AboutKaye McAlpine Expertise Lifecycle (birth, marriage, death) customs in Scotland, Early Modern Scottish social
customs, modern Scottish social customs, Border March laws and procedures, criminal
processes and judicial execution practices, social history in Early Modern Scotland,
ephemera printing in Scotland. While I have knowledge of the clan system and function of
the clan society (Highland and Lowland), I am not a an expert in clan genealogy.
Experience Freelance tutor in outreach courses from Edinburgh University on Scottish Culture and Tradition, including lifecycle customs, broadsheet ballads in Scotland, the traditional ballad and history. Freelance writer, guest presenter on Ch4 History Hunters programme, contributor to BBC Radio Scotland's 'Songlines' series on 'The Dowie Dens of Yarrow'. Currently co-director of amedia production company
Publications Books: Forthcoming - Compendium of Scottish Ethnology, chapter on The Traditional and the Border Ballad; The Harris Repertoire (2000, Scottish Text Society, co-editor), The Ballad in History (chapter on Border ballads). Journals include Folklore, The Review of Scottish Culture,Sottish Studies, and The Scottish Literary Journal
Question QUESTION: I am writing a story about traveling through time, and I want to make sure I have accurate details. What would two servants and a lady wear during the day? I've gone to appins.org, but all they give is sewing details.
ANSWER: Dear Allison
I'm sorry if this sounds terse, but part of the creative process is doing appropriate research, if you want to present work which feels authentic - and that really means doing your own research.
There are dozens of books - and countless websites - about clothing and dress through the centuries. I know that there are 19th century pages, as I've been through them myself when looking for information about 18th century dress.
Another reason that I can't answer this properly is that this is far too vague a timescale - what ladies and servants were wearing in the early part of that century - spencer jackets for ladies were still in vogue for example and that fashion began in the late 1700s - is nothing like late Victorian fashion. And are those servants men or women, above stairs or below stairs, estate or house servants?
May I suggest that you decide just when in the 19th century your characters are 'dropping in' to, and where. What a lady - and indeed her servants would be wearing - varies with location too. Some cities are hubs - and the farther out from the hub, the more 'out of date' the fashion may become.
As I understand it, the Appin.org site is for re-enactment for the '45 rising. It's entirely out of your timescale. Try to steer away from historical re-enactment sites. They can be very focussed on one particular aspect - and maybe look for UK / Scottish sites. After all, it's best to go as directly to the source as possible. and don't trust Wikipedia: remember, you or I could go on to a page and state that all brown dogs are deaf (a blatent piece of misinformation) and people could read and believe it. Go somewhere like www.fashion-era.com, but don't stay on just one site, move around and get some feeling for the period you decide on. It's not just about fashion - how people talk is important, as is what they eat, what they talk about, what they know about, and how they talk to one another.
If it was in your timescale, get your hands on 'Great Grandmother's Clothes: women's fashions in the 1880s by Naomi E. A. Tarrant, or get googling. There are, as I said, oads of fashion-related sites, but you have to know what era you're looking at. So maybe do some more planning for your story. and remember, subtle references to clothing, objects etc is all that is needed. I remember reading a book by, I think, Sharon Penman once, and a page was basically a walkthrough of armour a character was putting on - what is was called and where it went - and, boy, that was boring. Little - but accurate - is much more effective that too much information - or worse, concentrating on the wrong item for the wrong period.
Happy researching
Kaye
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thanks for the help, Kaye. I guess I was a little too vague in my question, though. I live in America, and have no way of getting to Scotland so soon to go to the national museum of costume.
I'm actually looking for something in the Victorian era. I guess the servants are house servants. One is a servant man; the other is a servant woman. I know they're going to be in a mansion in America in that time.
Is there other sites I can go to?
Answer Hello again Allison
Once again, you need to hone your dates - think about decades rather than a 'catch-all' - early Victorian is very different from late Victorian - what class are you thinking about - this is especially relevant to the servants, and what exactly are you thinking about - a parlour maid wore things very different from a kitchen maid etc., the footman's livery is different from the under footman and the butler's and so on.
If I were you I'd sit down with a tea/ coffee / beverage of your choice, google something like '19th century fashion' and take notes - site information, some book titles that you might get in libraries etc. That way you can discover all sorts of fascinating little bits of trivia which really add to the feel of a piece. for example, I stumbled over this - https://historicnewengland.org/resources/articles/pdf97.pdf - when looking for information about clothing.
It isn't entirely relevant to what I was looking for - although I do have some characters who have been living in Virginia - but these are the type of gems that are out there, and also give the type of information about the minutiae of life - talking about sealing wax or pins or whatever is as important for setting the era as what your characters are wearing - and it would set those characters who 'belong' in the era apart from those who are travelling through.
