Dressing Up: A History of Fancy Dress in Britain / Verity Wilson, Reaktion Books, London, 2022. 352 pp., 144 illus. £25. 9781789145298

Verity Wilson’s Dressing Up is an anticipated contribution to the study of dress and popular culture, in particular to explicating the often irreverent sartorial idiom of fancy dress within the British Isles. It offers the cumulation of research which evidently goes far beyond what can be accessibly included in a published volume. Wilson combines academic rigour with attention to her lived experience of British culture, enabling her to draw out a balanced approach, which neither over-emphasises nor attempts to hide unacceptable cultural habits. By describing the details of specific costumes, habits and circumstances, Wilson illuminates cultural character rather than tying the narrative into the complex knots of why individual people wore what they did. The merit of this book is in unpacking and explaining the fancy dress suitcase, laying an essential groundwork for future scholarship.