Dressing the Revolution: Fashion and Politics 1760–1789

The exhibition includes more than 20 garments, accessories, textiles, and prints that illuminate the complex role of clothing at the time of the American Revolution. By posing new questions about fashion’s relationship with class, race, and gender, Dressing the Revolution: Fashion and Politics 1760–1789 places clothing at the center of the political debates, shedding light on dress as a powerful tool that communicated not just status and identity, but political affinities during this volatile period.

The exhibition begins with a look at the consumer revolution of the mid-18th century when an abundance of highly desirable imported goods, especially finished cloth and accessories, became widely available to all levels of society in the Colonies. Fashionable dress connected Colonists with England but also contributed to the construction of personal identities and social status, while providing the potential for social mobility.

When Britain imposed onerous taxes in the 1760s, perceptions around wearing fashionable dress began to change. Patriots called for non-importation and nonconsumption of British goods while advocating for more sober, American-made clothing. Women stepped into new political roles through the many highly publicized spinning bees, putting action to words in their industry and self sacrifice. While the Homespun Movement remained largely symbolic, it nevertheless changed the narrative around the public display of clothing.

Fashionable dress remained a topic of heated debate, and public scrutiny, when consumption of imported goods resumed after the tariffs were lifted. Clothes, whether modest or fashionable, could be read for their political implications. When the Revolution brought closed ports and hardship, Colonists often made due by maintaining and altering existing clothes and dressing more plainly. The show concludes with a look at dressing in the new Nation and the conflicting urges to balance familiar calls for republican modesty and virtue with a new eagerness for American-produced fashions.

https://www.historic-deerfield.org/events/dressing-the-revolution-fashion-and-politics-1760-1789/

Image Matthew and Mary Darly (English) Oh Heigh Oh, Or a View of the Back Settlements. England, London, 1776. Engraving on laid paper with hand-coloring. Gift of Henry N. Flynt and Helen Geier Flynt, HD 56.029.