UNDERGARMENTS

INTRODUCTION TO LESSON 3: UNDERGARMENTS

Welcome back for Lesson 3! Here's an outline of the things you'll know when you finish Lesson 3.

SOURCES: If you check the supplemental reading list for this lesson, you may be surprised at the number of British sources; the very costume and fashion history books I recommend avoiding (since they're based on British information and British clothing).But I've found that the information on undergarments in these British sources confirms (and expresses very succinctly) the basic information on undergarments I've found in American sources. Suggest Reading on Undergarments

Generally in undergarments, as with other garments, the difference between American and English clothes are as follows:

• Expensive Fabrics: In British photographs (and original garments), we see fabrics of exceptional quality and expense being used more commonly than in American sources. You may occasionally find an American photograph of a woman in velvet, but velvet is practically commonplace when you view photographs with British backmarks. Also . . . as a rule, clothing seen in photographs with British backmarks tends to have more trim than clothing seen in photographs with American backmarks.



• Exaggerated Fashions: The British tend to adhere a bit more faithfully to fashions as seen in fashion plates, while Americans are more prone to practicality. For example, the exaggerated bell of 1850s fashion plates can be seen in the ambrotypes and daguerreotypes of British royalty, but the photographs of the wives, daughters and nieces of American presidents show more restrained skirts in the same and slightly later periods. On the topic of undergarments, extant British undergarments tend to be fancier than extant American ones.

SPECIAL NOTE: ORIGINAL UNDERGARMENTS: Extant garments particularly in the world of undergarments - tend to be the "finest of the fine"; the finest undergarments of the wealthier end of the population. The common undergarments of common folks were seldom saved. (How many bras and pairs of underdrawers of yours do you think will survive the settling of your estate much less that of your grandchildren?) You can believe that many of the undergarments that exist today were saved because they represented something special (like a trousseau), not because they represented every-day wear. When you reproduce undergarments, you will do well to tone down the trim from the amount seen on many originals. That is, if you want to represent everyday wear.
Ok, ok. I'm off my soapbox now. On with the lesson . . .

One last note on sources. Much of the information (but none of the illustrations) in this lesson is cribbed from research I did and a monograph I published back in the mid-70s. So, if any of you have a copy of Costumer's Companion, Volume 3, "A Touch of the Obscure", I'm afraid you already have a lot of this information. If you don't have it, please don't bother trying to find a copy. It was a limited edition (to make spending money while I was in college), and I'm embarrassed at some of my grammar mistakes.

A LIST OF UNDERGARMENTS: Starting right out with some conclusions, here's a list of undergarments associated with women of the Civil War, and my most confident conclusion on each:

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