Technical developments and dressmaking techniques
An understanding of the technical developments in garment production is useful when collating information to provide an approximate date for a garment. In order to do this a detailed comparison between the cut and construction of the garment and known developments in pattern making and stitching techniques will be needed. Throughout history tailors and garment makers have used the folding and pleating of fabrics to create shapes around the body. Garment making is a three-dimensional discipline but since the sixteenth century tailors and dressmakers have developed two-dimensional methods for recording their patterns and techniques. Even the earliest tailoring manuals show exactly what shape a tailor intended the individual pieces of a garment to be (see figure 2. 16). As the centuries progressed increasingly complicated systems for garment construction were developed.
Figure 2. 16 Juan de Alçega, Libro de Geometría Práctica y Traça 1589. © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Rogers Fund, transferred from the Library.
From the 1830s, patterns for the dressmaking trade could be purchased, and by 1860 paper patterns were available to home dressmakers. From the nineteenth century, women’s magazines offered advice on how to look fashionable and often included dressmaking instructions and patterns for garments and accessories. The Young Ladies Journal and Woman’s Weekly are two examples (see figures 2. 17 and 2. 18).
Figure 2. 17 A pattern supplement from the Young Ladies Journal, 1877. © Leicestershire County Council Museums.
Figure 2. 18 A copy of Woman’s Weekly magazine from June 1930 advertising a paper pattern for fourpence halfpenny. © Alamy.
Fabrics
The fabric from which the garment is made can offer information about the date it was produced. Surviving garments from the eighteenth century are usually made from expensive fabrics as the cheaper fabrics worn daily would wear out or be handed down and replaced. Luxury fabrics like silk and fine wool could be remodelled as fashions changed. The construction of female garments in the eighteenth century was relatively simple. This made it much easier to reuse expensive fabrics. The date a garment is stitched may not always be the same as the production date of the fabric from which it is constructed. For example, the reuse of fabrics can lead to a garment being made in the nineteenth century but using repurposed fabric dating from the eighteenth century.
Alongside technological developments, changes in legislation and scientific advances also had their effects on fashionable dress. ‘Sumptuary laws’ in the eighteenth century forbade the import of French silks and ‘in 1721 a law was passed to prohibit the use and wear of Indian printed calico’. 3 These laws led to some fabrics being available only at specific times.
Colour can be another indication of date as certain colours were only possible following scientific discoveries. Perkin’s mauve (mauveine), for example, was only discovered with the invention of aniline dyes in 1856.
Printed and woven silks can be dated by design or production technique. The patterns of eighteenth-century woven silks in Spitalfields, London, are well documented with dated examples of designs by individual artists (see figure 2. 19). The Victoria and Albert Museum in London have early pattern books showing designs by Anna Maria Garthwaite and James Leman. More recently ‘Liberty of London worked with specific designers whose distinctive styles have been very well catalogued in the company’s design archives since the 1880s’. 4
The fibres from which a textile has been made can also be indicative of its date. Man-made fibres like nylon and polyester would not have existed in the nineteenth century. Polyester fibres were not developed until the 1940s.
Lace design and construction is also well documented with styles attributed to the place of manufacture and also the date of production (see figure 2. 20).
Figure 2. 19 Woven silk dress fabric sample designed by Anna Maria Garthwaite and made in Spitalfields, London mid-eighteenth century. © Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Figure 2. 20 Detail of a Valenciennes bobbin lace lappet c. 1730–40. © The Olive Matthews Collection, Chertsey Museum. Photo by John Chase Photography
Stitching
Another clue to the date a garment was made is the type of thread used for the stitching holding it together. Most garments prior to 1800 would have been sewn with silk or linen thread. ‘Cotton thread only came into general use after about 1815. Eventually, machine spun cotton became the most usual sewing thread and it was made in a large variety of thicknesses to suit different types of fabric. ’5 From the 1940s nylon thread was developed for textiles and subsequently polyester was also used.
Until the invention of the sewing machine, widely in use by the end of the 1850s, all garments had to be hand sewn. This was very time-consuming so the fewer seams in a garment the better. With the invention of the sewing machine, producing complicated garments with many seams and stitched decoration became much quicker and more universally affordable.
Alterations
Garments often exhibit evidence of later alterations. This is an important part of their history and may affect the options for display. As already mentioned, an expensive eighteenth-century silk dress could be unpicked and remade at a later date in a more fashionable style or adapted for fancy dress. A decision will need to be made about whether it is desirable or even possible to return an altered dress to its original style. This is usually a decision for a dress curator in conjunction with a textile conservator. If fabric has been cut away from the original design, returning it to its exact former shape may not be possible without the introduction of other textiles. Discussions between curators, conservators and possibly owners will be needed to establish the best way to interpret the story the garment is required to tell in the display.
Media
In the twenty-first century we are bombarded by media, both in the form of photographs and moving images. Some sources are more valuable than others. Care should be taken with comments and photographs on social media sites like Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest as the owner of the image shown may not be the person posting them on their pages. There may be copyright issues or restrictions on sharing the images.
Historical film footage from the British Film Institute, and the BBC archives are very good sources of information about how people dressed in the past and what they thought about the clothes they wore. Newsreels, and documentaries made by British Pathé, 1911–70, are now digitized and available online at www. britishpathe. com.
Documentary film footage about people living in the past and carrying on their normal lives can be good background information for putting clothing in context and explaining its role in society at the time.
Summary
Knowing the approximate date a garment was made and worn is essential for understanding the body shape you will need to create for display. Using a wide variety of sources for your research will greatly enhance your understanding of the fashionable ‘look’ at the time, the construction possibilities available to garment makers and what was considered appropriate dress for different occasions. This will help refine the silhouette needed to give authenticity to your display and inform decisions about how many and what type of petticoats you will need to achieve the appropriate skirt shape. Whether a garment is hand stitched or stitched by machine can also be a key feature in establishing the date it was made. Simply by looking at whether the stitching is done by hand or machine will immediately reduce your date options. Before the mid-1850s sewing machines did not exist and all garments would have been stitched by hand.
Fibre analysis is another useful tool, particularly at the beginning of the twentieth century when new synthetic and mixed fibres were being developed and documented. The more comprehensive your research, the better your understanding of the garment will be and the more convincing your display
NOTES
1. Hilary Davidson, Dress in the Age of Jane Austen, Regency Fashion, Yale.
2. Jane Ashelford, The Art of Dress, Clothes and Society 1500– 1914, National Trust publication.
3. Clare Browne Curator, Textiles, Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), London.
4. Anna Buruma, Liberty Archivist, https://www. libertylondon. com/uk/features/craft/anna-buruma-liberty-archive. html
5. Naomi Tarrant, The Development of Costume, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, in conjunction with Routledge, London and New York, ISBN 0-415-08019-3, p. 12.
