Men’s Fashion and Self–Fashioning in The Diary of an English Navy Clerk Samuel Pepys (1660–1669)

Abstract

In introducing the concept of self–fashioning, Stephen Greenblatt appealed to the idea of fashion and costume being able to turn the aristocrats of Renaissance England into a work of art. It is easy enough to draw parallels between fashion and self–fashioning when by "fashionable" we mean a type of costume and lifestyle that can become prestigious and popular for some period of time, which can be adopted and then abandoned in favour of a new one, thereby creating a certain public image for oneself. Early modern fashion is associated primarily with the court society. How could an official be fashionable when year after year he was dressed in a plain dark, usually black suit, which was appropriate for a townsman in the second half of the 17th century? This article explores how fashion and men's costume are represented in the diary of Samuel Pepys, a Navy official, who is called a man of fashion, and how, for him, costume could be a tool for shaping his identity.