As an ex admin of
the Historical Sew Fortnightly/Monthly Facebook group, and still somewhat in
the loop as an alumni moderator, I got the opportunity to write this
inspirational post. It feels a bit intimidating, as I’ve never tried to cover
so much of history before, and some periods are decidedly out of my comfort
zone. This will at best be a brief overview, and if I don’t touch on your period,
I apologise.
So, monochrome.
The white-grey-black scale may seem dull, but historically these shades could
send all sorts of messages about the wearer, not to mention set off other
colours worn with them. And as cut and detailing of a garment was often quite
as important as its colour, many beautiful clothing articles have been made in
the monochrome scale.
White has since
ancient times been associated with purity, cleanliness and virtue. It was worn
by the priestesses of the Roman goddess Vesta, but white was not reserved for religious purposes; there are lots of
evidence of white linen being worn by the ancient Egyptians (of course, linen will turn white naturally when in the sun), and the Roman
togas were white for several ceremonial and official functions.
During the Middle
Ages white continued to be symbolic of purity, chastity and sacrifice. It was
worn by priests during mass, by some of the religious orders, and was in some
countries the colour of widows. White linen or hemp was used in shirts, shifts
and braies, and white was often favoured in the veils and wimples of women.
"Lancelot and the Seductive Damsel", Lancelot du Lac (BNF Fr. 118, fol. 299v), early 15th century.
What
with the difficulty to keep white linen spotless, it also became a status
symbol, and was considered to reflect the moral quality of the wearer,
something that would be true in the following centuries as well.
During the end of the 15th/beginning of the 16th centuries, the wealthy
often showed off the elaborately worked cuffs and collars of their fine linen shirts and
shifts.
Later in the 16th century and into the 17th, separate ruffs took over this role.
During the 17th
century crisp white collars, cuffs and caps continued to be status markers,
often trimmed with elaborate lace.
During the 18th
century white silk stockings became all the rage for men and women alike, and clean white
frills and lace at neck and cuffs were worn by both sexes.
During the 1780s, white chemise dresses became fashionable, after a bit of royal scandal and a little hesitation because of their
similarity with shifts - hence the name.
White cotton dresses continued to be popular in the early 19th
century, in an effort to look like the marble statues of ancient Greek and Roman times.
White cotton dresses were still worn by infants for the rest of the century, even when
coloured dresses had long been the more common choice for older children and
women. Adorable, radiating innocence, and easier to bleach in the wash.
Clean, tidy white continued to be important in underwear, shirts,
cuffs, collars and caps, their state of cleanliness still regarded as a
reflection of the morality of the wearer – though in reality perhaps more often
being a reflection of the wealth of
the wearer, or, in ordinary families, the hard work of the wife and mother.
Though white wedding
dresses had made appearances among the wealthy through the centuries, they weren't common until the 19th century, first as a natural thing as white was
the most modern colour anyway, and then became a special and much desired thing, when Queen Victoria
married in white and looked so deliciously romantic - what girl who could afford it didn't want that for her wedding day?
"The Bride Adorned by Her Friend" by Henrik Olrik, Dansih, 1850.
In the Edwardian era
white was very popular in ladies waists and summer dresses. For some sporting
activities, like tennis, it was also favoured.
Heavily starched
shirt collars and false shirt fronts of gleaming white marked the gentleman. White
or off white light suits were worn for less formal day wear in summer.
Grey was, because
it’s a common colour of undyed sheep’s wool, for a long time the colour of
ordinary people (or at last their everyday clothes), and certain religious
orders that had humbleness and poverty among their vows. The 14th
and 15th century garments from Herjolfsnes were made from undyed
wool, in different shades of white, grey, brown and natural black.
During the 17th
century, when black was popular among the wealthy because of its soberness and association
with humility, greys and browns were adopted by many people of Puritan leanings
but lesser means, or by the well off for variety.
Well into the 18th
century Swedish (possibly more generally Scandinavian) farmers were described
as often wearing heavily fulled, home woven grey coats. But grey was not only
used by the ordinary people, fine suits and dresses of grey silk were worn by wealthy people. And of course, the powdered wigs so typical of the time often
looked grey.
In 1794 the
Swedish king Gustav IV Adolf made a new, extensive sumptuary law, after his
father, wanting more elegance around him, had made the previous sumptuary laws
void. Amongst other things (like banning coffee) women were forbidden to wear
dresses from silk or silk blends in any other colour than white, grey and black,
and tailors were forbidden to make them up. Dresses never worn out of doors
were exempt from this new law, that, as far as dress colours were concerned,
actually seem to have been followed pretty well. The coffee ban seem to have
caused more rebellious behaviour.
