Working Class Clothing
Working-class people in 18th century England and the United States often wore the same garments as fashionable people—shirts, waistcoats, coats and breeches for men, and shifts, petticoats, and dresses or jackets for women—but they owned fewer clothes and what they did own was made of cheaper and sturdier fabrics. Working class men also wore short jackets, and some (especially sailors) wore trousers rather than breeches. Smock-frocks were a regional style for men, especially shepherds. Country women wore short hooded cloaks, most often red. Both sexes wore handkerchiefs or neckerchiefs.
Men's felt hats were worn with the brims flat rather than cocked or turned up. Men and women wore shoes with shoe buckles (when they could afford them). Men who worked with horses wore boots.
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England, 1750s
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England, c. 1764
- Portraits of William Hogarth's servants, 1750s
- Working-class woman wears a short dress or bedgown, a patched and mended petticoat, and neckerchief, c. 1764.
Read more about this topic: 1750–1775 In Fashion
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