Color, Science, and Fashion: Splendid Hues in the 19th Century

In the 19th century, chemists introduced hundreds of new textile dyes that dramatically changed the palette of women’s fashion. Color, Science, and Fashion explores how middle-class female consumers in Great Britain and the United States welcomed these ‘splendid hues’ for their variety and brilliance, generating a common culture of chemistry and fashion.

Concentrating on the mid-19th century as a key period of textile development, Charlotte Nicklas examines how contemporaries celebrated this rainbow of fashionable textiles as a vivid illustration of scientific progress and modernity. At the same time, fashion’s use of novel dyes encouraged women to engage with science in their everyday lives, and to test the boundaries of sartorial etiquette with the bright colors which were now available.

Lavishly illustrated and drawing on a range of archival materials, surviving objects, and textual sources, the book reveals a transatlantic network of dye chemists, fashion journalists, and female consumers. Situating color and science within broader discussions of propriety and modernity in female clothing, the book proposes a new, multidisciplinary interpretation of 19th-century women’s dress. Both accessible and packed with original research, the book is ideal for students of cultural studies, material and visual culture, and anyone interested in fashion and dress history.