Hi There is a Great Book called Making Working Women's Costume by Elizabeth Friendship. It is well researched and has patterns for historical garments for working-class women. Nothing frilly or Frou-Frou. 😊
Thanks for sharing! I almost never read other historians works-I have too much primary documentation to read to have time to read other people's works. But it's nice to have the recommendation for when I get a little time and want to read other peoples' work.
When it comes to servants (or the absence thereof), most women would have had a husband, a sister or a mother available to help if necessary. Single women living alone were the exception rather than the rule. Definitely give us more of this!
My pleasure! I try to go with original sources wherever possible. The only way to make sure you're getting it 'right' is when you have multiple original sources saying the same thing.
Since you're in Houston, if you're available June 22nd, the Freeport Historical Museum is having their Fort Velasco Day. I'll be there-my friend Wade is the museum director there. There's an original 1830s dress on display and I've made petticoats for it and also a bonnet to display with it. I'll go up early and help Wade with the new display and then be there all day Saturday in 1830s clothing talking about the fashions and such. I'll likely be working on some sewing while I'm there. If you're available, I'd love it if you could come (even as a spectator) to meet a lot of the TX living history crowd and just chat. Everyone there will be doing 1830s but most of the people do different time periods so you can make some connections with people who do the time periods you would like to do.
That's a good idea but then, people let's say in developing countries had their own version of 'fashion' that may have very much differed from the western version of fashion. Maybe conventionally fashionable is the right term?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge, it's fascinating to hear about the past. I did a double take at the end as it's the first time I've seen you in modern clothes, ❤
It probably is! Most of my 'modern' clothes are still historic but I think those knit tops (I have 3 or 4 that I hand dyed) are my only true modern things now.
I think people are taking the 2 pairs of shoes (one for everyday, one for nice) that I know at least my Grandma grew up with being dirt poor in the rural south following the Great Depression, the idea of Sunday best clothes and that people had *less* clothes on average than we do and kind of combining all of them together to get the idea that people only had 2 sets of clothing.
The 1930s and Great Depression is very different from 19th century, though, and we can't really compare the two. I'm not sure about the 2 pairs of shoes for the 19th century-I haven't run across mention of that.
@@KatelynKearns I'm not saying that there are any similarities between time periods, just that I could see how people might arrive at the weird 2 dress only conclusion that way. Most people without an interest in history have a very hazy grasp of the past and will often conflate multiple time periods, morals, customs, sayings, etc. I think the 2 pairs of shoes was confined to the very poor; my grandma grew up without electricity or running water and multiple of her early childhood houses had dirt floors; and specifically for children as their feet grew so fast it didn't make any sense to purchase more shoes if they were just going to out grow them in a few months. This however didn't apply to the adults as far as I'm aware and even my Grandma had more than 2 dresses growing up.
@@slumbrrbunnie Ah yes, I call that the 'history blender' where people take all the information they've learned about all periods in history, blend them all up, and suddenly everything they've ever heard applies to every era of history. :) It's very frustrating as a historian to have to remind people that history continually changes and although what they've always been told *may* be correct for a certain place and time, it doesn't always apply.
To be honest,i do think modesty of course other reasons as you stated had something to do with the 19th century dress fashion,cause it influences alot of things and i know what you are saying about 19th century evening dresses are revealing,but from all the 18th century and 17th century dresses i have seen it seems not as revealing at all even compared to the regecny era one or the 17th century especially fashion,so that should be noted.
Different eras have different standards of modesty and opinions on what looks nice and fashionable. Modesty often meant more than just 'covering up' and even individuals were different in what they were comfortable with showing.
Hi
There is a Great Book called
Making Working Women's Costume by Elizabeth Friendship.
It is well researched and has patterns for historical garments for working-class women. Nothing frilly or Frou-Frou. 😊
Thanks for sharing! I almost never read other historians works-I have too much primary documentation to read to have time to read other people's works. But it's nice to have the recommendation for when I get a little time and want to read other peoples' work.
