Was There a Difference Between the North and South's Fashion During the Civil War

Dolores's involvement in fashion history dates from her teenage years when vintage apparel was widely bachelor in austerity stores.

The American Civil War was responsible for changes in women's manner in the mid-1800s.

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The clothing worn during the American Ceremonious War (1861—1845) is a popular costume for Halloween and for Civil War reenactors. In full general, the fashions worn before and during the Ceremonious War are Victorian styles, but the article of clothing worn past women in the Confederate States have on a slightly different consideration.

Cotton was produced in the American South, but the textile mills that manufactured fabric were located in the northern states. The few southern mills worked to produce cloth for the armed services. The blockade of southern ports by northern forces prevented the importation of European as well equally American fabrics. Though occludent runners managed to move some goods through, those imports were few and far betwixt. Blackness market goods were very expensive, so the South had to brand do without new fabric for the duration of the war.

What little fabric was bachelor was needed for uniforms for the war machine. Fifty-fifty and so, southern uniforms were non uniform and many versions existed, including light greyness, dark gray, light blue, and butternut brownish.

Southern women learned to make do with less and the famous scene in Gone With the Wind, when Scarlett uses drapes to make a clothes had some basis in fact. Wear was mended or remade. Homespun became a popular, fifty-fifty patriotic substitute for manufactured fabric during the war.

Hoop Skirts

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Before the War—Style in The Antebellum South

We like to visualize women of the Antebellum south in traditional Victorian hoop skirts, grandly embellished with ribbons and bows. Of course, like all fashion periods, the grand, elegant styles of the period were limited to the wealthier classes. Simpler versions of hoop skirts were worn by women of less means.

The elite women of the Antebellum South enjoyed French and English fashions. They visited Europe and brought home new styles, fabrics, and designs from Paris and London to be created for them past seamstresses.

• Evening attire featured drop shoulder sleeves, low necklines, and voluminous skirts, held out by layers of petticoats, crinolines, or hoops. Hoops, horizontal circles of thin steel, were held in place by vertical strips of material. Short capped sleeves exposed women's arms during warmer months and for evening wear.

• Bodices were somewhat lower than the actual waistline, but rose afterwards the war. Bodices were lined for support and airtight in front end with buttons or hooks and eyes. Bodice and skirt fabrics usually matched.

• Mean solar day-wear dresses were high necked. It was unseemly for a adult female to evidence pare before late afternoon. As pale skin was the mode, necks and shoulders had to be covered to avoid the sun. Outdoors, during the day, women carried parasols to avoid sunlight.

• Sleeves were full, widest at the elbow, erupting from a gathered shoulder seam. The Bishop sleeve featured the gathered shoulder, wide elbow, and narrowed at the wrist.

• Layered sleeves with the nether-sleeve showing was popular for a time. Sleeves were oft trimmed with ribbon or braid.I blazon sleeve called a negative sleeve showed the lining when the long sleeve was caught upward on the outer side, leaving the portion of the sleeve at the dorsum of the arm hanging.

I interesting attribute of women's skirts was the hem. Today, a hem is turned under and stitched. During Victorian times, and in the American Ceremonious War era, hems were bound past a strip of fabric. This material could be removed and replaced when the hem showed wear.

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Fabrics for Southern Well-to-Practise

The aristocracy women of the due south wore fabrics in silk, velvet for colder weather; fine backyard, linen, and muslin in warm weather.

White was a popular color in warm atmospheric condition for women with condition. Black, worn for mourning, was often worn due to the loftier expiry rate, and during the state of war equally women lost loved ones who perished in battle.

Big prints were hard to match and restricted to the wealthy as the voluminous skirts were fabricated of upwardly to 5 yards of fabric, and using a print, stripe or plaid increased the demand for fifty-fifty more than material.

Center part with pilus looped at the side

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Hair and Accessories

• Hair: The ideal women of the pre-Ceremonious State of war S had pale skin and a rounded face. Hair was parted down the middle and drawn back, with soft loops on each side of the face that accentuated a round face up. These loops could be puffed out with a 'rat,' a small internet blimp with hair gathered during brushing.

  For dress, the side hair hung in loose ringlets from a key part.

• Jewelry: Jewelry was modest sized and a rosy gilded was the preference in fragile, dangle earrings and oval horizontal or vertical brooches. A brooch was worn at the neckline, at the top of the collar during the twenty-four hours.

  Matching chunky bracelets were worn on each wrist.

