1860's underpinnings were white so they could be boiled in the laundry. At the time they were not able to produce a black dye that was colorfast in cotton. So underpinnings under mourning clothing would have been white.
Maggie H ------Original Message------ From: Carmen Beaudry Sender: h-costume-boun...@indra.com To: h-costume@mail.indra.com ReplyTo: Historical Costume Subject: Re: [h-cost] 1860s Mourning and Underpinnings Sent: Jan 18, 2012 6:02 PM The only black Victorian underwear I've seen, besides corsets, was made of silk, and judging by the trimming, certainly wasn't for mourning. Melusine From: "penn...@costumegallery.com" <penn...@costumegallery.com> If a woman is in mourning during the 1860s, were her underpinnings black? Penny Ladnier, _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry® _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
