How much clothing did they have back then?

Full video up now! We're looking at budgets, wardrobes, prices, and more to understand how the clothing we own has changed over the last couple of centuries.

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[lyamainu]

I don’t think anyone is claiming the upper classes only had one nice dress. It’s always been my understanding that that was the way it was for the poor. One nice dress you got new (usually at Christmas or Easter), then last years Sunday dress became the daily dress, and last years daily dress became the work dress, and the work dress got reused for scraps or hand me downs.

Any lady who has a personal clothing allowance is OF COURSE going to have more than that.

[VenusianLissette]

it’s wild how everything old feels new again lol, this reminds me of the issue we have posed now as well: with either going into trendy fast fashion or buying a few very well made expensive items lol—super cool, thank you

[terrymcclintock]

I live in a house with a “ custom “ closet from 1930 in the master bedroom.
On the ‘womens’ side:
The pull out rack has room for 2 ( 1 winter, 1 summer)good dress, 2work( everyday, also1 winter, 1 summer) dress, 2 blouses, and 2 skirts.
This was explained to me by the previous owner of the house ( who got the info from the original owner/ builder)
And the Man side is shorter:
Pullout rack holds:
1 good suit, 1 everyday suit, 1 good shirt, 1 everyday shirt, 1 work shirt.1 pair of work trousers.

[pal]

Middle class sixties girl here, we got new clothes and shoes twice a year, the big one was for back to school. Three dresses, five or six pair of pants, five tops, one pair of leather "good" shoes, one pair of tennis shoes for play. When school let out we got a pair of sandles a few pair of shorts and tshirts. Underwear and socks were christmas presents, along with a new winter coat or sweater if needed. Mom sewed and crocheted our clothes when we were little.

[pvp]

I think the people who only had one good dress were working for the people these articles are about.
Most poor people don't buy 1 ridiculously expensive designer dress per season **or** blow their whole budget on Shein **or** actually need or even have occasion to wear dozens of cute new dresses every year.

We work. We aren't out partying every day, so we have different needs. Just like rich ladies don't need to keep a wardrobe full of work clothes, sturdy boots, high visibility vests, or any other kind of gear that many working class households consider standard.

This is very directed at the upper middle class and above, while the concept in question is regarding middle to lowest class.

The articles were very interesting, though a little hard to read with the page cutoffs, I'd love to see more content like this.

[NilZed]

My grandmother was the child of a factory owner in the midwestern US. They were very well off and her older siblings had debut balls and grand tours before WW1. She was much younger than her siblings though and just a little child during that war. she attended a private Catholic girls school. (a day school, not a boarding school). As a schoolgirl, before high school, she usually only had maybe half a dozen dresses at any given time. But only 2 NEW dresses each year. A new dress for school in a practical dark color. Over this dress, which she wore every day, she wore a starched white pinafore, there were two of them to allow for stains but also first the nuns and then her step mother rung a peal over her head for having got it dirty, for having spilt food or dripped ink from the required dip pen.

Upon getting home from school she changed into LAST YEARS DRESS. Which had been let out at the seams and down at the hem as required, and had most of any lace or trim removed. This dress was for playtime and she wore a black pinafore (a previously white pinafore, dyed black when it was too stained) if she had any chores to do, she was still expected to help with housework in order to learn. Weekdays this mostly had to do with getting supper on the table and cleaning up after. On Saturdays she wore that dress or perhaps an even older and even more untrimmed dress and apron to assist with more heavy duty chores, including laundry. Her white pinafores and the family’s other white clothes had to be treated with blueing and starch, both messy, and ironed, amongst other chores.

On Sunday and holidays she wore her Sunday best. A white or pale colored dress that was replaced at Easter. This dress served for important events, dinners and parties and church etc. Last years best was refit and the trim adjusted as needed and worn for days out and day visits to ladies and her married sisters homes with her stepmother. If her married sisters came to dinner she had to change into her 2nd best dress, but if her father’s peers or someone like the mayor or a priest came to dinner then she wore her best dress. A 3rd best dress might be dyed a darker color if it still fit and be another play dress in summer.

When she began high school her new wardrobe was a skirt suit and several blouses and a couple of skirts, and 2 shirtwaist dresses. She knit a sweater in her school colors and sone others. She didn’t grow much so accumulated more of the same sort of things in following years. Not a new wardrobe, just another suit or dress or skirt and blouse combo. She had a modest evening gown, with sleeves and a high neckline for nice dinners or formal dances. . Just the one, and another each year, not a new one for every such event.

She reached 16, the age of making her debut in 1928 and got a more grien yo looking evening given for that. and should have gone on her tour after graduating high school. But by then the depression had begun. Although her father’s factory survived, her tour didn’t happen that year or the following because her father felt like worldwide financial problems made it too risky over in Europe.

When she married, she did have a fluffy white wedding dress. And a new skirt suit. But the rest of her wardrobe was just what had accumulated or been refashioned since starting high school.

