Polite practices of acquisition: how German elites shopped for clothes, 1770–1820

Abstract

This article discusses the ways in which German landed elites acquired clothing in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. To explore their practices of acquisition and engagement with the world of goods, the article draws on a wide range of archival material: private and mercantile correspondence, account books, and merchants' bills. It identifies how contemporaries learned about fashions, the role played by artisans and shopkeepers as arbiters of taste, and how friends, relatives, and agents assisted in the procurement of goods. By highlighting how notions of rank, status, and taste influenced consumer choices, and how traditional and modern practices interlinked, the article offers a corrective to the (assumed) “backwardness” of German retailing and shopping practices, revealing a set of practices and motivations which look remarkably similar to those seen in Britain, France, and the Low Countries.

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