Dress Lecture

DATE: Saturday, December 6 at 2pm EST
(Eastern Standard Time in the US is five hours behind GMT)

Click here to Register: Zoom Webinar.

Welcome to the sixth season of online lectures presented by the Victorian Society in America inspired by their internationally-acclaimed Summer Schools.

This season’s speakers will address a wide variety of subjects including Los Angeles in the Victorian era, the evolution of resort architecture, Oscar Wilde’s philosophy on dress and fashion, a behind-the-scenes look at the preservation of Gilded Age Newport, the Saturday Evening Girls’ club and the Paul Revere Pottery, and the work of British preservationist and architectural historian Gavin Stamp.

Lecture: Saturday, December 6 at 2pm EST

Oscar Wilde on Dress, by John Cooper

Late Victorians began to contemplate a bold, astonishing idea: that perhaps women might simply be free to dress…freely. Amidst an unlikely confederation of physicians, clothing designers, feminists, actors, and artists this wild notion found its most eloquent proponent in Oscar Wilde. Wilde’s lost essay ‘The Philosophy Of Dress’ – rediscovered by our presenter John Cooper – forms the centerpiece of this look at the under-appreciated subject of Oscar Wilde’s relationship with fashion and his advocacy of dress reform.

This free lecture complements the new and expanded reissue of John’s work Oscar Wilde On Dress now available.

DATE: Saturday, December 6 at 2pm EST
Click here to Register: Zoom Webinar.

© John Cooper, 2025.

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