During the 19th
century grey was used by women for half mourning, or just because it’s a nice
colour and matches well with just about anything. In short, it’s a practical
colour.
It’s also seen rather frequently in extant Quaker clothing.
For men grey was
beginning to be more common in military uniforms, as they provided better camouflage
than the colourful uniforms of previous eras. Grey was also rather popular in gentlemen’s
leisure suits.
In the beginning of the 20th century,
grey continued to be a sensible colour for ladies dresses and ensembles.
Black was for a
long time not what we’d consider true black. It was tricky and expensive to
dye, and faded quickly to greys, greens and browns. In Medieval Europe bright
colours were much favoured by everyone who could afford them, including the
royalty and nobility, while black was mostly used by the Benedictine order. This
did not go without censure: in the first half of the 12th century the
Benedictine abbot Pierre the Venerable accused the Cistercians of pride for
wearing gleaming, difficult to keep clean, white. The Cistercian founder, Saint
Bernard of Clairvaux, responded that black was the colour of the devil, hell,
"of death and sin," while white represented "purity, innocence
and all the virtues". Dear, dear.
By the end of the
14th century a change began in regards to the colour black. New, better
dyes made for better quality black, and sombre black robes began to be worn by magistrate
and government officials, as a sign of their dignity. When Italian sumptuary laws
restricted what colours could be worn by those not of the nobility, the wealthy
bourgeois began wearing clothes from very fine, black fabrics instead.
The fashion soon spread to the local nobility and royalty, and then from court
to court in Europe.
In the 15th century black was no longer an unusual colour among the
wealthy and noble, though colours were still common.
During the 16th
century elegant, solemn black increased in popularity and had by the end of the
century become the go-to colour of nearly every court in Europe.
During the 17th
century black continued to be popular, particularly among the wealthy middle
classes, worn as a reflection of one’s piety and humility – the 17th
century was full of unrest, religious contention and war, and declaring what
side you were on could be made through dress and, in some cases, even hairstyle.
The Puritans for example, though by no means restricted to black, often did
favour it if they could afford it, or kept to other sober colours for these reasons,
but they were far from the only ones. Combined with the white collars and cuffs that were in fashion, they made very striking outfits.
In the 18th
century black went largely out of fashion, except for mourning. Light pastels and
bright colours were favoured during most of the century, but the occasional
black outfit was seen, and black could be used for accessories like hats, the neck stocks
of British officers, and shoes. Black was also a common colour for clergymen
and doctors, as a remnant of the piety, solemnity and respectability they represented in the previous century.
Black came back with
vengeance in the 19th century as the ever more important must have
colour of any woman’s mourning clothes. Fashionable mourning was so popular
that many upper and middle class ladies in Stockholm wore it even for deaths that didn’t
concern them personally, and wasn’t even subject to official national mourning, like when
Crown Princess Josefina’s father, the Duke of Leuchtenberg (adopted stepson of
Napoleon I), died in 1824.
Evening wear for mourning, 1824.
Proper and fashionable mourning was so important
that it wasn’t uncommon for wealthy families to actually go into debt to keep
up when many deaths happened in rapid succession. People of more limited means
but more sense used the same ones for a long time, changed, up-cycled and added to them
when needed. There are also examples of more local customs for mourning attire, as worn by the farming community.
Mourning in Torna härad, Skåne (Scania), south of Sweden.
The skirt pulled over the head brings echoes of 17th century fashionable mourning wear.
Black dresses were by no means reserved for mourning, however – it was also
fashionable, and proper for many occasions.
For that reason many brides in
smaller circumstances from the middle of the 19th century up until the 1920s often had black (or other colour) wedding dresses made, as they could easily be used for best
dresses after the wedding.
The gentleman or
businessman in the black suit, so familiar to many of us today, was a product
of the 19th century. As the century progressed the coats in green, brown
and blue gave way to black, and at the middle of the century the waistcoat offered
the main splash of colour to a gentleman. At the end of the century even that
had largely become monochrome as well.
The Gentleman's Magazine of Fashion, 1870.
As the 20th
century rolled in black continued to be worn for mourning, and by working women
for practical reasons. And of course, the little black dress was made a thing by Coco Chanel in the 1920s. Black was now for everyone, and no longer reserved for the elite.
And there you have it! Hopefully you got some good ideas of what to make, if you didn't have one already. If not, one could always use more body linens. Now, go and sew, crochet, knit, weave and embroider all the monochrome things!
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