[cvvzdesigns]

Ideally, the upper-middle class clothing budget for a year should get a woman 4 sets of undergarments, 3 sets of sleepwear, 2 quality coats and accessories to reflect the season needed (usually 4 or 6 sets total), 2 (at most 3) fancy dresses, 6 every day dresses (also in various weights and preferably layered for variety), 4 pairs of shoes, and a large variety of sundries that can change the look of the outfit, such as pins/brooches, scarves, ribbons and bows, etc. :)

[serahloeffelroberts]

Even in the first half of the 20th century people didn't have that many clothes. I had only a few school outfits, a Sunday dress, a party dress and some play clothes plus seasonal garments like coats, hats, boots and a swimsuit. The bedroom closets were about four feet wide. 80 years later even childrens clisets are crammed to the gills with clothes.

[shaymac]

My Mother was a child in the 50's and 60's. Her Grandmother made her 3 dresses, 4 times a year. So 12 dresses a year.

Her Grandmother also made her prom dress. It was gorgeous.

[jennifferwalton]

In the 50s as a child, I got 2 sunday dresses 1 at christmas and 1 at easter. For school in the fall I got 2 dresses each year plus the easter and christmas dress ftom the past year would be rotated in as school wear as the new holiday approached. At easter I got new church shoes and in the fall I got new school shoes. I was the 5th child I wore hand me down which filled out my wardrobe.
After school I wore hand me down blouses and coveralls as play clothes.

[mialemon]

I love the odd modern standard of assuming everyone was wearing court clothes but couldn’t eat more than a single turnip a day as their only food. 😂😂😂

[na]

Most of today's fashion is not meant to last beyond a season. The clothes are created to be disposable. That's why they fade and get threadbare after a few washes. Jeans, scrubs, coveralls and other protective workwear are some of the few things that are built to last. Even leathers are much thinner and less durable than in the past. (Today's motto should be "Make it cheap. Make it fast. Charge as much as you can without causing a riot.")

[katebowers]

My elderly neighbor really grew up (in Boston, Mass., in the early 1940s) with only one “good” dress to share between her and her sister.

The scale line from poverty to wealth has infinite possible points upon it.

[gulfgypsy]

Before I retired I worked in an office setting. When I first started I didn't have much money to spend on a wardrobe so I bought two nice suits - One in a taupe color the other in black.

I went to consignment shops to hunt out good silk blouses and a couple nice business dresses with matching jackets.

I was able to put together a good working wardrobe which I added onto over the years. I'd have the skirts length altered time to time and wear twin sets instead of the suit jacket.

Added a couple pair of well made shoes and a good bag and I was set.

I looked professional and polished.

Now for my off work / weekend clothes? I enjoyed simple cotton sheaths and dresses in the summer and jeans and funky sweaters in the winter.

[susan]

I wore a lot of hand-me-downs from my sister and my best friend. My friend’s mom was the manager of the childrens’ section of an upscale clothing store. When she outgrew them, I got them

[TheGPFilmMaker]

I think looking at closet size in old homes is also a super interesting indicator. All the Pre WWII houses in our community have either closets that are very small or very oddly shaped (tucked into roof eaves). And honestly I love it. My husband and I share one 40 inch wide closet plus two small dressers. I like to say it "Keeps me honest" since we can't have more clothes than fit in there!

[caspenbee]

That's a relief. I was feeling bad for needing to make so many garments as I try to move my wardrobe toward historical stuff. But I get dirty every day, dangit, and I do laundry once a week! And there's different weather!

[adfe]

I think it would depend entirely on the wealth or lack of wealth in the home. In the 19th century, if someone was living in a home where they had enough money to buy a newspaper or magazine and had the ability to read it, it’s a good guess that they were not living in poverty, as much of the population did. Those that were in poverty would be lucky to have a good dress for church.

[lmchokola]

When I asked my grandmother about why the closets in the house we live in (that she used live in) were so small. She said because we didn’t need that many clothes. Two work clothes one to wash and one to wear and a nice one for church and special occasions.

[jaime]

My great grandmother was a late Victorian-early Edwardian era society beauty. She had dresses for different occasions, plus clever things like overdresses that could make one dress into multiple dresses. Basically, she had a very clever ‘capsule wardrobe’ that could be mixed and matched.

For instance, the short black wool coat could used for regular daytime wear, or paired with a riding skirt for hunting. The blue silk dress could be worn out to tea with girlfriends, or she could layer a black jet beaded overdress onto it for evening. Her white linen dress could be styled various ways to be worn for summer sport like tennis, archery, croquet, or just reading on the veranda.

Basicallly, her whole wardrobe fit into one steamer trunk, and took her to every possible occasion. I don’t think your average socialite could do that today! I’m trying to learn to sew and I hope to create a similarly practical wardrobe for myself one day.

What I loved about my great grannie was that she was also frugal. Despite having money, she wasted nothing. Bits of fabric would be reused, moved from one garment to the next when the first one became tired or unfashionable. Nothing was considered disposable. I feel like there’s a lot to be learned from that attitude so many of our ancestors had.