“A Pair of Scissors, and One Daring, If Trembling, Snip—!”: Making Mrs. Oliphant’s Dress

Abstract

Abstract: Devised and edited by the Reverend W.J. Loftie, the Art at Home Series, published by Macmillan & Co. between 1876 and 1883, was a highly successful collection of domestic advice manuals aimed at a growing lower-middle-class readership. This paper focuses upon the volume in the series devoted to the subject of the book Dress , written in 1878 by the well-known Scottish novelist Mrs. Margaret Oliphant (1828–97). Drawing upon previously unpublished sources from the Macmillan Archive and contemporary reviews, this article charts the book’s production and initial reception to suggest Dress reveals as much about the expedient world of Victorian writing and publishing practices as it does about fashion. Demonstrating Oliphant’s skill in “writing with scissors,” it reveals the intertextual relationship that Dress has with many other literary and visual sources. Whether we interpret this as an example of plagiarism or a creative strategy, I argue that while Dress should be considered a cultural document of the late-Victorian period, it can never be treated as straightforward evidence of how people dressed in the past.