THIS, writers. Unless your characters are very wealthy (can pay people to be very industrious in growing, spinning, weaving, sewing on their behalf) or live in a post-textile-industrial-revolution world (aka modern/futuristic), theyāre not going to have that many clothes.
What they will have is protective outerwear. Aprons are a very real necessity for a lot of jobs, from cooking to blacksmithing and beyond.
Women wore aprons and housecoats into the 1940s and 1950s when doing cooking & cleaning because it was still a bit expensive to own a lot of clothesā¦so this is within 100 years. Within living memory for many folks.
Coveralls were created to protect clothing, and were handed out as uniforms by factories because the workers complained that their own clothes were getting damaged by their workplace. (Unions helped with this, strongly encouraging the companies doing the damage to their regular clothes to step up with replacement garments that could get damaged and then replaced by the company whose work was damaging them.)
Businesses started having their employees wear uniforms to make them look good and as a signature of their company (UPS brown, for example), but unless the design teams are idiots, those outfits are going to be stitched in ways that you can move easily & comfortably while doing your assigned tasks.
In corporate culture in Japan, the salarywomen are often given a uniform dress to wear, and I know of one business that held a work-slowdown because the way the sleeves of those dresses were cut and stitched, they literally couldnāt bring their arms forward to type on their computers in a comfortable way. The company balked at replacing the uniforms, until a section manager agreed to let his female workers wear their own āoffice-dressyā clothes for a dayā¦and productivity leaped forward by over 200%, literally because they could move their arms and position them comfortably.
Another example of those who effed it up are the officersā uniforms for the Germans during WWII, which were focused on looking fashionableāand they were!ābut were horrible to don quickly, awkward wear in actual combat, etc, and it took them far too long to ādrop trousersā to use the bushes in a swift, efficient, and safe manner. (Not saying they didnāt deserve to be shot for supporting such an evil regime, but you should be able to go to the bathroom without worrying that itāll take you over a minute to put your clothes back together enough to run for cover in summer.)
Prior to the 1700s, servants in manor houses & noble estates often did not wear a uniform; they just wore whatever they had, and depended on aprons and watchcoats and whatever to protect their clothes. Then it became a status symbol to put oneās servants into uniforms, also known as livery. If you could afford to do that then, by gum-golly, you were wealthy, and people could literally see that you were wealthy!
As for those famous black maidās dresses with white aprons that every manga loves to draw? Black dye was still a bit expensive, but black hid most stains. White aprons were protective, and were to be changed out frequentlyā¦and it was far easier to bleach cloth than it was to dye it black, plus the stark contrast was very eye-catching, and since the aprons could be swapped out frequently (very small amount of cloth compared to a whole dress), the fact that your maidstaff were wearing clean aprons was another sign of how wealthy you were, rather than just making the maid wear the apron all day long, progressively getting dirtier and dirtier.
With all this said, how valuable clothing was also affected how armies moved. Throughout most of recorded history, armies were composed primarily of menā¦but there were almost always 2 categories of women who followed them on the campaign trail. One, of course, was sex workers (for obvious reasons), but the other was Laundressesā¦and the laundresses would be ransomed first, ahead of the sex workers, if captured by enemy forces. (Not all were women by any means, btw, but the majority were, so I stuck with that gender.)
They worked hard to get the clothing clean, helped with getting leather armor clean, and provided other grooming services such as lice-combing. āBut Jean, why would getting the soldiersā clothing clean be that important?ā Dudes, dudes, my dudesā¦if you need to take a piss or a shit, combat will not stop for you. Peristalsis will happen mid-sword-swing. This was one of the sources of ādeadly infections killed many of the fighters who went to war,ā and laundresses literally cleaned that shit up.
When youāre a warrior in an army, marching off through the forests of Gaul, you can only carry so many spare sets of clothes because youāre also carrying your armor, your weapons, and your rations, etc, etc. You will want to take care of your clothes, because you donāt have many replacements, and you wonāt get many replacements.
So, writers, when youāre writing about pre-industrialized culturesā¦go easy on how many clothes people own. Also realize that accessorizing can make an old outfit look new, which includes small parts of the clothing that can be swapped out for other pieces in a mix-and-match style.
ā¦One last note:
The most expensive, time-consuming part of building a Norse ship to go a-viking on wasnāt the actual ship, which took many men 2+ years to craft. It was the sails, which took many people, males and females, 3+ years to spin and weave and stitch together. There are literal stories of brash sailors robbing other norsemen of their sails because thieving it was faster & easier. (It also explains a lot of the fury of certain blood feuds between clans & holdings, if you think about it.)
