Oscar Wilde’s Philosophy of Fashion and the estheticism

Abstract

In 1885, the Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) published the article Philosphy of Dress in the New York Tribune. A translation of the article is hitherto unpublished in Portuguese will be presented below. The aim of this essay is to familiarise readers with the context of the original text production. In this commentary on Philosophy of Dress, I argue that it can be understood as Wilde’s manifesto on the reform of women’s dress. The propositions presented in Philosophy of Dress are in line with his aestheticist ideas, which understand life as an art form - which would happen, among other things, by opposing the consumption of ordinary products resulting from industrial capitalism. I would also point out that, while the defence of artifice as a form of beauty was one of the premises of her aestheticist thinking, as far as women’s clothing is concerned, he argues, based on the compilation of ideas propagated by doctors and designers, that beauty lies in the ‘naturalness’ of the garment. I also analyse, the fact that the anti-fashion advocated by Wilde is not confined to the field of ideas and texts, but becomes material when began to marketed in the artistic clothing section of the London department stores’ Liberty in 1884. Finally, I discuss how such costumes appear in William Powell Frith’s 1883 painting Private view at the Royal Academy, 1881, an artistic representations of modern life in London society.