Dressed to Kill: British Naval Uniform, Masculinity and Contemporary Fashions, 1748-1857

by Amy Miller

Detailed analysis of the naval uniform and its historical, social, and economic contexts.

Dressed to Kill provides an extensive catalog of uniforms from the collection at London’s National Maritime Museum, accompanied by a selection of patterns that examine the construction of the garments as well as personal papers, diaries, and other period artifacts. Amy Miller demonstrates the significance of male fashion and uniform in the forging of a national, hierarchical, and gendered identity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 

This fully updated and expanded second edition of the 2007 publication contains additional research that provides a greater understanding of the political and social changes that influenced not only what the Royal Navy wore, but why they wore it. Parliamentary records, newspapers, and museum archives give a greater contextualization of the relationship that naval uniform represented—the confluence of politics and economics, fashion and popular culture.

Genres: Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

Published April 13, 2022

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a great introduction to Royal Navy uniforms, I've enjoyed it a lot! The bibliography and sources in general are a really good addition. I would've liked a bit more context in the descriptions of the uniform examples in the latter half of the book, but we can't have everything at once I suppose. Despite that I would heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject!

[Ronnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My obsession with a certain 19th-century Navy-man-turned-dragon-captain (Laurence from Naomi Novik's *Téméraire* series) led me to looking up this book, and I'm glad I did. 

The essays were interesting and informative, and I'll likely at some point look into buying this book myself instead of just signing it out from the library so I can read them again. 

The book is filled with all sorts of photos and outlines a lot of details about the particulars of Navy uniforms over this timeframe also.  

A very interesting and thoughtful read! 

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated, impressively referenced, and named in a really catchy way book. It addressed how the British naval uniform evolved over time and how it affected the fashion and how was affected by the fashion. The patterns are an extra bonus to the book.

[Ollie Embourne · Rating 5 out of 5]

hugely enjoying this on its own at present but the ability to bootleg a few decades' worth of naval uniforms if you so desire is a massive bonus too.