servant dress

[Annette Bethke]

I'm looking for references and/or examples of servant dress--not slave. The impression is female and will be serving at a social function. I'm assuming the late Victorian black and white uniform would really not be appropriate. It has not been determined if the servant is someone hired in for the occasion or a member of the household such as a spinster aunt/cousin/etc.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this or references to suggest?

[MissMaggie]

Re: servant dress

Ma'am,
In my basic research I have found that most servants wore basic working class clothing. The addition of a white cap of some kind may have been the only thing that marked them as a servant. I have several books that I have found useful:

Serving Women by Faye E. Duddden. This book doesn't have any pictures but it deals specifically with American servants and hired girls.

The rest all deal with English servants, though some of it may carryover:

Life Below Stairs by Fran e Hugget. Lots of great images though most of them are line drawings and few deal with our time period.

Not in Front of the Servants by Frank Dawes. Pretty much the same as the previous. Both books have some good information.

Victorian Working Women by Michael Hiley. This one deals mostly with female mine workers in England but it has a great section on servant women images. The gentleman who took the images made a hobby of taking images of lower class women.

The Greatest Plague of Life by I don't remember who (my original copy is packed away at my parents house). I've never sat down and read it but it has some rather famous prints of servants doing terrible things.

Hope that helps!

[Annette Bethke]

Re: servant dress

thank you, that helps very much.