Wills are often a great place to research this type of question. Unlike a trousseau, they tend to reflect possessions at a random point in life (rather than a planned-for life transition). There are a lot of researchers studying clothing represented in wills in various times and places, so you might be able to find a good selection across time. I sorry not to have specific authors or publications to recommend, but that might give you keywords to work from.
Heather On Oct 8, 2014, at 4:16 PM, Cascio Michael wrote: > Hello, > I'm trying to look into the size of the average middle-class woman's > wardrobe through the centuries. Finding advice on the trousseau is easier, > at least after the advent of ladies' magazines but I'm most interested in how > many dresses a middle class woman would own. How common was the one dress > for every day and one for Sunday with a multitude of aprons? Do women start > having more dresses after the advent of cheap cotton? Since the list covers > a large span of history I'm hoping for answers from many centuries. > > Cassandra > -------------------------------------------- > > _______________________________________________ > h-costume mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
