It focuses on the fraught relationships that emerged at this time between ideal models of manly behavior and attitudes towards the expression of sexual and class identities through the medium of dress. The period has been identified by many historians as a crucial moment in the development of a commodity culture, and its characteristics have generally been discussed in terms of a "feminization" of practices linked with shopping and fashionable display. In a challenge to the accepted picture, Christopher Breward tracks previously hidden connections between the formation of popular sartorial models for male consumers, the organization of associated retail industries and the promotion of new leisure activities.

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