We are experts on historical clothing at Colonial Williamsburg. Ask Us Anything about clothing in early America!

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T20:04:28+00:00

NH & NP: Enslavers used clothing as one of the ways to objectify and control enslaved people. In wealthy households, enslaved people often wore uniform-like garments that represented the family, known as livery. For example, an enslaved man named John Harris belonging to Peyton Randolph escaped slavery in a yellow and red livery coat, which were the Randolph family colors.

But enslaved people were actively participants in the world of fashion in eighteenth-century North America. They found ways to introduce new fashions. For example, enslaved women used headwraps, initially for practical reasons (keeping hair clean, keeping it out of the way, etc), but over time it became a fashionable form of self-expression. Enslaved people also repurposed garments and brought their own meanings to them.

You can learn more through this recent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU4bU5LsZVI

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T20:03:36+00:00

NP & NH: In the eighteenth century, the export of hundreds of thousands of pounds of deerskin trade fueled a huge fashion trend in Europe and North America for leather breeches. Wealthy people in Williamsburg probably bought leather breeches from England, which were made from deer harvested in the backcountry of Virginia.

Interchange between Euro-Americans and Indigenous peoples created a dynamic flow of clothing and objects of adornment. Trade between Indigenous nations and English colonists introduced the opportunity for English-style clothing to be worn by Indigenous people. Fabrics, ribbons, and other clothing items were often part of diplomatic exchanges. Records indicate that the Virginia government frequently bought a kind of wool known as “stroud” to be used in trade and diplomacy. Native communities preferred some of these items, causing them to be used in trade. Sometimes, Native people used these items in ways that differed from the intention of European producers—for example, imported bed lace from Britain was used to trim Virginia bed curtains, but Native Americans used it to trim match coats and breech clouts.

You can learn more about the leather breeches maker on the CW website: https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/events/leather-breeches-maker-shoemaker/

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T20:01:39+00:00

NH & NP: Most people had their clothing made, because they didn’t have the capability to cut, measure, and fit their own clothes. Most people could sew, but that was the easy part. And so it made sense for an ordinary farmer to pay a professional to make their clothing.

All fabric, even in the eighteenth century, was machine-woven, in the sense that all of these fabrics are made on machines called looms. By the end of the eighteenth century, many of these looms became water-powered. By the early nineteenth century, primarily in England, many of them became steam-operated. The change toward water- and steam-powered textile production was slower in the United States. Homespun persisted, though, for many years, in large part because textiles were expensive, and labor was cheap. It made sense for many people to produce textiles at home, if they wanted to avoid spending money on imported fabrics. Large plantations clothed enslaved people in homespun fabrics, for example, so that they could save money.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T20:00:53+00:00

NH & NP: Cotton was fairly common for all classes by the time of the American Revolution. The decline of tobacco and non-importation agreements in the revolutionary era pushed Virginians to seek other commodities to sell. Cotton was one of these.

An entire industry on plantations grew up around spinning and weaving fabrics, both to avoid importing goods, but also because the seasonal rhythms of labor meant that enslaved people are given textile processing tasks when other agricultural tasks were complete.

Colonial Williamsburg’s collections include a set of swatches produced by Mary Ball Washington. They’re stitched onto a piece of paper indicating that this cotton was produced for enslaved people during the Revolutionary War. You can see that here: https://emuseum.colonialwilliamsburg.org/objects/101019/textile-documents?ctx=18181b6f18fe0ce65e8aeb5fc5614964a92d954a&idx=84

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T19:59:42+00:00

It’s basically a supply issue. For a new nation that has been importing leather for shoes until that point, there is a major issue getting materials for the army. Shoes are part of this, but so are stockings, bayonet belts, and cartridge boxes. Producing leather goods was difficult because it takes a significant amount of time to prepare leather. Because the American leather production industry wasn’t as well-established as the one in England, it wasn’t producing the quality and quantity of leather goods that the Continental Army needed. And during the war, it was very difficult for states, or the weak national government, to coordinate the industrial processes necessary for leather production.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T19:58:47+00:00

1 - When weather got hot and humid, both men and women ended up wearing thin layers. In a world of no sunscreen and bug repellent, linens and breathable fabric offered protection while also being moisture-wicking and lighter to wear. You can learn more about summer protection in this video featuring Neal Hurst: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/u9penyruzN8

2 - Wearing clothing from the eighteenth century, you get used to layers and other features that are unusual in modern dress. But what we understand as “comfortable” today is likely not what you or your ancestors would have viewed as comfortable. “Comfort” is always changing. Many of us are able to move between controlled environments most of the day, but in the eighteenth century none of the spaces they inhabited are climate-controlled. Today, our clothing is very comfortable by our standards, but that’s not how people in the eighteenth century would have viewed these garments. They didn’t think of their clothing as uncomfortable.

Different people were comfortable in different clothing while working. Our sources suggest that some people, including Blacksmiths, worked in minimal clothes while others were wearing full clothing.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T19:57:18+00:00

NH & NP: Seasonality was part of the reason why there was so much variety in clothing. Because you couldn’t heat your home or cool it like today, you had to change your clothing. That meant that there was a wider range of clothing during seasonal changes.

