 |
Clothing
: Millinery Shop
: The Millinery Shop
by Edward R. Crews
|
 |
 |
Whitacre has had much to
do with the shop's success and evolution. She began a lifelong love affair with
sewing and Williamsburg as a child. She first worked in Colonial Williamsburg
during 1982 as a summer employee. Today, she is supervisor of the fashion trades,
overseeing the work of six interpreters involved in textile making, wig making
and the millinery shop. During the past 15 years, she has found that clothes
and fashion are popular topics with visitors because they are - for the most
part - easily understood. However, she also finds that 20th Century Americans
are sometimes confused over precisely what a milliner was and what happened
in a millinery shop.
 |
| Tailor James Slate, portayed by Mark Hutter, takes the measure of a customer, interpreter James
Loba, in the market for a vest or perhaps a waistcoat. |
"Part of the trouble is
that no exact parameters exist for this business," Whitacre said. "It could
range widely. A main function of a millinery shop was to make and sell fashionable
accessories for men and women. That meant that a store's product line could
range from clothes to wares, like watches, clocks and table service."
In the 1500s and 1600s,
the millinery business involved shopkeepers who dealt in milanese (as in Milan,
Italy) ware, like silks, ribbons, armor, swords and other Italian goods. Millinery,
however, began to change its meaning as swords and armor fell out of fashion.
The word also took on a new life as English retailing underwent a big shift
in the mid-1600s.
The Great Fire of London
in 1655 had a lot to do with this change. Prior to the fire, trades were concentrated
along certain streets. After the fire, trades intermingled in new shopping districts.
Shopkeepers also began selling many goods and services in their stores, offering
customers greater convenience and expanded choices. A milliner could carry possibly
a thousand different goods, becoming the forerunner of the modern department
store. At this point, the term "milliner" was tied to the Latin word "mille,"
meaning thousand.
The 18th Century milliner
might have offered a thousand goods but all shared the quality of being fashionable
accessories. Wares could include shoes, jewelry, table service, clocks, hosiery,
fabrics, shirts, aprons, cloaks, caps, hats, muffs and mitts.
"The goods from the world
were in this shop," Whitacre said. And, from the shop they found a place in
the lives of Virginians from every class. A planter's daughter might own a gown
of Chinese silk, underclothing made of Dutch linen and shoes from England. A
slave might wear a shirt of linen made in Northern Europe, wool hose from Scotland
and a knitted cap from England.
| |
Historic Triangle