When it comes to servants (or the absence thereof), most women would have had a husband, a sister or a mother available to help if necessary. Single women living alone were the exception rather than the rule.
Definitely give us more of this!
That is very true! Very few women lived alone and somebody would be available to help with the dressing process if need be.
Thank you for your research... always great to hear original sources
My pleasure! I try to go with original sources wherever possible. The only way to make sure you're getting it 'right' is when you have multiple original sources saying the same thing.
Thank you so much for this podcast. It answered so many questions. Looking forward to the next episode.
Thank you for watching!
I’m in Texas and would love to learn where in Texas is a new living history opportunity. I definitely want to get involved in this community.
Since you're in Houston, if you're available June 22nd, the Freeport Historical Museum is having their Fort Velasco Day. I'll be there-my friend Wade is the museum director there. There's an original 1830s dress on display and I've made petticoats for it and also a bonnet to display with it. I'll go up early and help Wade with the new display and then be there all day Saturday in 1830s clothing talking about the fashions and such. I'll likely be working on some sewing while I'm there. If you're available, I'd love it if you could come (even as a spectator) to meet a lot of the TX living history crowd and just chat. Everyone there will be doing 1830s but most of the people do different time periods so you can make some connections with people who do the time periods you would like to do.
23:00 you could refer to them as "fashion-following" or "fashionable" people I think
That's a good idea but then, people let's say in developing countries had their own version of 'fashion' that may have very much differed from the western version of fashion. Maybe conventionally fashionable is the right term?
I've enjoyed this so much, thank you ❤
Thank you! I'm looking forward to doing more podcast episodes!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge, it's fascinating to hear about the past. I did a double take at the end as it's the first time I've seen you in modern clothes, ❤
It probably is! Most of my 'modern' clothes are still historic but I think those knit tops (I have 3 or 4 that I hand dyed) are my only true modern things now.
I think people are taking the 2 pairs of shoes (one for everyday, one for nice) that I know at least my Grandma grew up with being dirt poor in the rural south following the Great Depression, the idea of Sunday best clothes and that people had *less* clothes on average than we do and kind of combining all of them together to get the idea that people only had 2 sets of clothing.
The 1930s and Great Depression is very different from 19th century, though, and we can't really compare the two. I'm not sure about the 2 pairs of shoes for the 19th century-I haven't run across mention of that.
@@KatelynKearns I'm not saying that there are any similarities between time periods, just that I could see how people might arrive at the weird 2 dress only conclusion that way. Most people without an interest in history have a very hazy grasp of the past and will often conflate multiple time periods, morals, customs, sayings, etc.
I think the 2 pairs of shoes was confined to the very poor; my grandma grew up without electricity or running water and multiple of her early childhood houses had dirt floors; and specifically for children as their feet grew so fast it didn't make any sense to purchase more shoes if they were just going to out grow them in a few months.
This however didn't apply to the adults as far as I'm aware and even my Grandma had more than 2 dresses growing up.
@@slumbrrbunnie Ah yes, I call that the 'history blender' where people take all the information they've learned about all periods in history, blend them all up, and suddenly everything they've ever heard applies to every era of history. :) It's very frustrating as a historian to have to remind people that history continually changes and although what they've always been told *may* be correct for a certain place and time, it doesn't always apply.
@@KatelynKearns That is one of the best descriptors of that phenomenon I've ever heard.
Edit: puppy distraction made me hit send early.
To be honest,i do think modesty of course other reasons as you stated had something to do with the 19th century dress fashion,cause it influences alot of things and i know what you are saying about 19th century evening dresses are revealing,but from all the 18th century and 17th century dresses i have seen it seems not as revealing at all even compared to the regecny era one or the 17th century especially fashion,so that should be noted.
Different eras have different standards of modesty and opinions on what looks nice and fashionable. Modesty often meant more than just 'covering up' and even individuals were different in what they were comfortable with showing.