Classical World, vol. 112, no. 2 (2019) Pp.71–95 Antiquity and Modernity in Neoclassical Dress: The Confluence of Ancient Greece and Colonial India Mireille M. Lee ABSTRACT: Fashionable in Britain in the early nineteenth century, Neoclassical dress embodied the aesthetic ideals of the Enlighten- ment; but it also reflected implicit cultural constructs of the body, gender, status, and race. Borrowings from ancient Greek styles differed for women and for men, and for elites versus the lower classes. The production of Neoclassical garments was dependent upon the economic exploitation of the Indian subcontinent. Neo- classical dress was not purely an aesthetic choice; it was essential for the individual negotiation of social and cultural differences in the British Empire. Although fashion design has been influenced by ancient Greek styles for centuries, true Neoclassical dress was a specific phenomenon, fashion- able for only a few decades from the late eighteenth century until circa 1820. Following a period of experimentation with classical costumes in artistic contexts, true Neoclassical fashion was invented by Thomas Hope as an extension of his Neoclassical interior design. Recent scholar- ship has emphasized that Neoclassical dress was not purely an aesthetic phenomenon; it was the sartorial embodiment of the ideals of the En- lightenment. In the words of dress scholar Aileen Ribiero, Neoclassical dress was successful on account of “that rare thing, an intellectual un- derpinning . . . of a particular style of dress” (2008: 87). I argue that Neoclassical dress represented more than an aesthetic choice or an in- tellectual ideal: it was essential to the negotiations of social identities in Regency period Britain. Although Neoclassical dress appropriated the styles of classical antiquity, it reinterpreted them in terms of modern conceptions of health, the body, gender, and social class. The late eigh- teenth century was a period of tremendous social change, in part due to changes in the British economy. I argue that the role of colonial India in CLW 112.2 1st proof text.indd 71 1/7/2019 7:05:44 PM