COLONIAL-ERA CLOTHING: VARIABILITY, TAILORING - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The clothing of the colonial era is characterized by receiving a direct influence from the European fashion of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, through the conquerors and colonizers who moved to America.

This group of colonizers were deployed in different times and regions of the American territory, coming mostly from the Spanish Empire, the Portuguese Empire, the British Empire, France or the Netherlands.

Saint Louis in colonial times. Source: Mame Khary at English Wikipedia.

The colonial era began at the end of the 15th century and its point of origin is the arrival of Christopher Columbus on American territory in 1492, thanks to the support of the Crown of Castile. This period extends until the beginning of the seventeenth century with the well-known Dutch colonization.

In general, it is considered that from a stylistic point of view the costumes of the colonial era take elements of the Renaissance sphere and culminate with the baroque trend of the seventeenth century, specifically with the Rococo style.

Some pieces that were adopted from Europe evolved to autochthonous variations, such as the outerwear of Spanish origin, Castilian capes, Grenadian blankets and Canarian blankets, which upon reaching American territory became the Colombian ruana, the Mexican serape or Argentine poncho.

Dress variability

One of the elements that characterizes fashion in the colony is the variety of costumes as a form of social differentiation, since it allowed us to distinguish cultures, places of origin, race or social status.

For example, those people of high status were those who brought fabrics and accessories from Europe, as well as the latest trends and models from the Old World.

It was a kind of right you were born with and, although there were no written rules, it was a social consensus that some garments, especially among women, were exclusive for women and could not be worn by peasant women.

High society outfits

Ladies used to wear long and wide skirts, lace or linen blouses and embroidered petticoats. It was frequent in the Spanish style, the fans, mantillas, umbrellas and shoes with silver buckles.

The "stabbed" style was in fashion, which consisted of leaving the garment lining visible or placing a different fabric underneath.

For their part, the attire of the high society gentlemen consisted of narrow pants or leggings, capes, cloths, frock coats, shirts with ruffles, ties that ended in fringes and in specific cases ruffles. Among the accessories, the scarf, the top hat and the cane with a metal handle stood out, which were typical of the time. Boots adorned with silver settings were the most common.

The shapes that predominated in the designs were like the silhouette of an hourglass in women's outfits and in men's designs it was characterized by being more rectangular.

Outfits of other social classes

As for the people of the lower classes, they dressed in much simpler suits that used to be made of cotton fabrics. Depending on the climatic zone, garments could also be made with sheep or llama wool, as was the case with ponchos.

Peasant women used to wear outfits reminiscent of the simplicity of the Greek chiton. While the Creole farmers used to wear a doublet with sleeves, leggings and high boots made of deer hides. They wore the classic collar and a sash to adjust the doublet.

In the case of slaves, the men wore cotton camisole with three openings for the head and arms, this was very typical of haciendas and plantations. In the case of the black maids, they had to wear long-sleeved, unadorned dresses that covered from the neck to the feet.

Military outfit

One of the most used costumes in colonial times is undoubtedly the military one. In the first stage of the conquest, the use of full armor was common, clothing that was used around 1580. It consisted of a morion with a feather duster, lace ruff, puffed shorts and a sword belt at the waist.

Subsequently, the troops and noncommissioned officers used to wear similar outfits such as tall chacós with a plume and visor, a hooded jacket with distinctive crossed bands across the chest, and wide tube pants. These were the costumes of the hussars, lancers and police of the time.

Senior officers used to wear a waistcoat that covered a shirt with a high collar and a vest with 5 or 6 buttons. The coat had bordered epaulettes and wide galloon lapels, in the form of a heraldic shield. They also used to wear a black bowtie.

Dressmaking

Source: Unknown 1862 artist

The textile technique in America was quite refined when the Spanish arrived, both in color and design. The system they used was the backstrap loom, which consisted of two ends tied, one to a tree and the other to the weaver's back. Vegetable dyes were then combined with that technique that they already had mastered to perfection and which resulted in uniformity of the diameter of the thread.

Meanwhile, the Spanish were in charge of bringing a new technique, the foot or pedal loom, also known as a garrucha or shuttle loom. This technique never replaced the traditional indigenous loom, but was implemented simultaneously.

For the making of the clothes, they used to be used from luxury materials for the highest classes, imported from European countries, such as velvet, brocade, damask, lace and silk.

For daily clothing, other more accessible types of fabrics were used, such as alpaca or vicuña wool, cotton and linen. The latter, along with silk, were brought by the conquerors and in the short term began to occur in colonial settlements.

Sometimes exotic bird feathers could be woven or attached to these materials to add a more colorful touch to outfits.

In countries such as Guatemala and Chile, ponchos or also well-known cloths from the land made in wool centers allowed us to obtain poncho-style pieces that were waterproof to the rain.

References

1. Colonial times: the city, houses, education and customs. (sf). Recovered from sanjuanalmundo.org
2. The colonial dress. (sf). Recovered from laguia2000.com
3. Celanese Colombiana SA (1945). History of the costume in Colombia. Mexico: Editorial Atlante.
4. Hispanic Library. (2017, March 5). The Hispanic American clothing, influence back and forth. Recovered from reinamares.hypotheses.org
5. European colonization of America. (2019, October 12). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from es.wikipedia.org