Material Lives: Women Makers and Consumer Culture in the 18th Century

Material LivesWomen Makers and Consumer Culture in the 18th CenturyEighteenth-century women told their life stories through making. With its compelling stories of women’s material experiences and practices, Material Lives offers a new perspective on eighteenth-century production and consumption. Genteel women’s making has traditionally been seen as decorative, trivial and superficial. Yet their material archives, forged through fabric samples, watercolours, dressed prints and dolls’ garments, reveal how women used the material culture of making to record and navigate their lives. Material Lives positions women as ‘makers’ in a consumer society. Through fragments of fabric and paper, Dyer explores an innovative way of accessing the lives of otherwise obscured women. For researchers and students of material culture, dress history, consumption, gender and women’s history, it offers a rich resource to illuminate the power of needles, paintbrushes and scissors.Additional ISBNs9781350126978, 9781350127029Material Lives: Women Makers and Consumer Culture in the 18th Century 1st Edition is written by Serena Dyer and published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts. ISBNs for Material Lives are 9781350127005, 1350127000 and the print ISBNs are 9781350126961, 1350126969. Additional ISBNs include 9781350126978, 9781350127029.