Textiles Tuesday

Share this article with...

Mourning costume provides the most visual symbol of mourning appearance and is crucial to the representations and evolution of mourning customs and fashion. For the purpose of this website, mourning fashion and costume will be covered from 1600 onwards, as this area alone is vast enough.

Needless to say, mourning fashion is inherent in human culture, dating to the prehistoric, clothing to commemorate a death reflects upon the person and the culture in which they live.

For modern times, mourning fashion permeated throughout society as affluence and convention would allow. The sheer cost of maintaining acceptable mourning dress was incredibly difficult for families and throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the higher echelons of society frowned upon lesser classes imitating higher society. During these centuries, mourning dressed moved to the lesser aristocracy and middle classes, which would eventually change by the 19th century.

Over the next series of Tuesdays, we’ll be looking at the evolution of mourning textiles and costume over the period of the 17th century to the 19th century. Tune in for some fun!

Textiles Series

Textiles: 17th Century, Part 1

Textiles: 17th Century, Part 2

Textiles: 18th Century, Part 1

Textiles: 18th Century, Part 2

Textiles: 19th Century, Part 1

Textiles: 19th Century, Part 2

Share this article with...