Monday, August 10, 2009

Colonial Costume Clues



Don't ask me who is on either side of the easel in these pictures. I didn't even get a picture of the whole painting. What I was looking at, and interested in, was the gentlemen's hose.

In all the years I have dressed people for this time period, and watched films set in this period, I have never seen anything but stockings on the men's lower legs. these paintings were contemporary, according to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where I saw them last summer.

So, they had their knee breeches, and hose that came to the ankle, with stockings under that. Damn, I'd love to know how they held all that together! Which pieces fastened to what, and where? How did they avoid wrinkles in the actual stockings showing through the hose?

Questions, questions...I need a time machine!

1 comment:

  1. Hooks, or maybe both are held with garters? Stockings in paintings look more like lycra than silk, I can't believe they fit that well before elastic. No hose here but it's kind of fun.
    http://www.history.org/History/teaching/dayInTheLife/interact_dress.cfm

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