On Lady's Dress By: Richard Steele Published: 1710
Clothing in text: Gloves
"The memory of an old visiting lady is so filled with gloves, silks, and ribbons, that I can look upon it as nothing else but a toy-shop" (Steele163-164).
"Many a lady has fetched a sigh at the toss of a wig, and been ruined by the tapping of a snuff-box. It is impossible to describe all the execution that was done by the shoulder-knot while the fashion prevailed, or to reckon up all the maidens that have fallen a sacrifice to a pair of fringed gloves" (Steele 164).
Social commentary: Steele uses this essay to comment on gloves as a trivial fashion that can do more harm than good. The gloves represent a life of appearances, one that Steele constantly warned against in his essays. By ridiculing the behavior of a superficial upper class, his writing was cautionary of the deceptive life such fashions could create.
Yet he needed to connect with the audience, as a simple preaching would not have an effect on the intended readers: "Because they are working not simply to modify the behavior of their audience but to change their very minds, it is most important that these moral reforms be internalized by readers, that readers be persuaded, not coerced, into freely electing their standards of taste and behavior as their own" (Mackie 5). Steele's gloves were a warning; live a life worrying about gloves, and it could mean ruin!
Other Clothing Reference: "A dress wherein there is so little variety shows the face in all its natural charms, and makes tones differ from another only as it is more or less beautiful (Steele 162).
"Let Thalestris change herself into a motley party-coloured animal: the pearl necklace, the flowered stomacher, the artificial nosegay, and shaded furbelow, may be of use to attract the eye of the beholder, and turn it from the imperfections of her features and shape" (Steele 163).