Clothing Through American History

Learn what men, women, and children have worn—and why—in American history, from the deprivations of the Civil War through the prosperous 1890s. In Clothing through American History: The Civil War through the Gilded Age, 1861–1899, authors Anita Stamper and Jill Condra provide information on fabrics, materials, and manufacturing; a discussion of daily life and dress; and the types of clothes worn by men, women, and children of all levels of society. The volume features numerous illustrations, helpful timelines, resource guides recommending Web sites, videos, and print publications, and extensive glossaries. Among the many topics discussed include: • The hours that middle class women of the nineteenth century spent making clothes for themselves and their families • The plain, rough clothes assigned to slaves to ensure that they did not enhance their appearance and their later trouble in buying clothes after emancipation • The Bloomer dress reform movement in the mid to late 19th century, where women who adopted loose, baggy trousers for practicality were called evil and unnatural • The beginnings of clothing and department stores

Learn what men, women, and children have worn—and why—in American history, beginning with the classical styles worn in the early American republic through the hoop skirts and ready-made clothes worn before the Civil War. Authors Ann Buermann Wass and Michelle Webb Fandrich provide information on fabrics, materials, and manufacturing; a discussion of levels of society, daily life, and dress; and the types of clothes worn by men, women, and children, including American Indians and enslaved people. The authors have painstakingly researched such primary sources as diaries, letters, and wills of the people of the time, in addition to secondary resources. Just a few of the topics include: • The constant problems of getting fabrics, such as wool, or cotton, in the late eighteenth centuries • The types of clothes that slave men, women, and children were allowed to wear • The beginnings of patterns and the mass production of clothing in the mid nineteenth century. The volume features numerous illustrations, helpful timelines, resource guides recommending websites, videos, and print publications, and extensive glossaries.

This study of clothing during British colonial America examines items worn by the well-to-do as well as the working poor, the enslaved, and Native Americans, reconstructing their wardrobes across social, economic, racial, and geographic boundaries. Clothing through American History: The British Colonial Era presents, in six chapters, a description of all aspects of dress in British colonial America, including the social and historical background of British America, and covering men's, women's, and children's garments. The book shows how dress reflected and evolved with life in British colonial America as primitive settlements gave way to the growth of towns, cities, and manufacturing of the pre-Industrial Revolution. Readers will discover that just as in the present day, what people wore in colonial times represented an immediate, visual form of communication that often conveyed information about the real or intended social, economic, legal, ethnic, and religious status of the wearer. The authors have gleaned invaluable information from a wide breadth of primary source materials for all of the colonies: court documents and colonial legislation; diaries, personal journals, and business ledgers; wills and probate inventories; newspaper advertisements; paintings, prints, and drawings; and surviving authentic clothing worn in the colonies.

Perfect for any reader interested in fashion, history, or popular culture, this text is an essential resource that presents vital information and informed analysis of key fashion fads not found elsewhere. Provides high school and college students with interesting information about the direct connections between fashion trends and history that is not available elsewhere in a scholarly source. Presents a multi-dimensional approach to understanding the ever-changing fads in the world of fashion, allowing students to recognize the meaning behind clothes and better think critically about what is presented to them through their peers and celebrity culture or sold to them by advertisers.

This fascinating reference set provides two levels of information: descriptions of styles of clothes that Americans have worn and, as important, why they wore those types of clothes. With volume one covering 1900-1949 and volume two covering 1950 to the present, the first half of each volume provides four chapters that each examine the impact that political and cultural events, arts and entertainment, daily life, and family structures have on fashion. The second half of each volume describes the important and everyday fashion and styles of the period, decade by decade, for women, men, and children. The set also includes helpful timelines; resource guides listing web sites, videos, and print publications; an extensive glossary; and illustrations.

Learn what men, women, and children have worn-and why-in American history, from the deprivations of the Civil War through the prosperous 1890s. In Clothing through American History: The Civil War through the Gilded Age, 1861-1899, authors Anita Stamper and Jill Condra provide information on fabrics, materials, and manufacturing; a discussion of daily life and dress; and the types of clothes worn by men, women, and children of all levels of society. The volume features numerous illustrations, helpful timelines, resource guides recommending Web sites, videos, and print publications, and extensive glossaries. Among the many topics discussed include: • The hours that middle class women of the nineteenth century spent making clothes for themselves and their families • The plain, rough clothes assigned to slaves to ensure that they did not enhance their appearance and their later trouble in buying clothes after emancipation • The Bloomer dress reform movement in the mid to late 19th century, where women who adopted loose, baggy trousers for practicality were called evil and unnatural • The beginnings of clothing and department stores.

This fascinating reference set provides two levels of information: descriptions of styles of clothes that Americans have worn and, as important, why they wore those types of clothes. With volume one covering 1900-1949 and volume two covering 1950 to the present, the first half of each volume provides four chapters that each examine the impact that political and cultural events, arts and entertainment, daily life, and family structures have on fashion. The second half of each volume describes the important and everyday fashion and styles of the period, decade by decade, for women, men, and children. The set also includes helpful timelines; resource guides listing web sites, videos, and print publications; an extensive glossary; and illustrations.

Traces the changes in the way Americans have dressed from colonial times to the present, and describes the technological and social developments behind these differences.