Calling Clothing Historians

Well, part of it is easy, and comes from whether a particular society was an agrarian or hunter-gatherer one.

Hunter-gatherer societies make most of their clothing from skins - and anyone who has ever sew with leather knows that you get lots of smallish odd-shaped pieces. Logically, you sew them together to fit your body. You end up with close-fitting garments. Even when you get cloth traded in, you go on making the same kind of stuff you are used to wearing.

Contrary to this, weaving textiles is a loooooooong and laborious process. After you have spent all that time putting together a piece of fabric, the last thing you want to do is CUT it! So you drape it, seam it, pin it, and do other stuff to it, and you get robes, chitons, kimono, and other stuff like that, worn by both sexes.

Not as sure about some of the later developments, as they are pretty culturally and religiously specific - about what is and is not appropriate for the genders. The "no trosers for women" seems (at a wild guess) to be more common in Christianized societies, where people got really hung up on men and women dressing differently - because God said it, you know? {Apparently, the Hindus and Muslims weren't listening hard enought ;-) }

I DO know one little tidbit about women not wearing "pants". Women did not even wear underwear beneath their skirts until comparatively late in history. This is not just for convenience (just squat where you are to pee) but for hygeine. Remember, the garments next to your skin weren't washed too often. Neither were you. So you needed to...er..ventillate the area. Wearing cloth that trapped moisture there was just ASKING for trouble. (can we say "raging yeast infection" boys and girls?)

Dear Wendy,

The Iceman (Oetzie) wore trousers, as did the Bog People, both older than the Greeks and Romans. But your reasoning about woven cloth is quite good. They had no needles fine enough to sew the fine cloth. And it "wore" better, because each day the pieces would be draped a little different.

The Romans and Greeks (at least the upper classes) had running water and public baths. Some even had flush toilets!!! It was the Europeans and later the Americans who didn't bathe or have water systems.

Underwear for women became popular in the 1820s, and was made of fine linen or cotton. The first versions were made to show below the skirts, and did little to cover or protect the private parts. In fact, pantaloons were no more than two leg tubes held together by a waistband. I have read, but never seen in a historic collection, that some women of the Regency period wore tubes tied to their knees so it looked like they were wearing the new-fangled pantaloons.

Teri

When were scissors invented? Imagine trying to cut woven fabric with a knife -- even with the new rotary cutters, curves are difficult to impossible, and they're probably finer and sharper than the old knives.

The Iceman and the Bog people who wore trousers - were they animal skins?

As for running water, the natives in Mexico also had it, and bathing was common and frequent there and in the more northern areas. What was it about the Europeans and their aversion to water? No wonder they invented perfumes!

(paste together the following URL:) shows some Egyptian shears from about 1000 BC -- they looked rather like hand sheep shears

Kay

G'day

If you practice cutting curves with a rotary cutter they do become easier, although I do tend to use the 1" cutter for tighter curves and prefer using a rotary cutter to scissors for a neater, more accurate cutting line.

We have it so much easier now than they did many years ago.....we are truly spoiled......I don't think they were the 'good' ole days.

Br> zski wrote:

Wonder how large they are. They do look more like clippers or shears that require two hands to operate, though.

The story I read was if the Heathen, beginning with the moors, I believe, bathed then "good Christians" just didn't need that new fangled stuff, We'll just embrace Dirt and disease. LOL thus the dark ages, y'know?

The replicas I have are five inches and nine inches long. They look like primitive shears, with one hole large enough for four fingers, the other hole for the thumb. They're black. I can use them like modern shears. In fact, we made a replica of a quilt made by the Boone women in 1860 because the original was in very poor condition, and had to go to the conservationists at St. John the Devine in New York. We used these shears to cut, just to get the "feel" of how it would have been to use such tools. It turned out that they did a very good job. (The Daniel Boone Home belongs to the University for which I taught, and I was its conservator and curator as part of my duties.)

Teri

Bingo! There were no "good" ole days. Some were better than others, but the progression has definitely been toward improvement for a long, long time. It's the old "When looking in the rear view mirror, times may look better than they were."

A whole lotta years ago, I got some obsidian blades in Mexico. Just picked them up off the ground, actually. They were also sharp. The long edges were flaked leaving a very sharp edge.

LOL Not as dark as once thought.........

G'day Linda

No........sorry not the same one.

Br> Is this by any chance the same Bronwyn who's from Lancaster PA and is in the > SCA?

I have heard that the Englishman who invented the toilet was named Crap, hence the nickname for the toilet "Crapper", but don't quote me on that. Most of ours are 2 holers. Hillbllly Dot in Tennessee

In article , Scare Crowe of WebTV Subscriber uttered

A flushing water closet was invented by Thomas Crapper.

Close, but no cigar:

" Claim: The flush toilet was invented by Thomas Crapper Status: False.

... Much of the confusion stems from a 1969 book by Wallace Reyburn, Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper. Reyburn's "biography" of Crapper has often been dismissed as a complete fabrication, as some of his other works ... are obvious satirical fiction."

Beverly

In article , BEI Design of uttered