October

HISTORY DISCUSSION GROUP REPORT FOR OCTOBER


At this meeting we talked about clothing and Michael started with the Iceman.
This was the body of a Neolithic hunter who died about 3,300 BC on a mountain ridge in the Austrian Alps and was found frozen in a gully in September 1991. With the body they also found fragments of clothing.
He had a belt and pouch of calf leather, a loincloth of leather (not fur), leggings (separate) tied on to his belt and stretching down to his feet, a cap of strips of fur sown together, an upper garment of strips of fur sewn together stretching from shoulder to knees but open in the front, and on top of all this was a grass coat made from grass lengths over 1 metre long- plaited together and thought to stretch from neck to knees- and probably again open in the front. His body is on display in a special cabinet in the Museum at Bolzano in Northern Italy, and Joan U. has seen it there.

Brian told us that in certain times in the past, ordinary people were not allowed to wear certain colours of clothing - purple, scarlet, gold, silver, deep blue- as they were worn only by high class people .

Myra showed us sketches of Tudor costumes she had made, pointing out the slits in the clothing through which you could see the expensive material underneath (this was the height of fashion).

Kathy talked about the evolution of bathing costumes and showed us pictures of them, and how when it first became fashionable the clothes worn were more like a full set of day clothes, and then gradually became more and more simplified until now when sometimes the costumes are sometimes a “bit too brief”.
Jean showed us a picture of a lady in Roman times wearing a bikini (who said they were not an advanced civilisation!)

Brian mentioned about cod pieces in Tudor times in which people often kept their money and jewels and sometimes a dagger. A cod piece was made of velvet, silk and satins for noble people and cloth for commoners. After Tudor times they went out of fashion.

Joan R. talked about ladies fashions from the 1920s onwards, and how their hem lines gradually rose to above the knees, about pin stripped suits, James Dean hair style, flower power and bell bottoms, but in contrast men’s fashions had not changed much.

Barbara talked about ladies’ fashions 1947 to 1950, and how women rebelled from the austerity clothing of WWII to colourful, flowing clothes (including underwear) of the 1950s. It made them feel so much better.

Pam talked about underwear and how it has only been around for about 200 years. The first was a chemise worn mainly to protect outer garments from body odour. The first “pants” or “drawers”, appeared about 1800, so called because each leg was separate and was drawn up, but was not joined in the middle until the Royal Drawer Maker decided to join them up and her name was Florence Gusset (the rest is History).

After more discussion, Marie and Jane handed around old photos. of past generations showing their fashions in clothing.

The next meeting will be on Monday 16th and the topic will be Social Care.

Michael Page.