The Quiet History of Adjustable Clothing [from a non-historian]

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[Nebulouslystarlight]

"I don't use patterns, I just wing it" *me, who is currently winging an entire blouse from memory, quietly hits subscribe* "yep, found my people" 😂

[dragonbrat]

If you haven't already, a lot of libraries allow you to "rent a librarian." You get a time slot where you tell them what you're working on and they'll help you research it. Librarians are fantastic at helping you find the information you want, and asking the questions you didn't consider.

[susannekalejaiye]

In the late 1950's my parents and I visited Mexico where, among other things, they bought a skirt for me. It is a circle skirt, open on both sides from waist to about mid hip. The waist band from the back came around and hooks in front on tabs long enough to replace the hooks as I grew. The front waist band comes to tie in the back. It was long enough to grow with me for six full summers. It grew up with my daughter and again with my granddaughters. It is awaiting the next generation.

[habituscraeftig]

In terms of big weight fluctuations — V. Birchwood did an interview on how pregnancy was handled, back in the day, and that definitely was a significant factor in why European *women's* clothing in particular was fairly adjustable (even in periods where menswear really was not). A person could basically handle *most* of a pregnancy in just their normal clothing, all the way through the end of the 1830s. Basically, people were pregnant often enough — and clothing was expensive enough — that having a separate maternity wardrobe really wasn't a viable option for most people.

[krankywitch]

Yes, the reason why clothing manufacturers don't make adjustable clothing is obvious, but, the fabric they use is so flimsy their garments wouldn't last more than a couple of years anyway. That's one of the many reasons I sew my own - because I sew with much better fabric, the trousers I made 12 years ago are still in good condition even with weekly wearing & washing. My mother made adjustable clothing for herself so she could get through all 8 pregnancies without buying special 'maternity' clothing - but then she was a child of the Great Depression and WWII, could look at a picture of a dress and chalk out the pattern pieces on the fabric (paper was precious) and a few hours later be wearing a great frock, because that was what her family did to get by. We all wore adjustable clothing as children through the 60's & 70's because hand-me-downs didn't always work - children even in the same family have different shapes and grow at different rates. Our clothes were adjusted mostly by clever folds or sets of pleats held in place by buttons & buttonholes that were moved further apart as we expanded, and triple thickness hems that were lowered as we shot up. My mother was also knitting top-down way back then - it is so much easier to lengthen the pullover of a growing child if you just need to unravel the ribbed hem and sleeves, add in a few rows, and reknit the ribbing. It's also an opportunity to replace worn yarn. As always, the current generation is rediscovering the wisdom and ingenuity their parents discarded in favour of the new technology 😊

[charlottekw]

Having worn wrap pants (not hakama) almost regularly in my teens, I can tell you there's a very practical reason skirts tie on back first, but pants tie on front first. Saves having to completely remove a garment to use the bathroom

[tangerinetigerlily]

I remember my Mom telling me that her doctors told her not to gain more than 14 lbs while pregnant and as a secretary she had to wear a girdle the entire pregnancy. I still find it mind boggling that me and my brothers survived. This was why the pregnancy patterns at the time did not show visibly pregnant women.

[gadgetgirl]

"wrap skirts and dresses aren't really that adjustable"

THANK YOU. I (used to have) a pronounced hourglass figure, and a wrap skirt or dress that fit my waist would often open up all the way up my leg if I sat or crouched. So many of the retail ones (and patterns) have very little overlap.

Ditto for surplice tops -- it's not really adjustable if the neckline ends below your navel 😊

[kivi]

You might also be interested in the traditional Chinese skirt style called Mǎmiànqún. They tie around the waist, but the splits in the skirt are in the front and back! Pleats at the sides and overlapping panels in front and back ensures that you stay covered. This skirt style allows for for example horseback riding 😄

[patriciau]

That is one of the most surprising things i have found in the seamstress and marker industry. The lack of real creativity. A pattern gives you a base for what you have in mind to create. Take that base pattern (any pattern that comes closest) then tweak is the way you want. People forget that they can mix patterns pieces to help with your creativity. A friend of mine had a child with a strong OCD for fabric labels (the loop kind). He wore out a small blanket with one. I made him a blanket with his favorite theme then added trim. Fabric Label loops all the way around it. He LOVE IT! He never wore it out and you couldn’t tell the loops were heavily worked because he had so many to choose from. And kept it with him for years. They moved away some years ago and don’t know if he still has it.

[DeniseSkidmore]

"Workwoman's Guide” (1838) says ”Skirts are generally made with the opening behind, but for elderly
persons or servants, it is at the sides, the seams being left unsewed for about four nails from the top
sometimes they are furnished with pockets on one or both sides ...”. (A nail is 1/16th of a yard.)

[sarar]

A family story from my grandma about those open front maternity skirts with the tie above the belly: when my great grandma was in one of her pregnancies, she wore one of those to a basketball game that one of her older kids was playing in. When she stood up to cheer, the little lace came untied and the skirt stayed behind.

