2026, Vol. 11, No. 1. - go to content...

Permanent address of this page - https://kostumologiya.ru/en/09ivkl126.html

Метаданные этой статьи так же доступны на русском языке

Full article in PDF format (file size: 906.9 KB)

For citation:

Belyakov N.A., Kutseva E.A. The role of the English enlightenment in the fashion revolution of the Great Renunciation era. Journal of Clothing Science. 2026; 11(1). Available at: https://kostumologiya.ru/PDF/09IVKL126.pdf (in Russian).

The role of the English enlightenment in the fashion revolution of the Great Renunciation era

Belyakov Nikolai Alexandrovich
Samara State Socio-Pedagogical University, Samara, Russia
E-mail: belyakovnikolaschka@yandex.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-7829-4589

Kutseva Elena Alexandrovna
Samara State Socio-Pedagogical University, Samara, Russia
E-mail: kutseva@pgsga.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6959-5215

Abstract. The phenomenon of the Great Renunciation, which appeared at the turn of the 18^th–19^th centuries, became an important milestone in the history of fashion and culture, reflecting society’s desire for naturalness and authenticity. This process continues to this day, with an emphasis on simplification and minimalism in clothing. This study is aimed at analyzing the cultural and ideological prerequisites of the Great Renunciation through the prism of the legacy of English enlightenment philosophers, with an emphasis on their influence on new cultural and everyday norms in the early 19th century. The historical and comparative method is used to identify similarities and differences in the ideas of the English enlighteners and their connection with new standards of beauty, as well as the historical and narrative method for a detailed analysis of the ideological heritage of each philosopher. In humanitarian literature, the prerequisites of the Great Renunciation are often associated with the egalitarian influence of the French Revolution. At the end of the 17^th century and the first half of the 18^th century, the prerequisites for the Great Renunciation were formed in England. The appeal to the heritage of the English enlighteners makes it possible to identify the main ideological prerequisites for the Great Renunciation: adherence to the canons of ancient beauty, the desire for naturalness, awareness of the class orientation of fashion and the priority of individual rights and freedoms over socio-cultural prescriptions. The English Enlightenment thinkers are the ideological forerunners of the Great Renunciation, while the revolution and Enlightenment in France accelerated and made more radical the application of their ideas in practice.

Keywords: the Great Renunciation; fashion; history of costume; history of culture; philosophy of Enlightenment; aesthetics; philosophy of aesthetics

Download article in PDF format