Liminal Luxury: Establishing the Value of Fancy Dress Costume

Abstract

Abstract The study and contextualisation of one early twentieth-century fancy dress costume from The John Bright Collection, London, provides an opportunity to challenge the socialised assumption that fancy dress costume is a short-lived, skill-less and superficial spectacle. Like many examples of this sartorial form, the Good Luck dress examined here shares characteristics with clothing termed, with little hesitation, luxury.