Fashioning Greece in The Woman's World

What is it about?

When Oscar Wilde was made editor of Cassell’s magazine Lady’s World in 1887, he changed its name to Woman’s World to appeal to a female readership of middle- and upper-class women, whose interests encompassed social issues, art and culture, as well as domesticity and fashion. For Wilde, the purpose of the short-lived Woman’s World, was “to deal not merely with what women wear, but with what they think and what they feel,” blurring the boundaries between “serious” and “trivial” pursuits. One of the magazine’s favourite pursuits was Greece, which featured in many articles, ranging from the lives of women in antiquity and Greek-style fashion to Modern Greek poetry, folk songs and contemporary Greek women’s customs. The representations of Greece in Woman’s World contributed to the periodical’s vision of femininity that combined feminism with consumerism and high culture with commodities. By juxtaposing discussions of the position of women in antiquity with reports from the latest Parisian fashion featuring the fashionable Greek dress, the magazine not only popularised Hellenism for its readership but also presented Greece as a marketable commodity.

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