Clothing and Milnery

Contributors: Madeline And Rene Servisi

Abstract:

In Colonial America there were many trades. One of the most interesting trades was clothing aand millinery. Although the clothing we wear now is much different than the clothing they wore at the time, people had somewhat of the same idea's about clothing as people do today. Colonists felt that clothing was important and the right clothing helped to create a strong impression. It also represented ones class. A poor person who did not have money for beautiful clothing was looked down upon and thought to be of a lower class, they would usualy wear more bland colors. Today, it's much more difficult to determine your social class from your clothing. However, in Colonial America, clothing said everything about who you were and what social class you were in. The goal of this research paper is to explain the ways that people dressed in the Colonial period. Millinery in Colonial America was very important, it had three main sales, 25% was hats, opra tickets, and books and more things like that. Another 25% was clothing, and under garnments. 50% was altering clothing. At the time fashion changed a lot, about 6 times in one season. So if a ruffle or accent was no longer in style, one would take there clothes to a milliner, and would have those accents alltered.

__ Key Points__

-To descibe different types of clothing worn in Colonial America

- To explain what a millinerys cause was in Colonial Times

-Clothing wasn't only for looking good but also for showing what class you were in

-Comparing clothing then and now - what are the differences in the clothing

-How social classes could be determined

-How technology and concepts in clothing and in the machines for making clothing have changed since Colonial America

Clothing was essential to settlers' lives and it was an important part of their social status.  Lower and some middle class colonists wore simple, homemade clothing, while some middle class and the upper class colonists had fabric imported from Europe and clothing made for them by other people.  Some clothing that cost lots of money also caused health problems, such as the corset.  People who did not have enough money to pay for these expensive pieces of clothing did not become unhealthy because of it.  They did not have to go through all the troubles that the people that wore them did.  AS clothing became much simpler, people began to be recognized for who they were without being recognized for how much money they had.  Will clothing continue to become simpler or will it become fancier as time goes on?

Interviews:

-Garnmen our tourguide at the Jamestown reenactment classroom.

-A milliner in Colonial Williamsburg

Images and Resources:

Bibliography:

-A miiliner in Colonial Millinery

-History of Men's Costumes by Marion Sichel

-History of Women's Costume by Marion Sichel

-making 13 Colonies by Joy Hakim

-Baumgarten, Linda.  "Looking at Eighteenth-Century Clothing."  [Online].  www.history.org/history/clothing/intro/clothing.cfm

-Draper, Alison K., What People Wore in Colonial America.  New York, NY, Rosen Publishing Group Inc., 2001

-Thorp, Dr. D., Colonial America v. 2.  Sherman Turnpike, Danbury, Connecticut:  Brown Partworks Ltd., 1998.