Try making a 1930's 'farm during the depression' dress out of seed bags. My art group got one submitted in a show and we gave it first prize. No one knows why or winners win in such things, but somehow it struck a chord with just enough people.
"Jane, your milkmaid's a hoe." "..." I'm laughing so hard. But also I'd love to hear more along this train of thought. If you're interested in making more videos zeroing in on working class fashion in certain eras, countries, jobs, etc, I'd be watching! :)
Asking if poor Victorian women wore a corset is like asking if poor working women today wear bras. Obviously they did. A corset wasn't for fashion, it was your underwear. And unless you want your tits hanging all loose and floppy and potentially in your way all day, you bind the girls up somehow.
If you want to see what early to mid 19th century peasant's finer clothes looked like in several European countries, you need only look at modern so-called "folk customes". They are based off of the clothes that the peasant class would wear on occasions like weddings and similar social gatherings, sort of like what the "galla dress" would be to the upper class. National romantics, who idealized the peasant class as the more "pure", uncontaminated examplars of the "true national character", took to adopting the dress of the peasant class at the time, as well as their dancing style and music of the peasant class... and turning it into a performance to illustrate one's closeness to the true national character.
There is film of factory workers in the winter of 1902 in northern England. The women have long simple skirts, clogs, and a large shawl. The shawls actually look more like blankets and are worn over the head.
you looke fantastic, that is the first that comes to my mind. Secundly, of course women care about looks, its everything for them. Just look at the enormous fashion /beauty industry that we have ! Even as little girls women are dressing up, its a part of their mindset. Just as boys like to play with toy weapons.
“Dressing above ones class” was a piece of evidence used against Bridget Bishop in the Salem Witch Trials and Dr. Wendy Lucas wrote a great article about it if anyone is curious “Damned by a red paragon bodice” is the title I think
The fashion laws, at least in early modern Europe were mainly (or justified with) trying to prevent the lower classes to go in debt for things that are purely status based. Elaborate weddings used to be illegal because people spend all of their family fortune on them. The result of this? They calculated the fine into the wedding costs of course 😆 causing an even bigger spend but what cha gonna do. That also happend with clothes apperently. According to my anthropology teacher, students wore illegal puffy pants and often payed fines for it but never stopped. The fines were part of the product cost to them 😆
textile history: we've been wearing textiles since we skinned the first lizard crawling outta olduvai. This channel is important: textile history shows rises and falls in prosperity, trade (silk and cotton in europe?!), tastes. Thanks for very interesting videos. BTW you always look great!
I feel like it's the same as nowadays, poor people, working class people still try to keep up with the fashion trends at least on a smaller scale than what the stars are wearing or whats trendy.
Hm. And here's me thinking, fashion would be the LAST thing on my list of things to care about even if I was mega rich. (Middling now, but yeah.) Sweats, hoodie, maybe plate carrier, bye. I mean...what exactly is the point?
I think "poor" & "not noble" are being conflated here: a lot of the sumptuary laws weren't to keep poor people from looking rich, they were to keep the nouveau riche/merchant class (the OG middle class) from looking like old money/nobility.
I think logomania in fashion is the same law that you talked about. And now that the world is kind of falling apart again, the logomania is coming back
Yes, Debora, I still wear a bra while I'm out tending to the horses so I have a feeling that 150 years ago I'd be wearing a corset to do the same things.
i‘ve always been far more interested in the daily life of the working class than in that of wealthy people. they were so brave and strong and did so much in order to stay alive and to feed their families, whereas rich people at the time did nothing. i mean they didn‘t even dress up themselves. poor people were the real reason why the whole world was working. they deserve so much more admiration!
Hi I'm from Sweden we are going to celebrate the 400-year 2021 Gothenburg so I need to make clothes from 1621 so I wonder where could I get corset pattern and clothes pattern from that area will be so thankful if you can help me with that
Mad respect! I've always craved more discussion of what the working/lower classes wore & how it differed, as well as was similar to, the more upperclass focused aspect of fashion I often would learn about. Like I always kinda got that on one level poor people then are still just people but at the same time I knew that their circumstances could lead to like a vast range of reaction to & development of their fashion that left me going "but what is like the rest of population doing? I know they are, like, doing stuff!" When looking at all these fancy folk in history
The photograph of the milkmaid at 9:44 is virtually identical to one I have of my great-grandmother who was a Scottish milkmaid who died young before 1900. I have seen a third milkmaid photograph on-line which again seems identical in pose and clothing style. Interesting to speculate that these pictures may have been taken at the same time at the same dairy.
Sweatshops and mass-production.... This allowed affordable/disposable fashion. As with the 'teenager' - disposable fashion were comodified markets (disrupted by Depression and War.... When people still strove, even within extreme constraint). People with little disposable income like to dress up.... Say on pay day or holidays.... (and a lot of clothing was seen at home, re-fashioned, cut down and altered.) My Mum hand made the wedding-dresses of a college friends (also her own wedding dress). If you don't have money, but have skill.... You give what you can.