[stargirlceramics]

tbh i clicked on this video because of the pollera (the typical panamanian dress) on the thumbnail. since i was a kid i've worn this dress, mostly the skirt in school while learning about my my culture and never thought about how genius it was. Thank you for changing my perspective, now i want to make one for the daily in my style honoring long lasting clothes!

[sharonjones]

I love that when you discuss history you didn't just refer to European dress history, fantastic

[GeekySquidoo]

The maternity clothing from the 40’s and 50’s really struck a note with me. A while ago I was chatting with my Gran (who is now 96) and we got onto the topic of my cousin’s pregnancy. She told us how she was shocked our cousin had shown off her belly as ‘that just wasn’t the done thing and quite unseemly’ when she was younger. She did go on to acknowledge that the way fashion and attitudes changed over the years baffled her in places. But that memory will always stick because it was interesting to see how society has such an impact on the people within it to the point where ingrained world views can’t be left behind. My gran didn’t mean anything nasty about her comments, but her views on maternity clothing really are a product of the world she grew up in.

[shannongundry]

I got to visit Panama many years ago on an exchange program and my insight into their polleras as a traditional garment is it's definitely viewed as a right of passage. Every woman would love to have her own pollera, unique to her with its embroidered motifs and the coordinating adornments that complete the costume, but these articles can be prohibitively expensive to commission: Moreso it's common within the community to see private collections and a mix of the socially privileged and benevolent matriarchs who want to honour tradition and may give or lease the opportunity for their pieces to be worn for an event or simply for the opportunity that a woman can say I too have worn my country's dress.
Therefore, as a costume, it's utterly practical that a piece should be adjustable to many altered sizes. Compared to many of the women I met in the country I was bigger and taller and I met a grand old señora whose collection included maybe 14 complete pollera skirts and bodices, not to mention the coordinating ties and innumerable beaded and gold plated hair pins to style your hair just so!... She graciously offered for me to wear one of her dresses as an experience and all of my friends were gathered as I was paraded on foot from the señora's house to my host's grandmother's house (a very long, hot walk beneath all the material of the skirt)!... This act alone brought a lot of pride to my host family who could not have afforded this experience for me... So ultimately, there's a quiet genius and dignity in the dress's adjustable construction to extend the life of these amazing pieces to many wearers as a matter of national pride and preservation of their connection to deep and rich roots.

[auroraasleep]

I used to have a historic sewing business and everyone loved the 18th c. split side petticoats. Not everyone loved all the ties that go into them, especially once you layer all the various bits & bobs. This is what made the stays (not a corset, different garment, similar function) so important. The stays hold the weight of the skirts. This is what makes that wide laced panel so fantastic, plus getting rid of the ties for the pockets - it's fabulous.
I can tell you as a former professional costume researcher & historic seamstress, who has looked at well-researched examples from dozens of museums, extant garments, documentation in ads and dressmakers shops, the ties were either self-fabric tubes (rarely) or twill tape (common) for the waistbands. The fabric was folded over to suit the height of the person with the band stitched on and replaced as needed. The reason the focus is on the pleating is because that's what changed in fashion; sometimes it's gathered then pleated, sometimes it's box pleats, sometimes knife pleats, sometimes big, sometimes small.
We just called it a 2 panel petticoat, or 18th c. style petticoat. If you call it a skirt nothing is going to come up in Google (which is good & broken now anyway), because that's a much more modern term, and not applied to that garment until much later.
Yes, adjustability was critically important in the 18th c. because a person may only own 2 or 3 outfits. Women spent large parts of their lives pregnant, weight fluctuated with the seasons & gains and losses were common. Even the highly fitted garments are deceptively adjustable with hidden laced panels, drawstrings, overlaps, etc. Just about the only thing that got fitted were the sleeves, and boy were they tailored to within an inch of your life. The men's garments even had lace-up panels to make them fitted when they weren't truly fitted.

[rachelblenkin]

I cosplayed as Rurouni Kenshin in February, and I can tell you that hakama are some of the most comfortable trouser-type garments out there.

[Emma-ghvr]

The hakama pants were also commonly worn by women back in the Heian era. many noble women held positions in court working and managing everything on a day to day basis. The fashion of the time was layers and the Junihutoe 十二単 (literal translation : twelve layers) was an outfit constructed from a un-dyed hitoe which is like a kimono robe and the hakama pants as the undergarment, the uchigi robes (apparently the maximum was ten layers), the uchiginu which was a stiffer robe to support all the layers, the uwagi which was shorter than the other robes, the mo a train skirt and the karaginu which was a jacket. The women expressed their style by the way they layered colors and patterns and their blend of incense perfume. The Junihutoe went out of style after the Heian (peaceful) era and after 400+ years of civil war the fashion changed so much that only the people in the little bubble that was the imperial court dressed the same

[AngelCCD]

My mother and sister need adaptive clothing due to handicaps. I’m always trying to figure out how to close things without zippers, velcro (which messes up while washing), snaps, etc. I loved all of your information! I love research, too, but hit a wall. Thank you so much!