Catalog

Fabric was the #1 import to the colonies in the 1700's. In the early part of the century your station in life could pretty well be determined by your clothing--rich or poor. But then the middle class emerged, the trades people and merchants, and the wealthy had difficulty keeping ahead in fine clothing and fripperies. Silks, satins and cottons (printed or plain), fine woolens and linens, fabrics from England, Holland, Germany, India and China flooded the ports of the New World and our American ancestors gloried in the richness. Stories are told of the lowly cow-herd at Jamestown who on Sundays appeared in "freshe flaming silke" and of Samuel Adams of Boston, who feared the spread of affordable, fashionable consumer goods would erode the foundation of civil society and erase every distinction between the poor and the rich. Indeed, it was declared people dressed "altogether unsuitable to their poverty." So when deciding on what to wear your choices are not totally limited to dull and drab even though the station you portray may be of the lowlier sort--you may still have a special outfit for special occasions.

These lines by Rachel H. Kemper in her book Costume says it all quite well-- at least for the 18th and 19th centuries: "The seduction principle has always figured prominently in women's fashions. Throughout the greater part of Western History it has been women's role, indeed almost her only option, to seduce men into marriage. Women's only stock in trade was what was bluntly known as her "Commodity". When the merchandise went on the market it was only common sense to dress it up as attractively as possible. Seduction in dress was greatly helped by the invention of modesty. By concealing the greater part of the body they arouse curiosity to know what's actually under all that yardage. Over a period of relatively few years in almost any given century since the 14th, emphasis will shift from the hips to the belly to the bust and back again. Apparently men get bored with the same scenery and need the constant refreshment of new landscape. Traditionally women have dressed for seduction and men have dressed for status."

For over four centuries Europe's nobility looked forward to Paris' yearly presentation of wooden fully dressed fashion dolls--some of these dolls being life sized. They set the current style in hair, dress and accessories for the aristocracy and the rich. The fashion dolls were passed from the French Court to the English Queen and then to the leading fashion centers of the globe for copying. As early as 1733 these dolls arrived in America for the fashion conscious of the larger cities such as Boston and New York. Late in the 1700's England took the forefront of fashion, partially aided by the innovation of the paper doll. The paper doll, with her numerous changes of costume and coiffure were cheaper to transport and certainly cheaper to manufacture. They helped to bring and promote "fashion" to the masses. These paper dolls were printed by the thousands. The figures and their numerous changes of clothing--down to underwear and corsets came in nice paper envelopes. The whole set selling for just pennies. Very soon hundreds of different dolls were made available, their appeal further enhanced in the 1770's by the sudden availability of fashion magazines and colored fashion plates. The dolls themselves evolved into toys--becoming the perennial "paper dolls" all little girls have enjoyed.

So we present The Turkey Roosts' apparel modeled by our paper doll

MARIE CHERI.