The Victorian Fancy Dress Ball, 1870–1900

Abstract

While most scholars agree that the Victorian fancy dress ball differs fundamentally from its eighteenth-century predecessor—the masquerade—few studies detail the nature of those differences. This article suggests that central to this shift was the Victorian embrace of self-revelation in fancy dress, as opposed to disguise or antithesis. Late Victorian fancy dress allowed participants to negotiate rather than to escape their self-presentation and their milieu: revealing aspects of their character (including, for men, the novelty of sartorial pleasure) by choosing costumes from a prescribed set of identifiable roles and tropes, and by choosing costumes that directly engaged with issues of their day. Considering mass-market guidebooks and a range of contemporary popular works, this article explores the representational strategies of late nineteenth-century fancy dress, including abstract and overtly gendered costumes.

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