Frontier Fashion Changes

Frontier Women were not complainers - they had a job to do and did it.  Some of the problems were common to all women who went west.

Clothing changes:  After beginning the journey west in a traveling dress with clean collar and cuffs, women must have realized how they eventually looked in ragged sunbonnets, tattered skirts worn off to rags at the ankles, faces sunburned when milky white skin was considered fashionable.  Tans were a sign of hard labor, as were rough and weathered hands that most women found themselves with.

Eventually abandoning their tattered dresses, they began wearing a style they would have refused to wear back home - bloomer costumes.  Bloomer costumes were short skirts and Pantaletts - something that was a radical departure from anything woman wore back home.  It was thought of as ridiculous, not to mention indecent as a style of clothing.  Men were prone to gossip about such attire which only made for another social change in a frontier woman's life.

It was common to read entries like the following from a 29 year old woman on the frontier: "My face is thin, sunken and wrinkled.  My hands are bony, withered and hard. I am a very old woman."

Yes the frontier was hard and it took it toll on the ladies that made it their home...

Next time...adjustments must be made

A Cell Phone is a statement of today's fashion! Don't be "unfashionable" - get your new phone at Chamberlain Communications!