African-American fashion in the 1800’s
1. 'Women often obtained calico to make a special dress for parties and church - some owners doled out calico dresses to reward good performance, and it was one of the first things slave women bought if they made money by selling garden produce. Red, which was reserved for royalty in some parts of Africa, was a favourite colour "Sunday clothes was dyed red for the gals....We made the gals hoops out of grapevines. They give us a dime, if they had one, for a set of hoops" recalled Gus Feaster of South Carolina. to stiffen their petticoats, girls starched them with hominy and water. Slaves tended to dress more carefully for church than poor whites, and if they had to walk a long way to service, they carried their shoes to keep them clean. 2. On Saturday nights there there dances in the salve quarters or gatherings of young people who played kissing games. "Used to go over to the Saunders place for dancing" said Fannie Berry "Gals always tried to fix up for partying, even if they ain't got nothing but a piece of ribbon to tie in their hair. Courtship rituals were much like those of other working-class Americans. Girls concerned themselves with their hair and dresses. "All week they wear the hair rolled up in cotton" said Amos Lincoln of Charleston "Sunday come, they comb the hair out fine." |
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Slave Women Clothes
1. African women who had been enslaved tried to keep dressing the way they had at home - wrapping their heads with cloth, for instance. Some African styles, like the kerchief, became popular with North American women, white and black and Native American. But enslaved women usually only had one dress, and even that was usually an old dress that a free woman didn't want anymore. Sometimes these women had to sew their dresses out of old flour sacks. Farming women who had to work hard on their farms, or women who were hunters or gold miners, sometimes wore pants (especially if nobody would see them). 2. Slave wore clothing provided by their French master. This clothing probably resembled the simple linen and woolen clothing worn by European peasants. For working and hunting, slave probably wore Indian deer-hide clothing and moccasins, as did the French. D. Clothes in holiday , church and everyday |
Men's Clothing
In the 1850s, men began to wear jeans, made first from hemp cloth by a Jewish man named Jacob Davis, and then out of cotton with his partner Levi Strauss (now we call them Levi's). They also wore denim or cotton corduroy overalls. Men started to wear their pants down to their ankles instead of their knees.
In the 1850s, men began to wear jeans, made first from hemp cloth by a Jewish man named Jacob Davis, and then out of cotton with his partner Levi Strauss (now we call them Levi's). They also wore denim or cotton corduroy overalls. Men started to wear their pants down to their ankles instead of their knees.
West African kaftan/boubou
In West Africa, a kaftan or caftan is a pull-over woman's robe. In French, this robe is called a boubou, pronounced boo-boo. The boubou is the traditional female attire in many West African countries including Senegal, Mai, and Ghana. The boubou can be formal or informal attire. The formality of the kaftan depends upon the fabric used to create it. BouBou? For a flowing wide sleeved robe worn by men in much of West Africa, and to a lesser extent in North Africa, related to the Dashiki suit. It is known by various names, depending on the ethnic group wearing them: agbada(Yoruba, Dagomba, babbanriga (Hausa), k'sa or gandora (Tuareg) darra'a Maghrebi Arabic, grand boubou (in various Francophone West African countries) and the English term of gown. The Senegalese boubou, a variation on the grand boubou described below, is also known as the Senegalese kaftan. The female version worn in some communities is also known as a m'boubou or kaftan. |