Calling Clothing Historians

Someone posted that she wore pants, not skirts and dresses - Juno? It got me to thinking. Thought you smelled wood burning, didn't you? ;-)

Men in trousers and women in dresses seems contrary to anatomy. If I am recalling correctly, it is also a relatively new way of dressing. Greek and Roman men didn't wear trousers. Egyptians, either. Seems that they wore skirts, kilts, robes, or some other such garment. Not just in Western Civ., either. In Asia, men wore various garments, but not trousers. I think leg wrapping came in when Europe was being conquered, perhaps because of the cold weather? Or the wooded terrain? Even today, men in kilts is not unusual. Some churches have men in robes of various kinds. Women in Asia wear pants in some cultures. The salwar kameez suit comes to mind. As do "harem pants."

Do we have an historian on board who can shed some light on the history of "modern dress"? Where did we go wrong and why? Men in trousers fussing with their fiddly bits, and women in dresses must have an interesting past.

Reply to
Pogonip
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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?)

Reply to
zski

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

Reply to
gpjones2938

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.

Reply to
Pogonip

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!

Reply to
Pogonip

I found this link:

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history of bathing before 1601 that is pretty interesting.

Reply to
Small Change

The Bog People and Oetzie all wore garments of leather. The pictures in my books show coifs on the men and women Bog People; there is a detailed description of Oetzie's clothing on one of the websites (haven't used it for two years; forget the url). The leggings were leather; the shoes were woven straw, stuffed with more straw; the hat was bearskin and sewn crudely to fit close to the head.

I have a pair of replica scissors from the eighteenth or nineteenth century. They would have been forged by an ironmonger, then sharpened. They cut quite well, but dull quickly. I don't know how much earlier scissors were "born," but I'm thinking Renaissance, because of the elaborate pieces of clothing worn. A machine for making silk stockings dates to Elizabethan times.

Something about taking off all of one's clothing and getting wet, I think were the reasons for not bathing more often. They thought it would help one get pneumonia or other diseases.

Teri

Reply to
gpjones2938

IIRC, the Egyptians and the Quechua (Peru) knitted. For footwear and mittens/gloves, perhaps headgear. Only fragments survive, and it's uncertain exactly how some textiles were done, and some were so fine that even with today's machinery, we can't duplicate it. Interesting.

Also interesting is that history of bathing Penny posted. Although I wonder sometimes if the word "bath" didn't have a wider meaning, since using dirt or sand is included for the Moslem tribes, and the others mention a lot of greasy substances. Plus, of course, a steam bath or a sauna, while invigorating, doesn't do much to clean the person.

Scissors were one of those inventions that I suspect opened up a whole new world of possibilities. I would guess they were originally made of a softer metal, and wouldn't hold an edge for terribly long.

Reply to
Pogonip

In Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, slippers woven of vegetable fibers have been found, dating to about 4000 years ago.

Jean M.

Reply to
Jean D Mahavier

That is very cool! Wonder who the makers were, or have other discoveries been made that fill in the history?

Reply to
Pogonip

Pogonip wrote:>> In Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, slippers woven of vegetable fibers have

couldnt' find much, but it appears that scissors have been around for 2000 years or so

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Reply to
Small Change

Actually it does. Along with the steam bath, skin was scraped or rubbed down. Soap is documented as being made in Europe at least since Roman times, although it wasn't a commercial product. Ritual washing was important for many types of religious rites even before the Romans got there. Every settlement originated by the Romans in Europe had public baths which were well frequented. Obviously the wealthier sorts had baths in their own homes. Those public baths remained well into the 19th century; most European cities had them and the buildings are still standing in many places.

The myth about northern Europeans never washing is only a myth. The settlement of the American colonies followed the same pattern; there were public baths in most places. Most people didn't strip down every day and wash head-to-toe because heating water was too difficult to do in quantity every day.

Reply to
Arri London

Now that's just amazing.

Reply to
Pogonip

I'm thinking just imagine how valuable a pair of scissors would have been....

penny

Reply to
Small Change

It certainly doesn't sound like every woman was walking around with a pair in her pocket, does it? In fact, they sound like works of art.

Reply to
Pogonip

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shows some Egyptian shears from about 1000 BC -- they looked ratherlike hand sheep shears Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

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:

Reply to
HC

Learn something new everyday. Today-about scissors. Interesting reading. Emily

Reply to
CySew

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?

Reply to
Kitty In Somerset, PA

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."

Reply to
Pogonip

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