Today I went to a lecture lunch at the National Trust property Killerton House near Exeter.
Killerton house has a great costume museum, and the lecture was about the new exhibition “Jobs for the Girls” - clothes worn by working women.
The curator of the museum gave a great talk about their collection starting from about Regency times through to the second world war.
Of course, I was most interested in the Victorian section. So here are some of the things I learnt today:
Ladies maid’s were very often expected to be quite fashionable by their mistresses. No getting away with wearing drab clothes for many of them!
Many middle class houses sent their laundry away to be washed at the local laundry house rather than in the home. The women who worked at such places often had reputations as being loose women. Not because they were actually loose, but because of what they wore. Their work was hot and steamy (all that hot water) and therefore, they would go around with bare feet, skirts hitched up and with short sleeves. A sure sign of a loose woman for sure LOL!
Some laundry workers…..loose women? We’ll never know!
Obviously domestic servants wore practical clothes, and they would have aprons and sleeve protectors for the really dirty jobs. But in the 1860’s when crinoline came in, some servants were expected to wear it - not very practical!
The new exhibition opens in two weeks, and we got a sneak peek. It’s very interesting and worth a visit if you are nearby. Here is a link the Killerton Website.
Jenna
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