In HBO’s period drama “The Gilded Age,” the use of fabric tells as muc h of a story as the characters themselves.

The show is set in the Gilded Age in the U.S., between 1870 to 1890, which was a period of industrial revolution, technological expansion and the introduction of new money. Fashion of the time emphasized extravagance among society’s elite, who used fabric, sashes and ribbons to show their wealth.

“Clothing itself was kind of like a form of capital,” said Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, Ph.D., an adjunct assistant professor in the department of history at Case Western Reserve University. “All the fancy dresses we see now in museums, the reason that we have those is that they’re just good quality dresses. They’re not what we wear today. Fabric itself was a form of capital, in a s

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