I have come to loathe online histories of fashion

[ritaxis]

It only took me half an hour of fruitless reading in wikipedia and beyond to realize that the people who write about the history of clothes online have no idea what they're talking about and don't care.

It's not that I find a lot of errors in these articles. Who could? They are so vague and unhelpful that they could tell straight-up lies and be no more or less true. I'm trying to find out what a junior clerk in a government ministry would wear to work every day, and what his chief minister would wear, in Eastern Europe, at the turn of the 19th-29th centuries. I know I'm not going to get much that is Eastern Europe specific, but I can hope to get a "continental" look. But no. I get a lot of blather that doesn't distinguish among classes, doesn't distinguish among types of clothing other than "formal" and "informal." Well, in the article on tailcoats there's a lot of discussion as to what to wear when riding horses for recreation. This is not helpful. There's not even an explanation of whether businessmen wore "morning coats," and it can't be taken for granted, as the wording nearby implies that they're only talking about the most rarified members of society.

I have found some pictures of laboring men from the period, over the years, so if Yanek was a miner or a carpenter's apprentice I could dress him rather confidently. Also, I can dress Bulo, the young peasant he admires. I can dress Bulo for plowing, for chestnut gathering, for going to a party, and for getting married. Yanek I just guess at. And when he imagines himself the Chief Minister in the future, as the Duke plans for him, I am forced to try to imagine what dressing somewhat like a prince but less so would look like, because princes and presidents is all you get.

I should go to the library.

Comments

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I hear you on this one, oh.

[frogs_of_war]

I totally agree. It makes you wonder if some of them ever wear clothes.

I did my History of Clothing self study several years ago, so I've forgotten the books that were the most helpful. But for Victorian, Edwardian (even if you are doing Eastern Europe, it would at least get you closer) you might try reading book written by people that study that era. I remember a book, by a man who studies Victorian literature, about odd things that didn't make since in the stories (plot holes, etc.) and I remember bits about what people were wearing.

Looked him up. John Sutherland. The titles are like Is Heathcliff a Murderer?, Can Jane Eyre be Happy?, etc. Each has 'puzzles in classic fiction' from several books.

And there was another book I read that was something about writing like great writers do and in one chapter she had a snippet from a book written pre WWI that had what a young working man wore to the beach (which was the clothes he worked in) with some girls, one of which he had a crush. Reading like a Writer by Francis Prose, I think.

But books written in the time and place would certainly help. Even Cliff notes of those books might have their clothes in the character descriptions.

So what I'm saying is don't just go to the fashion/costume section of the library. Those books are written, for the most part, by/for people who only care about what the wealthy wore. Or "native dress" in which case the book may be based more on mythology then facts.

I remember getting a book about medieval clothing and then looking at my wall and realizing that the sketch they were using to show what the court wore was a Pre-Raphaelite painting by Waterhouse with the princess switched out for a king and then flipped. The hadn't even bothered to change the eagle on the shield. Medieval clothing by way of Victorian artists wasn't what I had been looking for.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I googled "clerk european 1900" in Google Images and got Albert Einstein, rocking the houndstooth check as a patent clerk, and when I entered "minister european 1900" I got someone called Graf von Bulow, who was a Prussian Secretary of State. Does that help? I don't think the minister's clerk would dress like Albert, though, more like a less colourful version of his boss.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Del, I don't know why I didn't think of that instead of trying to discover what I wanted in "fashion." Thank you, and Albert Einstein is probably an excellent example.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Thinking about it later, I realised that restricting to "black&white" helps (as what use would the colour photos be?) and "Face" helped a bit also, although you lose the full body photos. Then I tried "Prussian" as being the sort of European keyword you don't get today, whereas "European" is too broad. And changing "1900" to "1890" helped weed out some modern pictures.

Sadly Google images doesn't support the Year1..Year2 syntax for ranges of time.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

My only suggestion was to see if you could find illustrations from novels of the period. Or paintings, though that's more likely to get you the upper classes again, unless you can find someone who painted or photographed working people.