Looking at Eighteenth-Century Clothing 2

-Mrs. Gavin Lawson (Susannah Rose) by John Hesselius. Oil on Canvas. Virginia, dated 1770. Mrs. Lawson wife of a planter and merchant of Stafford County, Virginia, wears a satin gown with stomacher front, fine lace, and pearls. 1954-262

-The concepts of comfort and modesty have always been relative and subject to the influence of fashion and the needs of the occasion. Like us, eighteenth-century people needed clothing for warmth and comfort, but they quickly abandoned those needs if fashion or the occasion dictated. During much of the eighteenth century, women's skirts were long and the sleeves covered the elbows; yet a woman would readily push up her sleeves and hike up her petticoats while doing laundry or working in the dairy, and, when fashion dictated it, women would shorten their skirts to the ankles, as many did in the 1780s.
When we look at ladies' corsets –"stays" –from the period, we cannot imagine how a woman could subject herself to such a garment. Yet the wearing of stays was as much linked to concepts of modesty and support as it was to figure shape; without her stays for most public occasions, a woman was considered not quite properly dressed at best and a "loose woman" at worst.



-Sack Back Gown and Matching Petticoats. Brocaded silk taffeta, linen bodice and sleeve linings, made in England or Virginia by Elizabeth Dandridge Aylett Henley.G1975-340.

-Someone who had worn stays from girlhood might scarcely have questioned their comfort or lack of it. (And who is to say that stays were any more uncomfortable than pointed-toe, high-heeled twentieth-century shoes?)
Climate also had a significant effect on clothing. In the sultry climate of Virginia many, even the upper classes, chose washable linen or cotton clothing for informal wear. A traveler in the early 1730s described the summer clothing of Virginians: "In Summertime even the gentry goe Many in White Holland [linen] Wast Coat and drawers and a thin Cap on their heads and Thread stockings [knitted linen]. The Ladyes Strait laced in thin Silk or Linnen. In Winter [they dress] mostly as in England and affect London Dress and wayes."
During the hot summer months, men often wore unlined coats and thin waistcoats of cotton or linen fabrics. Advising his brother about what to wear when he attended the College of William and Mary, Stephen Hawtrey wrote, "Your Cloathing in summer must be as thin and light as possible for the heat is beyond your conception . . .your Cloth suit unlined may do for the Month of May, but after that time you must wear the thinnest Stuffs that can be made without lining[;] some people . . . wear brown holland [linen] Coats with lining –some Crape –You must carry with you a Stock of Linnen Waistcoats made very large and loose, that they may'nt stick to your hide when you perspire."



-Gown and Matching Petticoat. Cream silk taffeta with crisp finish-lustring"-trimmed with pinked self-fabric,linen bodice and sleeve linings. By tradition made in England in 1778 and bought to Virginia by Mrs. Frances Norton. G1946-133.

-Many Virginia women favored gowns made of lustring, a crisp, light silk that was often ordered for wear during the summer months. When the hot weather became unbearable, some women went without their stays for informal occasions and at home, although formal occasions still required them. One Virginia woman related in her diary that she did not bother to get dressed immediately on a particularly "sulterry" day; she remained "up stairs in only shift and petticoat till after Tea."
Clothing that reaches a museum collection has been culled by time, by curatorial selectivity, and by a process we might call "the survival of the finest." Most collections contain garments that are of the elegant, dress type, simply because everyday clothing has not survived. No one thought to save the plain, worn garments of a lower-class man or woman – if there was anything left to save but rags.



-Unlined Coat and Breeches. Coat of coarse homespun cotton and wool, breeches of cotton, Isle of Wight County or Goochland County, Virgina, 1780-1790. the suit is sized to fit a youth ( the beeches have a 27-inch waist).1964-174.

-To understand what most people wore in the past, museum collections need to be supplemented by carefully analyzed print sources and written records.
Some questions about people's appearance cannot be answered to our satisfaction, even after poring over all the surviving sources. We would very much like to know the size of the "average" person in the eighteenth century, but we can offer only partial answers. We do know that the unaltered bodices and stays in Williamsburg's collections have waistlines ranging from 21 1/2 inches to 34 inches, with an average of slightly over 25 inches. Two hundred and twenty-five men advertised as being runaways in the Virginia Gazette between the years 1750 to 1770 had an average height of 5 feet, 7 1/2 inches. Based on limited, non-scientific samples, these figures cannot be taken as averages for an entire period. Research continues in all aspects of appearance and clothing.