• Fans: Fans were a popular accessory of the American Southward, a region of hot, humid summers. Simple paddle fans made of palmetto leaves were circular and pocket-sized sized. Six to ten inch folding fans could be painted with pretty designs.
• A nosegay, or pocket-sized bunch of aromatic flowers and herbs was a pop accompaniment in an era without deodorant.
• Small purses, or drawstring numberless held a lady'southward necessities.
• Aprons, often worn for cooking or doing chores protected dresses.
• Lace was not widely used, except for collars and cuffs
• Collar and cuffs were removable for laundering or a stylish change. These removable collars and cuffs were usually white.
• Parasol: A fabric umbrella carried on a sunny day to protect a woman's complexion from the dominicus, and offered a kind of portable shade

Ceremonious State of war era adult female wearing lace cuffs and collar

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Adult female With a Parasol

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Underwear of the Civl War South

Victorian women of the Civil War period wore many layers of undergarments. While layered undergarments were necessary in many areas for warmth, the custom too followed rules of etiquette and propriety.

The first layer was a soft cotton fiber or linen chemise worn with drawstring drawers trimmed in lace or ribbon, ending only below the articulatio genus.

Whalebone corsets laced at the back to accentuate a small waist. The mod concept that women of the day were obsessed with crushing themselves into the tiniest waist possible is non true - that beliefs was limited to a small subset.

During the mid 1800s, many petticoats, a crinoline, or crinoline cage hoop skirt created the huge, bell shaped brim that typified the era. The hoop skirt was impractical, generally worn for dressy occasion.

A Young Adult female Shows That You Tin can Sit Down While Wearing a Crinoline Cage (Hoop Brim)

Habiliment of Lower Form Women in the Civil State of war Southward

Lower form women did not wear wide hoop skirts, though less expensive crinoline cages (with fewer hoops) were available for those who could afford the style. The lower classes wore coarser fabrics.

Coarser Fabrics Worn by Lower Classes

• Osnaburg—a fibroid, cheap linen
• Fustian—a cotton and linen blend
• Linsey-woolsey—a coarse linen, and wool alloy, later cotton and wool.
• Calico—a inexpensive cotton fabric printed with a design featuring tiny flowers

Most women of the day wore solid fabrics. Stripes and plaids were limited to the wealthy as matching pieces of material use more than fabric. Modest prints, like calico, were easier to friction match and mend. Calico prints were usually dark to hide stains. Black was a common color for all classes and worn for mourning apparel. Many photographs of the time depict women dressed in black, as many suffered the loss of loved ones, so dressed in mourning attire.

Homespun fabric was not frequently used earlier the Civil State of war, but became somewhat pop during the war due to fabric shortages. Contrary to popular conceptions, enslaved women did not wear homespun as the piece of work involved in the cosmos of that cloth was labor intensive and non seen as an economical use of a a worker's time. Slaves usually wore cheap manufactured fabrics. Yet, large plantations often employed spinners, weavers, seamstresses, and tailors in society to clothe the many people who worked there.

Enslaved people were issued a few sets of clothing each twelvemonth. Poor people, laborers, the lower course, and enslaved people generally wore clothing made of tough, durable fabric. Their wear was less tailored and embellished than the garments of the elite. Enslaved women who worked inside the habitation dressed in more upward-to-date, more tailored and embellished garments than those who worked outdoors.

A wrapper was a loose, one slice dress that was gathered and pleated from neck to hem and belted for shape often with an frock. Low, wide shoulders with wide sleeves gathered at the wrist. Wrappers were worn by working women, lower course women, rural women, and for household chores. A women of moderate substance wore a wrapper fabricated of a better fabric.

Enslaved woman wearing bonnet, cape, and frock

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Civil War Era woman in print dress with white collar and side curls

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Ceremonious War era adult female wearing bonnet with a large bow

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Women'due south Hats of the Civil War Era

Hats were commonly worn during Victorian times and were a necessity for women of the south. Broad brimmed hats protected the face, neck, and optics from the sunday. Wearing a lid was seen as a respectable practice and worn for proprietary as well every bit for looks and style.

Broad brimmed garden hats were popular in warmer months. Oftentimes made of harbinger, garden hats were tied under the chin and frequently featured some ornamentation at the base of the crown.

Bonnets were worn in winter and fabricated of heavier materieals than summer bonnets. Dominicus bonnets oftentimes featured a ruffle or small drapery of material at the back to protect the neck from the sun.

The fabric of bonnets was stiffened into a wide front brim and tied under the chin with wide ribbons of fabric. Decoration could be changed to refresh the look of a bonnet. Fake flowers were a pop bonnet decoration. Feathers did non become popular until much later.

Spoon bonnets featured a tall, uplifted front skirt. Decorative elements like silk flowers, or ruffles were worn inside the hat, under the skirt.

Small caps were oft worn indoors, specially by older women. These caps worn at the back of the head could be busy with ruffled edges, braid, or ribbon.

Poor women and slaves wore a kerchief tied backside the head. Some enslaved women wore turbans.

