Fashion and Family History: Interpreting How Your Ancestors Dressed

by Jayne Shrimpton

Overview

Studying dress history teaches us much about the past. In this skillfully-illustrated, accessible and authoritative book, Jayne Shrimpton demonstrates how fashion and clothes represent the everyday experiences of earlier generations, illuminating the world in which they lived. As Britain evolved during the 1800s from a slow-paced agrarian society into an urban-industrial nation, dress was transformed. Traditional rural styles declined and modern city modes, new workwear and holiday gear developed. Women sewed at home, while shopping advanced, novel textiles and mass-produced goods bringing affordable fashion to ordinary people. Many of our predecessors worked as professional garment-makers, laundresses or in other related trades: close to fashion production, as consumers they looked after their clothes. The author explains how, understanding the social significance of dress, the Victorians observed strict etiquette through special costumes for Sundays, marriage and mourning. Poorer families struggled to maintain standards, but young single workers spent their wages on clothes, the older generation cultivating their own discreet style. Twentieth-century dress grew more relaxed and democratic as popular culture influenced fashion for recent generations who enjoyed sport, cinema, music and dancing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526760265
Publisher:	Pen and Sword
Publication date:	12/28/2020
Series:	Tracing Your Ancestors Series
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jayne Shrimpton is a professional fashion historian and internationally-known 'photo detective' with a MA degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. A former Curator at the Heinz Archive and Library, National Portrait Gallery, London, she is an independent image consultant, speaker, author and magazine columnist, working primarily in the family history arena. She dates photographs at public events and advises on celebrity photographs, also appearing on-screen for BBC TV programme Who Do You Think You Are? Her books include Family Photographs and How to Date Them, British Working Dress, Victorian Fashion and Tracing Your Ancestors through Family Photographs.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Picture Credits viii

Introduction ix

Chapter 1 Fashion Timeline, 1800-1950 1

Women's Styles 2

Men's Dress 14

Children's Clothes 21

Chapter 2 Following Fashion 37

Metropolitan Novelties 37

Regional Variations 38

Technological Advances 40

Presenting an Image 43

The Generation Gap 45

Fashion and Popular Culture 46

Chapter 3 Work Wear: Town and Country 48

Rural Styles 48

Factory Dress 59

Business Modes 64

Chapter 4 Work Wear: Occupational Uniforms 73

Standardised Dress 73

Domestic Servants 74

Behind the Counter 80

Chapter 5 Dressing up, Dressing down 83

'Sunday best' 83

At Home 86

Holiday Clothes 91

Chapter 6 Sports Wear 97

Horse-Riding 97

Tennis 100

Cycling 103

Motoring 105

Golf 108

Walking and Rambling 110

Chapter 7 Special Occasions 113

Bridalwear 113

Mourning Attire 123

Evening Dress 128

Chapter 8 Making and Buying 133

Learning to Sew 133

Home Work 134

Paper Patterns and Sewing Machines 136

Make-do and Mend 139

Hand-Knitting 140

Sourcing Fabrics and Clothes 142

Chapter 9 Caring for Clothes 145

Preserving Fine Apparel 145

The Household Laundry 146

Starching, Drying and Ironing 150

Storing Clothes 152

Chapter 10 Clothing Industry Work 155

Regional Manufactures 155

Dressmakers and Seamstresses 161

Washerwomen and Laundry Workers 166

Chapter 11 Fashion Heirlooms 171

Costume Keepsakes 171

Jewelled Treasures 173

Painted and Printed Records 173

Bibliography 175

Index 177