Interesting bygone fashion

In the previous post, I mentioned visiting the Tullie House Museum in Cumbria. One of the exhibition spaces had a Costume collection of really interesting gowns. 

 

 

It harks back to a time when it was so important to be properly dressed with gloves, hat, proper shoes, handbags etc. 

It all took much thought & the social norms were very strict about what should be worn & when.  We give it little thought now but clothes were expensive & were more valued before times of mass production & consumption. 

There was also the realities of laundering clothes that is much easier now.

These two dresses caused me to pause & ponder the realities of fashion at that time. They were from 1750 & would have been hugely expensive to make with silks & embroidery. They would have marked someone out as being very wealthy with such impractical clothing. The yellow 'open robe dress dates to the 1770's too & it shows a fine petticoat - all signs of a wealthy person who wanted to be seen to be doing well. They were dresses to show off your success, wealth, to set you apart ... 

I was curious about how one would even sit in a dress like this one, how one would alight a carriage? I suppose supper was a non starter because I'm not sure you could eat close enough to the table in that. The question we all want to know is - how the heck do you use the facilities in such a dress? 

Queen Victoria is known to have stayed in mourning dress for decades after the death of her beloved Albert so this spawned a whole industry of black mourning wear.  

 Jet jewellery from Whitby in Yorkshire was highly fashionable & pearls were also seen as tear drop jewellery. 

There were very strict social mourning rules about when you could slowly emerge was all black dresses to muted colours & the time periods involved.  

Those social restrictions have largely gone now & the fashion around it too. However, dark clothing, usually black, is still the norm for funerals. 

The displays were very interesting & I could easily have spent a whole morning reading the boards & taking in all the details. We value clothes so little now in the era of fast fashion. Most people would be hard pressed to name a favourite item of clothes. 

The dress I think I could identify with most was the hand made one with the pattern alongside it. My Mother & Grandmother could turn their hand to most sewing things & for my leaving event at the end of primary school, they made me a dress that was very much in fashion. 

It had an empire line & a cross over bodice. That style was very much in fashion & I went with to choose a pattern & fabric & then this dress was made by my Mother & Grandmother. It was very special to me, it was much admired & the time they put in to it was not really appreciated until I was much older. 

Do you find such fashion times interesting too? Have you, like me, fallen in to the more casual wear of slacks & comfortable shoes for everyday wear? Tell all & thank  you for stopping by, 

Dee 👗💃🪡🧵👚