What did women in the 1700's wear? To bed, to be in their houses, and to special events?

Question

I tried searching already but whenever I think I've got the right wardrobe, it turns out it's from a much earlier time. Any one know?

Answer 1

A lot depended on the social status of the woman.

A woman of the "middling" sort--neither poor nor rich, but the wife or daughter of a small farmer or artisan--usually wore clothing made of a blend of linen and wool (linsey-woolsey), which had the advantage of not bursting into flame if an ember from the open fireplace fell on it (wool tends to smolder rather than immediately igniting, giving time to extinguish it before it got to a flame--I think that linen has this same property). For sleeping, there were nightgowns, also of wool, linen, or linsey-woolsey. For special occasions, a woman might have a gown of wool, perhaps dyed rather than its natural color.

There were "sumptuary laws," which reserved certain materials (silk, satin, velvet, etc.) to those of the upper class, and certain religious groups, such as the Quakers and some of the German Pietistic sects favored clothing that was very subdued in shades of gray or strict black and white (the Mennonites, however, used ribbons to distinguish the "choir" [sort of an age group division] to which the women belonged--little girls wore red, single sisters wore pink, married women wore blue, and widows wore white).

Now, a woman of the upper classes (a member of a wealthy merchant family, or perhaps the wife of a large landowner in the South) had everyday clothing much like her middle-class sisters, but most likely more of it and probably more colorful. Her nightgowns were either linen or wool, or perhaps silk, and for special occasions she would often wear expensive materials such as satin or velvet, and usually made in the prevailing European style.

A good book on the history of costume would probably help you get a better idea of how these dresses looked; another option is to check your local bookstore (such as Barnes & Noble) for a series of paper doll books on how families dressed in different eras. I've found the latter source to be very useful, because it deals with faily units in various places and times in American history.

Answer 2

I believe that the men still wore the below knee tight pants with stockings. And the women still wore the corset tight ( flat chested) fitting dresses with the long puffy thing in the back .

Answer 3

considering no one here was alive at the time,,,who really knows?

Answer 4

They didn't wear knickers.