Lovisa Willborg Jonsson

Lovisa's dissertation explores the tradition of cross-dressing in eighteenth-century Sweden. Based on trial records in which women were prosecuted for wearing men’s clothing, this study aims to challenge the grand narratives of fashion and dress history and shed light on non-elite dress cultures. 

Exploring the material culture presented in the source material, allows for an historical exposition of the unofficial ways of acquiring clothes in eighteenth-century Sweden. This, in turn, allows for consideration of the feasibility of cross-dressing. 

The dissertation argues that a widespread second-hand market, a tradition of recycling clothes, along with a general interest for the theatre and dressing up, gave room for the official dress codes to be violated. It reflects an ambiguous fashion system formally regulated by sumptuary laws to maintain social order - a discourse generally resisted by the mainstream.