{"product_id":"9781350098503","title":"The Business of Beauty : Gender and the Body in Modern London","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThe Business of Beauty\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Jessica P. Clark\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Business of Beauty\u003c\/i\u003e is a unique exploration of the history of beauty, consumption, and business in Victorian and Edwardian London. Illuminating national and cultural contingencies specific to London as a global metropolis, it makes an important intervention by challenging the view of those who-like their historical contemporaries-perceive the 19th and early 20th centuries as devoid of beauty praxis, let alone a commercial beauty culture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eContrary to this perception, \u003ci\u003eThe Business of Beauty\u003c\/i\u003e reveals that Victorian and Edwardian women and men developed a number of tacit strategies to transform their looks including the purchase of new goods and services from a heterogeneous group of urban entrepreneurs: hairdressers, barbers, perfumers, wigmakers, complexion specialists, hair-restorers, manicurists, and beauty “culturists.” Mining trade journals, census data, periodical print, and advice literature, Jessica P. Clark takes us on a journey through Victorian and Edwardian London's beauty businesses, from the shady back parlors of Sarah “Madame Rachel” Leverson to the elegant showrooms of Eugène Rimmel into the first Mayfair salon of Mrs. Helena Titus, aka Helena Rubinstein.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy revealing these stories, Jessica P. Clark revises traditional chronologies of British beauty consumption and provides the historical background to 20th-century developments led by Rubinstein and others. Weaving together histories of gender, fashion, and business to investigate the ways that Victorian critiques of self-fashioning and beautification defined both the buying and selling of beauty goods, this is a revealing resource for scholars, students, fashion followers, and beauty enthusiasts alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Clark's fascinating study of beauty entrepreneurship in 19th-century London provides wonderful insights not only into Victorian and Edwardian business and marketing practices but also into the history of gender, self-fashioning, national identities, and urban cosmopolitanism. Through careful research, the author has unearthed a wide array of intriguing source material that will surprise and delight.” —\u003ci\u003ePaul R. Deslandes, University of Vermont, USA\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In this lively and imaginative new study, Jessica Clark demonstrates how the Victorians invented a major beauty industry in the center of their capital city. By focusing on hairdressers and other beauty experts, Clark's fascinating and entertaining new book establishes how London became the center of a new type of consumer culture, in which consumers who could afford it could transform their bodies and identities. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of London, gender and capitalism.” —\u003ci\u003eErika Rappaport, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781350098503\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Bloomsbury Visual Arts","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40735798657230,"sku":"9781350098503","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_8b9b9e0e-4b74-488e-aead-fffe16e95f52.jpg?v=1641274166","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781350098503","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}