The nineteenth century, according to C. Willett Cunnington, was a period when the cult of modesty was a tactical maneuver camouflaged as a virtue. It was also a period when euphemisms were used for such terms as -naked, - -breast, - and -leg, - and when underclothing was vaguely spoken of as -lingerie.-brCunnington, an early twentieth-century authority on fashion, argues that the Victorian matron was governed as much by current popular style as she was by instinct and custom. In a light, amusing, and highly readable account, he not only describes what Englishwomen wore in the nineteenth century but also explains why they clothed themselves as they did.brEnlivened with extracts from novels correspondence from the columns of ladies' magazines fashion descriptions and period advertisements of beauty aids the volume traces changes in feminine dress and ideas decade by decade through the 1800s. The importance of being -in fashion- and the longing to imitate -- in appearance -- those in the