Fashion & Family History: Interpreting how your ancestors dressed

From the opening paragraphs onwards, Jayne Shrimpton’s lifetime of experience, researching the fashion and photography of past times, and her passion for the subject, glows off the page as she explains the garments our ancestors chose to wear over a one hundred and fifty year sweep of history – 1800 to 1950. Taking us from the emerging society of the Industrial Revolution, up until new dawn of fashion just after the Second World War, Jayne explains the seismic changes that occured in our ancestors’ lives – politically, at home and very much in the workplace, and the impact of these aspects upon our ancestors’ dress. As Jayne explains, while ‘“fashion” might seem a frivolous subject, yet studying dress is relevant to family history in many ways’. For instance, she outlines: the important symbolic function of dress for individual and community rituals, and the vast role that the textile and clothing production industries used to play in the British economy – employing so many of our ancestors. With a substantial introductory chronological chapter to provide the reader with a useful hanger on which to peg further knowledge (clothing-related pun intended), Jayne then uses the subsequent chapters to deal with themes such as: work wear, town and country; occupational uniforms; dressing up and special occasions; and sportswear. The closing chapters cover making and buying the materials for clothing, and clothing industry work. As many of our personal memories will bear out, the purchasing of the majority of our clothing, ready made, is a relatively new development (who cannot remember hand-sewn and knitted garments by industrious and doting relations). Similarly, many of us will have ancestors employed in some of the many roles of the textile trade. So these final chapters complete the story, helping us to consider the many and varied ways in which fashion has impacted our ancestors’ lives. Beautifully and extensively illustrated, the pictures (both photographs and period drawings) are all firmly dated, helping the reader to build a visual image library in their mind’s eye. • Published by Pen & Sword in paperback, RRP £14.99) www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 9781526760265 HT