Even now there are people in Urban areas and poorer neighborhoods with people living in them that still want to look decent, have some fashion, they even winded up becoming a type of fashion with urban styles becoming popular
Your videos are so interesting! Thank you for the hard work you put behind every one of them. By the way, I think it should have been very sad to be prevented by law to wear fashionable clothes.
I'm coming here centuries too late, but about working women wearing corset I kind of see it as bras nowadays : corsets were not just an element of fashion, it was the foundation garment and it would not have come in mind to just not wear it. Just like nowadays it would not, except for a few people, come in mind to just not wear bras or to not weat panties.
Thank you for your dedication. It is always pleasure to watch your videos as you have not only amazing historical fashion skills but also deep overall knowledge of eras.
Peasant rural people used to have different fasion distinct from people of towns and cities. Sometimes even people DID NOT want to look like people from towns and they created their own fashion which usually later becomes national dress because of it uniqueness.
There are a lot of different considerations in this subject. Going way back, cloth was woven at home and garments were made there. A lot of decorative crafts developed from that situation, such as smoking which could shape garments without complex seams and designs. Fabric was saved, garments were more comfortable and fashionable. The Industrial Revolution led to factory made fabrics and sewing machines. Fashion became more available across economic classes. Going back to the times of sumptuary laws, lots of court dresses and outfits worn by the nobility were designed to be uncomfortable and to require an extreme level of behavior in order to wear such ungainly things. For instance at one time women at the French court wore farthingales so wide they had to go through doors sideways. They had to remain standing for hours as sitting was impossible. Fancy porcelain mugs were used for urination. Humorously, these porcelain objects are now sold as antiques and modern buyers often think they were created as soup tureens! The whole appearance was reminiscent of a Barbie doll stuck in an over decorated birthday cake. (Perhaps I am showing my age. This was something that was done when I was young.) I feel certain the average milkmaid was very thankful she did not have to wear such horrors.
I am always very interested in the way poor rural people, for example small farmers/peasants, got to learn not even about fashion, but basic patterns, garment-making technics and fabrics in the Middle Ages or in early antiquity, when there was no post or magazine, etc? Also, these laws regulating materials, colours, cuts were implemented in the likes of Roman Empire or, say, 16th century England to maintain the distinction between the senatorial/aristocratic class (who were getting poorer) and merchant classes (who were getting richer). They were not aimed at poor people, but at wealthy/rich/extremely rich middle classes. In societies, where no developed middle class existed, like 18th century Russia Empire, such laws did not usually exist. In brief, these laws were not about wealth but about maintaining the social hierarchy.
My grandma wore a corset until the doctor told her it was bad for her health. She had to take it a special place to be repaired, because so few people wore them by then.
Would be awesome to make a movie about sumtry laws and a girl kind of pushing the boundaries of what she was able to wear and look incredible (setting the trends of the upper class ) haha
we have poor people now and they often still dress nice at least at work we have uniforms now and im sure they had uniforms for even low paying jobs back then as well. you couldnt just show up to work in a torn dirty dress and not get in trouble.
I love this so much. The photos/paintings, the snarky humor, the history, all of it. When I bring up sumptuary laws in casual conversation, people often don’t believe such things existed. What, don’t we *all* try to crowbar sumptuary laws into everyday chit-chat? Is this why I don’t have friends?
"Hi. Today we're talking about poor people..." I feel so validated. Even when I was homeless, you couldn't tell by looking at me. I kept myself and my clothes clean and tidy. And a couple of nicer things were for job interviews.
Growing up in the 50’s-60’s with 3 sisters most of our clothing was passed down. Some new clothes were always part of birthday and Christmas presents. We had best, school, and play clothes. Being 3rd my older sisters stuff was play clothes for me. I did have cousins who were the only girl in their family so I wore their clothes. I never wore a dress that wasn’t home made until I went to work. Knitting and sewing yourself is no longer the cheapest way, everyone can look good from charity shops.
When my future grand kids see boxes of my stuff when I died Them: wtf why was our grandmama so old, like seriously centuries old goth Their friends: whoa... my granny's just like most grands, bro your grandma's weird. Also, why do you call her grandmama Them: she... mama said she's been wanting her grandchildren to call her grandmama since she was a kid idk
I wanna know what like?? Lecherous people wore. Like people who were a lil sexual. Like,,,,,, maybe because I might want to dress like that maybe who knows...
I recently subscribed and am watching some older videos. Most supturary laws were inacted to keep people in their class during periods of upward mobility by "lower" clases. Any period with a lot of sumpturary laws is a period of economic fluidity. Think of the wealth generated by the Industrial Revolution when suddenly there are people who are considered merchants with more wealth than landed nobility. The nobility felt threatened and passed supturary laws to try to maintain their position of privilege in society.
