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Clothing
: Introduction
: Looking at Eighteenth-Century Clothing
by Linda Baumgarten
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Mrs. Thomas Newton,Jr. (Martha Tucker) by John Durand.Oil on Canvas.
Virginia ca. 1770. Mrs. Newton of Norfolk, Virginia, wears a sack back gown with
self-fabric trimming, sheer neck handkerchief, sleeve ruffles, and a small
cap.Gift of M. Knoedler.,
G1954-273. |
Textiles and clothing--ephemeral objects that are subject to moth, mildew,
and the wear and tear of laundry, restyling, and recycling into quilts or rags;
are nevertheless able to help us understand a great deal about history. Consider
the fact that a planter's daughter in tidewater Virginia in the 1770s could
have worn at the same time a gown of silk from China, underclothing of linen
from Holland, and footwear made in England – all shipped in a vast network
of trade from their places of origin to a shop or warehouse in London, where
they were selected by a merchant, packed for a lengthy voyage across the ocean
in a ship propelled by wind, to arrive finally in Virginia. Or that a slave
– whose very freedom was entangled in a network of trade and commerce – could
be wearing clothing made from inexpensive textiles imported especially for his
use – a shirt of linen woven in northern Europe, woolen hose from Scotland,
or a knitted cap from Monmouth, England. Clothing and accessories worn in eighteenth-century
America were selected from sources all over the world.
Some upper-class Virginia
men ordered suits custom-made to their measurements in London. They specified
expensive fabrics like superfine woolen broadcloth or silks. Their suits were
sometimes embellished with imported buttons and other expensive trimmings. Women
could also purchase many of their items of apparel, especially petticoats, laces,
shoes, stockings, cloaks, aprons, and even stays, ready-made through the import
trade. Their gowns were more often made by local seamstresses or mantua makers.
Some women made their own clothing, especially work garments and shifts. Only
in frontier areas was most clothing homespun and homemade – and even there,
traders and storekeepers quickly penetrated the backcountry to make imported
goods available.
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| Woodcut.This detailed
illustrated an advertisement for runaway slaves that appeared in the Virgnia
Gazette (Purdie and Dixon) March 28, 1766. |
The clothing worn by eighteenth-century
Virginians was characterized by great diversity, as one would expect
in a society ranging from royal governors and wealthy landowners to indentured
servants and slaves. Upper-class Virginians kept abreast of the latest English
fashions through imported garments, letters from England, news from travelers,
and immigrating dressmakers or tailors. Surviving garments, portraits, and written
records indicate that when affluent Virginians had occasion to dress up, they
were very elegant indeed.
As early as 1724, Hugh Jones
wrote in The Present State of Virginia that Williamsburg's leading families
dressed like the gentry in London. Thirty-five years later, the reverend Jonathan
Boucher described Virginians: "Solomon in all his Glory was not array'd like
one of These. I assure you, Mrs. James, the common Planter's Daughters here
go every Day in finer Cloaths than I have seen content you for a Summer's Sunday.
You thought (homely Creatures as you are) my Sattin Wastecoat was a fine best,
Lord help You, I'm noth'g amongst the Lace and Lac'd fellows that are here.
Nay, so much does their Taste run after dress that they tell me I may see in
Virginia more brilliant Assemblies than I ever c'd in the North of Engl'd, and
except Royal Ones P'rhaps in any Part of it."
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Historic Triangle