Older woman wearing a cap

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Tips on Making a Ceremonious State of war or Antebellum Costume

If you want to create a costume for a adult female of the Confederacy during the Ceremonious War, recall that many women wore mended wearable. Faded or muted colors work well as new materials were not available during the war. Many fabrics can be artificially aged by soaking in black tea.

Remember that sewing machines were not widely bachelor. Wealthier women could, however beget the services of a seamstress, who might use a sewing motorcar.

Many items of clothing were mitt sewn earlier, during, and after the war. For a truly accurate look, paw sew all visible seams.

Belle Boyd—Confederate Spy

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Civil State of war Era Seamstress

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For Further Reading

Costume and Manner Source Books by Karen Taschek; Bailey Publishing Associates

Clothing Through American History—The Civil War Through the Golden Age 1861—1899 by Anita Stamper and Jill Condra

threescore Civil War Era Fashion Patterns, by Kristina Seleshanko

American Ceremonious War Era Fashion Plates : Peterson'southward Magazine 1860—1865, by Mandie Foster and Dannielle Perry

Who Wore What Women's Article of clothing 1861—1865, by Juanita Leisch

Questions & Answers

Question: Did women article of clothing make-up during the American Civil War?

Answer: The Civil War-era falls into the greater Victorian era, a time when women were supposed to expect natural. While women once wore heavy makeup, a modern term, cosmetics were seen as vulgar, worn by actresses and prostitutes. A high-class lady avoided the sun as tanning and freckles were seen as depression class. An elite woman had to bear witness that she did not labor in the sun.

Notwithstanding, women used subtle cosmetics to raise their appearance. Pastes and creams with moisturizing properties could hide blemishes, freckles, and uneven skin tones. Creme Celeste was a concoction fabricated of white wax, spermaceti (a substance from the head of a whale), rose water, glycerin, sweetness almond oil, and essential oils. Rice and zinc oxide powders could exist dusted over the face to create the pale complexion and so pop at the time.

Lip balms oft contained a tinge of color. A very subtle blush or rouge was dusted on the cheeks, though obvious cheek coloring was viewed every bit inappropriate for a lady. Women plucked their eyebrows.

Beauty products were purchased at apothecary shops but as in later on years, cosmetics accept been sold at pharmacies and drug stores.

Question: Tin can yous still find hoop skirts in this century?

Answer: Hoop skirts still bear witness up in wide-skirted wedding gowns. They can be constitute online for reenactment, period, or theatrical costumes. In the 1950s, very broad skirts were popular. Stiff petticoats ordinarily provided support but there were some instances of hoop inserts in petticoats. Hoop-La was i product I just found on Etsy. Just hoops are hard to deal with especially when trying to sit downwards. Some petticoats of the 1950s provided ane or ii hoops.

Question: May I use this commodity for my schoolhouse projection?

Answer: If you desire to employ this article as a resource for a schoolhouse project, you should contact your instructor. There are sites that educators prefer, and those may include scholastic journals or museum references. Your instructor may prefer that you use books for research.

When referencing an online site for school projects, the way y'all cite the information depends, once more, on your teacher'southward preference.

Question: Who was the seamstress for the hoop-skirt?

Answer: A seamstress sewed wear but did not actually brand the cage crinoline for hoop skirts.

Hoops were worn under skirts and replaced hot, itchy crinolines. The actual cage crinoline was mass produced in factories. Thin pieces of cut steel were covered with cotton. The circles of a hoop brim were smaller at the top and large at the hem. They were held together with fabric record.

A skirt made with many yards of fabric was worn over elevation the cage.

© 2011 Dolores Monet

Dolores Monet (author) from East Coast, United States on Jan 14, 2020:

Are y'all certain that the article of clothing really dates to the 1860s? Face up it, few garments stand the exam of fourth dimension, in this case 160 years. Wear tin exist damaged by wear, perspiration, insects, dampness, dry out rot, and temperature extremes. Take a good long await at the garments to see if they are really old. Expect for clues in fasteners, style, and materials.

You may want to check out the Vintage Fashion Club and the Costume Guild of America. You tin as well contact a local college that has a costume or fabric department for help in understanding what you take.

To sell antiquarian clothing, wait online to see who is selling it. If it's a visitor, they are buying. If yous encounter antique garments on a site like eBay or etsy, yous can go that road. Check online prices to decide how much to charge. What yous earn will depend on the condition of the garments.

Tina C on January thirteen, 2020:

I have a bulk of vintage clothing from my collection of vintage wearable during this era for sale. Where is a good place to sell information technology?

Dolores Monet (author) from East Coast, United States on Oct 08, 2019:

Hello Erin - upwards to six or seven petticoats were worn with a crinoline. More petticoats were worn for dressy occasions. The elite wore more petticoats than middle class or working grade women.

