Handbook of English costume in the eighteenth century

The eighteenth century presents from different standpoints a conflicting scene of luxury and poverty, of refinement and coarseness, of license and prudery, jostling each other more violently, perhaps, than formerly: but as the Middle Class expanded in importance, extending upwards and downwards beyond definable limits, it blended the discordant elements into a whole and conserved its integrity. And this in spite of half the century spent in war, together with violent upheavals and disorder at home. So, from this distance the English eighteenth century, unlike the French, is seen to present a domestic struggle towards closer social fusion; not the last phase of an 'ancien regime' -- as there -- but in reality the first of a new. Its fashions present in graphic form a picture of gradual adaptation instead of abrupt revolution. All through the century in spite of wars and mutual hatred there was a continuous interchange of fashions across the Channel; at first by 'moppets' or dolls dressed in the newest modes, and later by newspaper reports as well. - Introduction.