All the Rage
Power, Pain, Pleasure: Stories from the Frontline of Beauty 1860-1960
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'Sits you at the dressing table of history: a place of dreams, doubts, self-harm and hopes' -Sunday Times
At the heart of this history is the female body. The century-span between the crinoline and the bikini witnessed more mutations in the ideal western woman's body shape than at any other period. In this richly detailed account, Virginia Nicholson, described as 'one of the great social historians of our time...' (Amanda Foreman) and a truly brilliant researcher has produced a most remarkable social history revealing the power, the pain and the pleasure involved in adorning the female body.
She asks how custom, colour, class and sex fit into the picture, and shrewdly charts how the advances made by feminism collided with the changing shape of desirability. Full of surprising facts - the feminist plastic surgeon, the radioactive corset - alongside stories of the 'New Women' who discovered freedom by bobbing their hair, those who were the early adopters of trousers, and early Black beauty entrepreneurs, this book chronicles the codes, the contradictions, the lies and the highs of beauty.
Virginia Nicholson shows how the pursuit of beauty can be oppressive but also a way of negotiating the world and that adornment can be a deep pleasure. It's complicated!
`This is a fascinating book: funny, unexpected, forgiving, political, personal, glamorous and yes, quietly, angry. Read it for the amazing stories; stay for the self-knowledge. Or the Revolution' -Louisa Young, Prospect
At the heart of this history is the female body. The century-span between the crinoline and the bikini witnessed more mutations in the ideal western woman's body shape than at any other period. In this richly detailed account, Virginia Nicholson, described as 'one of the great social historians of our time...' (Amanda Foreman) and a truly brilliant researcher has produced a most remarkable social history revealing the power, the pain and the pleasure involved in adorning the female body.
She asks how custom, colour, class and sex fit into the picture, and shrewdly charts how the advances made by feminism collided with the changing shape of desirability. Full of surprising facts - the feminist plastic surgeon, the radioactive corset - alongside stories of the 'New Women' who discovered freedom by bobbing their hair, those who were the early adopters of trousers, and early Black beauty entrepreneurs, this book chronicles the codes, the contradictions, the lies and the highs of beauty.
Virginia Nicholson shows how the pursuit of beauty can be oppressive but also a way of negotiating the world and that adornment can be a deep pleasure. It's complicated!
`This is a fascinating book: funny, unexpected, forgiving, political, personal, glamorous and yes, quietly, angry. Read it for the amazing stories; stay for the self-knowledge. Or the Revolution' -Louisa Young, Prospect
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- Published: Apr 03 2025
- 196 x 126mm
- ISBN: 9780349014326
Press Reviews
- Amanda Foreman
In All the Rage, the incomparable Virginia Nicholson, shaped and armed by her unconventional childhood among the Bloomsbury Set, is unafraid of skewering the social conventions that bound her generation. The tragedy of the myth of beauty, as Nicholson shows, is that it was never a myth. I love her writing
- Justine Picardie
A scintillating survey of the changing face of beauty . . . bold in its scope, yet filled with intriguing details and thoughtful, original analysis.
Sarah Ditum
Sunday TimesNicholson's lively, intimate history of beauty . . . All the Rage sits you at the dressing table of history: a place of dreams, doubts, self-harm and hopes.
Louisa Young
ProspectThis is a fascinating book: funny, unexpected, forgiving, political, personal, glamorous and yes, quietly, angry.
- Harper's Bazaar
Wonderfully engaging
- Literary Review
Virginia Nicholson's history of modern women's dedication to their appearance is full of ironies... She is particularly good on how a body looks when styled according to the fashions and expectations of an era... A compelling account of how . . . women are moulded by dominant ideals
Ysenda Maxtone Graham
Daily MailAn unforgettably rich and varied tapestry of the development of female beauty anxiety.
- Spectator
All the Rage is a perfect title for a book about terrible beauty . . . Nicholson's research, and her talent for shaping her vast material into a compelling, thoughtful tale, are most impressive.