Idealised and Fabricated Femininity in 'The Lady's Dressing Room' - Sue Elsley

‘Idealised and Fabricated Femininity in The Lady’s Dressing Room

Sue Elsley, University of Chester

The Lady’s Dressing-Room was published in Britain in 1893, adding another volume to the existing plethora of manuals offering advice, on matters as diverse as household management and personal conduct, to Victorians eager to improve themselves and their lot.  This specific work is in fact a translation from an 1893 French book by Baroness Staffe. Its Continental origins, its focus on the creation of domestic sanctuaries where ‘ordinary women’ might become ‘goddesses’, and its translation into English by the glamorous and notorious Lady Colin Campbell, all suggest that its appeal may have been more exotic than other publications which also advised wives on such things as furnishing bathrooms and care of the clothes and body. The Baroness constantly reminds her married, female readership that finding their inner goddess, and making the most of her potential, is an essential element of their wifely duties. This sentiment, along with some bizarre, alarming, and some still viable suggestions for self-help, provides insight to the dreams and realities experienced by those who yet aspired to be perfect wives rather than New Women, but nonetheless yearned for glamour and greater autonomy. Staffe presents the dressing-room itself as a bespoke alchemical chamber in which a woman might blend potions and fabrics to transform herself into the ideal of feminism, as natural as ‘the lilies of the field’; but she shows those with limited financial resources and imperfect bodies how they too might create a ‘holy of holies’ and transform themselves into its securely resident deity.  

1a: Fabricating Femininity (Chair: Sarah Heaton) – CWE 124