Counting These Modern Blessings

 Having taken a good look at the ladies in full 1885 regalia that I posted yesterday, I feel like registering gratitude for the latitude of today.  Yes, things are out of whack…but in that whackdom, there is freedom for those who are in control of themselves. The fact that one could indulge in the bizarre just means that one is free also not to.

I think about getting dressed in all of that.  No wonder they often had a lady’s maid.  You would need help, I think, to get it all together.

Under the dress are several garments, including the corset for the well snugged in upholstered looking waist.  In fact, in those days a natural looking waist was considered at the very least sloppy and probably loose!  She has stockings, held up by some awkward contrivance.  Tight little shoes, a fussy hairdo and to cap it off, literally haha, a terror of a hat.

Long ago, about 1965, I remember writing a little thing for school about how our shoes shape us to their shape, in the same way that law and consensus shape our minds.  Well, I wasn’t very old then.

But I do think that clothing shows where we are, more or less, depending. Those ladies were bound up in all that fabric and fuss.  Now, maybe not as much as I think, because to them it was just clothing. But still, try to imagine climbing over a fence in that get up.  Try to imagine knowing that you can’t climb over a fence, because it’s not ladylike or polite behavior? Which came first?  The dress or the stricture? 

Three working class seamstresses.

Now, it is also true that working class girls and their moms didn’t look quite that slicked back.  Not in 1885 anyhow.  That was barely the old days really.  We have all seen photos of western women who had to be practical in dress for every day.  I bet they still got into the corset for Sunday.

Now, and for quite some years, we can wear a corset if we want to.  We can wear all the fuss our hearts could actually desire.  But we don’t have to.  Blessed freedom.  Thank God for the relief of plain old jeans, not to mention modern foundations!  You can also dress the jeans look up or down if you want to.

The language of fashion, and it is a language, has become so much more adaptable and pragmatic.  We can have glamour or grit, whatever we need.

I haven’t even touched on the subject of fashion.  This is just a note of gratitude.

Some real working class women in garb.