The cumbersome nature of so many petticoats and the weight of those combined with the crinoline made the newer hoop skirts much more comfortable. Also, hoop skirts were mass produced to were more affordable for the lower classes. The more than money you lot had to spend, the more hoops were encased in the crinoline cage.

Erin on October 03, 2019:

How many petticoats were worn over the crinoline?

Dolores Monet (writer) from Due east Coast, United states on Apr 05, 2019:

With all the complicated layers and lacings, it would take been a flake of a job to dress and undress. And with garments laced or attached at the back, help would be required.

alex martel on April 04, 2019:

did it take long to have information technology off the dress in the 1800s

Dolores Monet (author) from E Coast, United States on December 12, 2018:

Women in the Due north were able to alive and dress better than those of the South. The material mills of the Due north produced vesture just blockades prevented the importation of fabric to the Confederacy. Likewise, virtually of the battles were fought in the South. Almost 250,000 people were forced to leave their homes due to the fighting. Refugees left most of their holding at abode and this included clothing.

Due to the absenteeism of men off fighting, southern women performed tasks usually left to men. The Southward was more agrestal than the Northward. As men went off to fight, women were left to practise men's work on the farm. Their clothing would accept reflected that.

Enslaved women of the South faced greater deprivations and their clothing would reverberate that position.

Though the Civil War effected changes in the lives of women of both the N and the S, women of the Due north were able to maintain a somewhat better wardrobe.

makayla on Dec 12, 2018:

is there any due north?

Dolores Monet (author) from Eastward Coast, United States on October 10, 2016:

Renee - I am sure information technology was difficult. For most of history including the mid 19th century, women's undergarments were open up at the height of the thigh. This fabricated it easier to utilize a chamber pot. I don't think someone dressed upwardly would be using an outhouse.

Renee on Oct 06, 2016:

How and where did they go to the bath? I have asked this question and usually get a vague answer. I desire detail, please. I don't understand how they managed all that textile, especially the hoop skirts. They didn't have plumbing, couldn't take fit into an outhouse and how did they manage a sleeping room pot? Where did they and men go to relieve themselves, say at a ballet, theater or church building? How about a ball on a plantation? I would appreciate a descriptive answer. I've always been fascinated with the ceremonious state of war era, and this has e'er puzzled me.

Dolores Monet (writer) from E Declension, United States on Jan 04, 2015:

H - those gigantic hoops and the tight corsets sure made for some beautiful gowns merely they must have been and then uncomfortable! Not to mention the expense of so many yards of fabric. I love the concept of Farby. It must be very difficult to achieve exact historical costume and I practise admire those with the patience and ambition to adhere to the standards of the day. Cheers for pointing this out. I really wanted to illustrate how hard information technology was to deal with this stuff.

H on January 01, 2015:

The girl in your video is wearing a farby hoop, even for a ball-gown the hoop she is wearing is a circus tent!

Dolores Monet (writer) from East Coast, United states of america on Apr 05, 2011:

Emerge - y'all must have been a skilful footling girl. I know some trivial girls who would 'accidentally' break that thing! Not me, of grade, haha! I retrieve those itchy crinolines, but not the actual hoops. Sheesh. What were they thinking? I imagine that wearing apparel did not get a lot of article of clothing!

Sherri from Southeastern Pennsylvania on April 04, 2011:

LOL, those crinolines did crawling! Only the skirt I was talking about had no crinoline underneath. It was shaped past an underskirt that had a frame to make the dress "hoop out" at the bottom in a perfect circumvolve. Perhaps "reinforced buckram" was not the right description...this underskirt had, at the bottom, sewn into its hem, something like the ribbing we might observe in corsets. When it broke, information technology broke!

Dolores Monet (author) from East Coast, United States on April 04, 2011:

Howdy, Sally - thank yous and so much for sharing a wonderful story and making such a lovely annotate. A cloth like buckram would have been called a crinoline and I remember them back in the 1950's. I hated them. They itched! Funny how styles come dorsum.

The bodily hoops in a hoop skirt, the frames that held out the brim are similar to the Elizabethan farthingale, a wheel-similar contraption that made those skirts stand way out, like you encounter in pictures of Queen Elizabeth I.

Sherri from Southeastern Pennsylvania on Apr 03, 2011:

Marvelous Hub! I learned and so much...never knew that the sleeve with the poof and narrowed wrist was called Bishop, and more.

In the early 1950s, my female parent made flower-daughter dresses for her brother's wedding. The dresses had hoop skirts, the hoop frames being made of a kind of reinforced buckram. My bloom girl apparel hoop skirt croaky its buckram, and pictures of me bear witness a quite pointy dress at the hem. Sad!

Merely the point...my female parent learned much of her dressmaking skill from her female parent-in-law, who learned from her mother, who lived through the Civil State of war in Ohio.

What a super Hub that, for me, so much connects the far past with my childhood.

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