Orlando

Clothes inform how characters are perceived by others. For example, when Orlando encounters Nell, her traditionally masculine clothing leads Nell to perceive her as a man. Harry’s traditionally feminine dress leads to Orlando perceiving him as a woman. Even though their genders are the opposite, Woolf suggests that clothing dictates a person’s gender more than one’s body. Clothes can also be used to indicate class. Orlando’s frequent choices of dress cross gender divides and class lines as well. Nicholas Greene’s change in clothing reveals his rise in class. Clothes support a person’s performance but do not ultimately create their identity.

Clothes allow characters to create their identities. Characters and their identities can be in or out of fashion, like Orlando in the 19th century. Woolf often returns to the idea of fashioning oneself. Upon her return to her estate after her time with the Roma, Orlando reflects on how “for all her travels and adventures and profound thinkings and turnings this way and that, she was only in process of fabrication” (130). At the midpoint in the book, Orlando is still creating her own identity.