The Art of Dress: Clothes and Society 1500 ? 1914The clothes worn by our ancestors afford an unparalleled insight into lifestyles that have disappeared forever. Choice of dress has always been governed by a series of influences social and economic, artistic and technical and, of course, the vagaries of individual taste. Jane Ashelford has used the National Trusts stunning costume and textile collections as well as its historic house portraits, family correspondence, diaries and household papers to