Clothes style in the 1800's?

Question

My son is doing a report on a famous American from the 1800's and needs to dress up like him.

Answer 1

When you say "1800s" you're considering 100 years of fashion. A great number of style changes occured during that time, so you'd have to narrow it down to be more accurate.

You'll also have to consider the person's economic standing (though if they were famous I'll hazard to guess they were relatively well off) as that will also play a major part in determining the sort of clothes they would have worn. Obviously, a rural farmer would have a much different style of dress than a New York dandy.

Narrow down your search a bit, then try the Edwardian and Victorian fashion ring- there's some very good sites on there that have fashion plates and photos, etc that should help.

http://i.webring.com/hub?ring=edwardianandvict

If you want something simple and representative, rather than hardcore historically accurate, try something like this:

- brown suit pants
- a brown vest, perhaps pinstriped
- simple white longsleeve dress shirt
- bow tie, or a strip of limp fabric/ribbon that you can tie into a simple bow
- a snug brown suit jacket (the longer the better)
- a hat (bowler style, or a brown felt cowboy hat will work in a pinch)

You'll find that a trip to your local thrift store or charity shop will probably yield a good number of these pieces cheaply.

Answer 2

If you sew, you can make him a costume that would be representative of the 1800's. The Simplicity Pattern book has patterns for Civil War era clothes.

Answer 3

Top Hats, Bowler's Hats, Charlie Chaplin style hats. Slacks, Business attire, Tailcoats, Vest, Bow Tie*, shirt, cane*, Cummerbund*, Kerchief in coat's or blazer's top left pockets, visible.


* - Formal. Most of the time people in that period dress really well as it is a symbol of status.

Answer 4

that's if u or him wants to be part of the colony or the ones that want to hold it, OK u find u self in the foot steps of pioneer to hold in to cl others from the ship u landed in or u spend more time and hold u trade as meragend or steward that got a job as deputy in other case its as long jackets and booths and stockings ruffles out from sleeves and hat as big as OK half gallon

Answer 5

Well, loose and sturdy. Open to interpretation. The type of clothing design that if you weren't to close to a dry cleaners you could pass for a tidy bum.

Answer 6

http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages/costhistpage.htm

There's lots of examples on this site of clothing from many eras, look primarily at the "Regency and Empire" and "Victorian" eras. Hope you find what you're looking for!