Bringing this back to writers again, your period fantasy or historic characters are also going to know how to do upkeep and basic repairs on their own clothing. Laundries and tailors might be a thing in their world, but spot-cleaning and being able to mend small tears before they become big ones is crucial when off doing quests or campaigns or world-saving missions or what have you. Garments are expensive to replace. It may be sexy to have your hero discard their bloody, torn, and ruined shirt after a fight, but even if the garment is ruined beyond repair or wearability, woven cloth is still so valuable that itās worth keeping and cleaning to be turned into something else (legwraps, bandages, resewn into a hat, or used as patches to repair other garments, etc.).
We live in an unprecedented era of wastefulness, where our clothing is often so cheap (and cheaply made) that itās barely worth the efgort of repairing once it begins to wear out, and so easy to replace that we end up amassing more than we need of it. Even less than a hundred years ago, this kind of frivolity was reserved for the EXCEPTIONALLY wealthy. Even fairly well off people would continually recycle their old garments again and again. (Think of Cinderellaās mice making that old pink dress into something new with just bits and pieces of the sistersā discarded accessoriesā¦. taking ribbons or lace or whole sections of an old dress to use in a new one was very common until quite recently!)
And never underestimate the usefulness of rags. If the clothing is beyond all repair or salvage, it has a new life as rags. You can wrap food in them, stuff them in your shoes for warmth and fit, pad your pillow with them, use them for cleaning, for bandages, for tying and belting your drawers, for patchesā¦. rags are invaluable in a world where paper towels and disposable hygiene products do not exist.
ANOKYAIwearing Swarovski Met Gala 2024 ā Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion
This look had caused controversy on TikTok. It had everyone in a cholk hold. The girls were fighting for their lives trying to say this wasnāt a look and whole time Iām just sitting here like āDamn how did she put the look on? Did she have to jump and wiggle or did they sew her into the dress?ā
āDigital Killed the Video Storeā Designer:Grace DuVal Model: Lexie Hofer
āDigital Killed the Video Storeā is an 80ās-inspired wearable topiary made entirely out of repurposed VHS tapes. Recycling old home videos donated by friends and family, this design uses over twenty five miles of VHS tape to create the fluffy sculptural form. Inspired by the song āVideo Killed the Radio Starā, the garment speaks to the ever-evolving nature of technologyāhow each new form obviates the old, creating an abundance of waste that requires transformation and innovation.
The foundation of the garment is meticulously draped, patterned, and extensively boned using piano wire, steel boning, and recycled pallet strapping, creating a sculptural framework for the VHS tape to be applied to. Upcycled denim and repurposed mesh fabric were stretched over the frame, with bundles of hand-wrapped VHS tape pompoms attached to the mesh via biodegradable zip ties. Grace invented a custom hand-crank tape-winding machine using Fusion360 and 3D printing, allowing the artist to wind VHS tape pompoms at an expedited rate. Over 200 hours were spent applying tape to the garment.
A colorful internal pattern emerges from the collar and corseted back of the design, made from collaging the outer boxes of the VHS tape into a new, bold, colorful pattern. Over 150 scraps of recycled leather were meticulously sewn together and grommeted to create the spinal corset lacing.
Some better pictures of the leafkerchief. Itās made of a plain green cotton, with facings in a much lighter weight cotton, and after I sewed and turned all the points right side out I topstitched as close to the edge as I could. The inner edge of the facing is hand sewn with a slipstitch, and the veins are painted on.
I got a lot of questions about this, so I will do a blog post about it, and will include a pattern diagram!
Iāve been practicing these silk-wrapped flower (ē¼ č±/chanhua) accessories and was wondering if anyone would be interested in buying something like these:
Theyād by priced between $20-50 USD (+shipping) depending on the time spent and material used.
If thereās interest Iāll take some photos of all the ones Iāve made so far.
Would you be interested in purchasing a silk-wrapped flower accessory?
The art of Chinese silk-wrapped flowers started during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and flourished in the Qing Dynasty (1644ā1911).
Following the Qing Dynasty, this art declined and was almost lost to time, but in recent years more and more people have become interested in reviving this delicate handicraft. Originally this art was done using silk thread, which had a lifespan of 6 months to 2 years. This meant it was difficult to preserve their beauty and there are few samples that have survived to today. Nowadays, most artists use polyester thread which allows for more colours and longer-lasting results.
To make silk-wrapped flowers, the shape of each individual petal is first cut out using thick paper/cardboard. A thin wire is placed against the back of the paper while silk thread is wrapped around the shape as tightly as possible. If using polyester thread, the petal is then put through a small flame to burn away stray strands and to heat-shrink the thread. Once all the petals have been made, they are then combined together to form the full flower.
The flower can then be attached to hair pins, brooches, or earrings. Although traditionally, the motifs for silk-wrapping were flowers, plants, and insects, nowadays many artists use modern motifs as well.
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