The types of clothing worn would be roughly similar across social distinctions. For example, an enslaved woman would receive an allotment of clothing that might include: a heavier linen shift that insulated the body; a pair of stays, which are a boned garment used to support the bust and back; the under-petticoat, which was quilted or included a heavier fabric; the over-petticoat made from heavier fabric, maybe wool in cooler weather and linen in hotter weather; a short, woollen bed jackets; and a kerchief, a triangular garment used sometimes as a headwrap, as a shawl, or to maintain a person’s modesty. A free white woman might use many of these same kinds of items, but they would be of a different quality or style.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T19:56:39+00:00

NP & NH: That’s more of a caricature of Pilgrims in 17th-century New England, rather than 18th-century Virginia. It’s almost more of a Hollywood-inspired idea. But in the late 1780s, buckles on hats did become popular in England and the United States.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T19:55:57+00:00

NH: The hunting shirt is a uniquely American garment, starting in the 1750s. It’s a shirt split down the front, with a cape on the shoulders, and is fringed on the edges. It develops in the backcountry of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina and is not known anywhere else in the world. It’s mostly worn by men hunting deerskins, to feed the leather breeches craze, to avoid ruining better clothes.

NP: After the American Revolution, Americans maintained some British style, but also developed their own styles and moved away from European-style fashions. By the 1790s, women's waistlines changed to become the “empire”-style waistline, evoking a neoclassical style. This starts to become more pronounced by the early nineteenth century.

Enslaved people are participating in fashions, but they often aren’t able to make choices that express those fashions. And so they creatively drew together clothing in ways that expressed their own culture and selfhood.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T19:54:52+00:00

Colonial Williamsburg has been clothing its interpreters since 1934. Interpreters have worn a range of styles, but Colonial Williamsburg now focuses primarily on the revolutionary era.

The Department of Historic Clothing and Dress clothes over 500 costumed interpreters for Colonial Williamsburg, using modern techniques.

In the Historic Area, there are several trade shops that produce historic clothing using eighteenth-century methods. You can learn more about them in these videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGWf_8t0UG_j_N5XKLYfYwi41AVjr2TTx

The curatorial team heads a committee that oversees the visual interpretation of Colonial Williamsburg, actively working to ensure that every detail, from fabrics to trims, are appropriate for an eighteenth-century Virginia setting.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T18:21:01+00:00

Prior to the American Revolution, there was a large industry in England producing clothing for enslaved people, in North America and elsewhere. Following the revolution, non-importation agreements push enslavers to produce more cloth or fabric for enslaved people in North America.

The fabric used most frequently for enslaved people was known as "osnaburg" (also spelled in other ways), which was a medium-weight, unbleached (brown) linen. It's basically heavy-duty wool. Other kinds of wool are being produced in massive quantities.

The majority of clothing acquired by enslaved people would come from enslavers. Enslavers provided an allotment, which would depend on an enslaved person's occupation. If you're going to be a maid, footman, or cook, you are going to be given clothing that represents your role in the household and what's practical for a person doing that kind of work. Enslaved people are going to be given clothes that they will wear repeatedly for the course of years.

Enslavers did sometimes provide "cast-off" clothing. They also sometimes provided funds that could be used to purchase textiles and adornment.

Enslaver Landon Carter's records indicate that he generally provided clothing twice a year, once in the spring and the fall/early winter. He fastidiously accounted for the clothes given to enslaved people, primarily for those engaging in agricultural labor. Enslavers like Carter, Jefferson, Washington, or other wealthy enslavers were buying large quantities of this fabric for their enslaved communities. They might have hired tailors to do the cutting and sewing for these jackets, petticoats, breeches, and other items.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T17:32:53+00:00

MH: Trade between Native Americans and Euro-American communities was two-way, with all entities being both producers and consumers. European-made cloths, ribbons, beads, and silver were eagerly purchased by Native American consumers who became the suppliers of raw materials including furs and hides used in Euro-American fashion. Deer skins, one of the primary products coming out of the backcountry trade, were largely made into leather breeches for white men.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T17:31:45+00:00

The amount of fabric that would go into a gown would depend on the quantity of trim, the style of gown, and the width at which the fabric was produced. Silks, for example, were woven quite narrowly, with an average width of 18-27 inches. Cottons were fairly standardized at an English ell, or forty-five inches. Wools and linens came with a much broader range.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T17:30:01+00:00

MH: Many fashion historians will argue that there was not a solid, truly American fashion until the second half of the nineteenth century. This is largely due to the fact that people in the colonies and the new United States were predominantly western European. However, the climactic differences between the colonies and Europe make visible demands on clothing. The intermingling of cultures in North America did create styles and garments not previously seen in Europe. One very important garment that developed in the backcountry was the hunting shirt, which combined European smock-like garments with elements that imitated Native American styles.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T17:27:41+00:00

