Bodice or Smock?

[Deborah Hyland]

I'm enclosing three period images (2 from an ad for a washing machine and 1 from a patriotic cover) of women wearing similar outfits.

Clearly all three are working, but the images raise a few questions:
--Has anyone seen a photograph of a women wearing such an outfit?
--Are the woman wearing a smock or a bodice? In other words, is this the whole outfit, or does the top part cover a bodice that matches the skirt?

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Bodice or Smock?

Deborah, I'm "reading" them as 50s basque bodices.

[Deborah Hyland]

Re: Bodice or Smock?

The date of the ad is 1862 and the cover is clearly war years if that helps.

[yankeebelle]

Re: Bodice or Smock?

Deb,

Look at the Past Patterns or the Heidi Marsh Sacque and petticoat pattern. I think you will find that is what those are.


Beverly Simpson

[MrsArmstrong]

Re: Bodice or Smock?

Second the sack.
In The Ladies' Book Of Etiquette, Fashion and Manual of Politeness 1860 says
"If a lady's domestic duties require her attention...it is best to dress for callers before breakfast, and wear over this dress a loose sack and skirt of domestic gingham. This while protecting the dress perfectly, can be taken off at a moment's notice..."
In the picture they have belted/cinched the sack. Laundry is done, slip off the sack and she's ready for company :D
Susan Armstrong

[MissMaggie]

Re: Bodice or Smock?

I'd have to agree with Mrs. Clark. I've seen quite a few drawings or plates that show working women in 1850's style clothing. I think there was a discussion back before the crash about how working women's clothing tended to be romanticized in drawings and paintings. Real working women did dress out of style and in some cases well out of style. I've seen images if working women in 1860's England that were wearing dresses of styles of the early 1850's with no really visible attempt made to update the styles.

[MrsArmstrong]

Re: Bodice or Smock?

In the first image they are trying to sell something. As an advertisement you would want people to look their best while doing laundry to "sell the product". Why put someone in out of date clothing of the past when you want to be seen as modern and up to date. It is all about merchandising in this ad.

Susan Armstrong

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Bodice or Smock?

That seems logical to us today, but what I've noticed with "pastoral" and active work ads mid-century doesn't follow it... styles are a bit out of date, and it's pretty common to see 50s styles on "working" advertisements into the mid-60s, just as you keep seeing such styles in "romantic" engravings to accompany stories in magazines and books. We don't know the ad-designer's intent with it, but to me, personally, it says "Look, you can use this great new technology--and isn't it patriotic?--but get the same old-fashioned clean as you have always required, in just minutes."

[Doc Arroyo]

Re: Bodice or Smock?

Why put someone in out of date clothing of the past when you want to be seen as modern and up to date. It is all about merchandising in this ad.

Susan Armstrong

Seems to me that the merchandiser might be trying to talk to the people with money...a little bit older person that might not be all that thrilled with the latest styles. We weren't always a "youth only" society

[amity]

Re: Bodice or Smock?

Kay Gnagey's website used to show an image from (I think) Petersen's depicting a similar work outfit made of "sherherd's check" with detachable sleeves and either a short or long skirt. I think that image was dated 1860?

I think this "basque" is not so much a fashion of 1850s as it is a holdover of the MUCH earlier 18th cent. "short gown" updated to 1850s - 60s silhouette, especially as these seem to be in contrasting fabrics. It is an item one can find spanning many decades... 1830s, 40s, etc., all looking very similar to this. If you are interested I will try to find some of the earlier ones. I have a watercolor from early 1840s Texas of a German woman milking a cow wearing a very similar outfit.

Edit: Kathryn Coombs' article on work dresses from Kay's site still makes mention of the image in shepherd's check, although the image itself seems to be gone. It is actually identified as a "Ladies Working Dress" from Godeys (July 1859).

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Bodice or Smock?

Basque bodices of the 1840s and 1850s and the 1840s "short gown" (evolved from the 1700s styles, but with a radically different cut by that time) are indeed cousins... the more fashionable basques are quite fitted through the waist, with the more casual "working" garments cut in a more sacque-like shape and belted during work.

[VMurphy]

Re: Bodice or Smock?

I'm a bit late on responding, but agree with those that see this as a work sac/smock. Past Patterns patten has a some good documentation on the many uses of this style. And I believe Heidi Marsh has a pattern for a working womans dress...It consists of two separate skirts, a short one over a longer one(longer one to be removed for laundry and other work that would be difficult in long skirts) and button on long sleeves. I've seen this made up and it's a great work impression' somethat that should be seen more often for variety other than a gather waist with apron and slat bonnet !
Regards
Vivian Murphy

[Spinster]

Re: Bodice or Smock?

That Heidi Marsh pattern is a lovely one! After having made it up in cotton, the next one will be linsey-woolsey, and is on the cutting table now.

The button-on sleeves are a wonderful utility item for a work impression--much easier to use than rolling up sleeves. And, the pattern pieces for the sleeves fit together without any fudging at all.

We just won't talk about how deep a box pleat I had to add at the side seams to make the lower half of the sacque fit, now will we?