The aim of this course is to explore the relationship between naval uniform and contemporary fashions between 1748, when the first uniforms for officers were created, to 1857 the sailors were finally given a uniform. During that period the Navy became the largest employer in Britain and their victories in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars spawned the fashion for 'Navy Blue'. The Navy, and their uniform, were lauded in the novels of Fanny Burney and Jane Austen, becoming a masculine ideal. However, something so heavily regulated like uniform also gives us a sense of the shifting standards of masculinity in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Course aim
To explore the relationship between fashion and uniform - looking at how the two influence each other and how uniform is used to create the masculine ideal.
Do I need any particular skills or experience?
- This course is for beginners and improvers
By the end of the course I should be able to:
- An understanding of the role of the Royal Navy in eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain.
- An understanding of the relationship between civilian fashion and uniform.
- An understanding of changing standards and ideals of masculinity in this period.
- An understanding of how ideals of masculinity were created through the navy and projected as part of a national identity.
What else do I need to know?
An interest in the relationship between uniform and fashion and how it influences us today.
View full course information sheet
Dressed to Kill: Naval Uniform, Fashion and Masculinity 1748-1830