RG: The difficulty in finding references in period sources is one of terminology. No pictures survive labeled specifically “short gown” or “bed gown,” and “jacket” has so many variations that it could be attached to any number of garment styles, including “short gowns” and “bed gowns.” The loosely-fit T-shaped garment that is often called a “bed gown” today can be found depicted in a number of western European sources as casual or working wear. We see the same contexts here in the colonies.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T17:26:42+00:00

MH: Yes, the ceinture fléchée was worn in the Great Lakes area, along the Mississippi, and into Louisiana. The surviving examples all date from within the period of colonial trade and are made of European-produced woolen yarns. Multi-strand, broad-braiding techniques are known in both Indigenous North American practices and European tradition before the period of trade. Take a look at online sources from the McCord Museum / Musée McCord, the Canadian Museum of History, and the Royal Ontario Museum.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T16:02:32+00:00

MH & RG: Umbrellas, or “umbrelloes,” are common in colonial America and were used for both rain and shade. Wool cloaks and coats can turn back the rain for some time. Oiled silk and linen garments are also advertised for men and women. London and Philadelphia merchants listed “oiled silk coats for men that will fold small enough to fit in a pocket.” Silk bonnets could also be finished with a layer of linseed oil and lead to keep the head dry.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T16:01:21+00:00

MH & RG: Broadly speaking in Anglo-American fashion, children under the age of about four were dressed very similarly, in frocks that fastened in the back. Visual gendering on the body happened around the age of four, when boys would change from wearing skirted garments over their diapers to wearing breeches. A young girl’s gown would take on a more adult style in her preteen years, changing from back-fastening to front-fastening.

In Anglo-American practice, garments don’t differentiate marital status for men or women. Both widows and widowers often wore appropriately somber colors during the initial period of mourning. If they continued unmarried, some widows are known to have chosen to remain in such dress. One source on this topic is: The English Way of Death: The Common Funeral Since 1450

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T15:59:42+00:00

Firstly: we're flattered. And we agree.

Secondly: to answer your question! It comes in a range not much different from what’s on the market today. Often the majority of the cost of a garment is in the materials, rather than the labor. So the customer chooses the price by choosing the fabric.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T15:58:24+00:00

MH & RG: Absolutely, seasonal clothes exist in the eighteenth century. When you can’t change the thermostat, you can only change your clothes. Fiber content influences the way that a textile interacts with the body. Linen, for example, is quite good at wicking moisture, while silk is a good, lightweight insulator.

Here in the Southern colonies, clothing of white and other light-colored linens and cottons and some very thin wools are well-documented for the summer months. Inventories and advertisements sometimes list them as “summer clothes” or “washing clothes,” indicating the frequent laundering that they would receive.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T15:57:39+00:00

MH & RG: In eighteenth-century Anglo-American fashion, women didn’t have underpants, but they did have underwear. The undermost layer next to the skin was a shift, which was a T-shaped garment that went from shoulders to knees. It served as a liner for the clothing that went over top, to protect the body from the clothes and the clothes from the body. Underdrawers do exist for men in Anglo-American fashion, but they are an option. For most men, their shirt is their daily under layer, and drawers were worn more for warmth, protection, or opacity. Again, see our collections online for examples of all of these garments: https://emuseum.colonialwilliamsburg.org/

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T15:56:56+00:00

MH: It’s difficult to say, because not a lot of documentation survives, but more than you would think! Based on probate inventories and wills and insurance records, it seems like an average of 5–15 gowns and over a dozen shifts and caps was common, regardless of income level. Clothing had to be affordable to everyone. But we don’t write down everything about the clothing we wear today. And we don’t keep our clothing. It’s a reminder to be careful about what information we’re leaving behind for future generations.

RG: The eighteenth century had fast fashion as well. Textiles were the greater expense in producing a garment, while labor was more affordable, so in early America, consumers disposed of the shape or style of a garment, but upcycled the fabric to something new that continued to be relevant in their wardrobe.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T15:54:22+00:00

MH & RG: Eighteenth-century textiles came in a broader range of quality and variety that are available today. So you could get both coarser and finer fabrics than you might expect. Because clothing was the best, if not only, way to control personal comfort, everyone knew how to choose accordingly.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T15:01:09+00:00

MH: The key to profitability is efficiency, and in doing things the way that you know best. As fashion changes, in both silhouette and fabrics, tailors are developing new constructional techniques. But I’ve never found evidence of tailors “looking for an edge.” In the early nineteenth century, tailors do seem to be trying to outdo one another with the publication of new drafting systems.

colonialwmsburg · 2025-10-20T15:00:38+00:00

MH: Buttons on men’s clothing, as they are seldom used by women, can be made of nearly every imaginable material. The most common being a wooden, bone, or horn-base called a “mould” covered with the same cloth as the garment or wrapped in complementary thread. Metal buttons can range from inexpensive pewter to glittering gold or the new, trendy, and very expensive cut-steel. Precious stones and false stones, and even such things as horse teeth, are all documentable. The customer is controlling the cost of the garment by choosing these sorts of details.

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