it does perhaps offer some insight into Lady Montagu’s fascination with the “exotic” sexual practices in each country.
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I wondering if the detail in Montagu's description of fashion is indicative of the deep and careful way she sees most everything, including the new culture she is experiencing. Somehow this eye for the details of fashion authenticates what and how she sees the new world to which she has journeyed. If she didn't examine herself and others as carefully as she does would we trust her observations, judgements and identifications with things Turkish? I don't know if this makes sense or not. Maybe it is her awareness that is artful. She is a very attentive seer. Perhaps this is why she comments almost as often on the grace of women she visits, their gestures and expressions, as on their physical features. A carefully orchestrated outfit, I suppose, says something about the precision and refinement with which we execute other rituals of daily life. We are in the details. (Having said that, I hope I'm not wholly reflected in my careless costumes).
Great links, Krista! I hope many in the class check out the site on erotic literature in 18th-century England.
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