…and especially England, had brought the artistic, chemical, and manufacturing methods from other places like the West Indies and Africa.   They were trying to grow plants to make special dyes with some success, but historians say their art and science was never quite as good as that in the places …

…nice fabrics from places all over Europe like England, Holland, Portugal, Spain, and France.  These countries had their own unique materials, designs, methods, and dyes such as the making of “plaids” in Scotland that the Colonists bought. (Images:  18th century men’s banyan (left) and Scottish plaid (right))  

…which grew naturally in Eastern Asia, India, and Peru, was transplanted to England & used for the favorite blue/green color of the Colonial Fashion Era.  By the 1860’s it was produced in America for Civil War uniforms. (See section on dyes earlier this year.)  

…cotton by 1820, but in the late 1700’s, while it was being grown on southern plantations, it was still experimental there.  There were few processing plants, so the making the cotton into fabric in the Colonies was costly.  Most 1770’s Colonial homemade clothing was therefore made of wool, flax, or …

… came from India, which was under British rule in the 1770’s,  India had special dye processes for multiple colors printed on one sided cotton.  Reproduction cotton chintz fabrics are available today for interpretive purposes. (Image: Trade with Indian made possible the import of beautiful florals printed on cotton and …

.. or process much cotton until about 1800, people who had money imported silks or cotton from India, carried by English ships. The special worm that spun silk would not grow on North America.  India had that special silk worm in a special area that made them the only source …

… between India and the Colonies, so Colonial women could get lovely fabrics.  Trade with some Asian countries and places like Holland and Spain made other special fabrics, laces, trims, and finished clothing available to those who could afford them.  China and its lovely silk fabrics was not yet open …

…used more simple, natural, and plain fabrics and designs than people on the east coast.  Even with the vast trade systems from around the world, these remote settlers couldn’t get a lot of the heavily ornamented or fancy things from across the ocean into the backwoods.  The simpler clothing which …

Fabrics were becoming cheap and available in Europe with the creation of factories, and these items were quickly shipped to the American Colonies.  The French and the English had led fashion trends for the world for centuries, but in 1775, Colonists started to give ideas to the Europeans.  News of …

…the period covering the Revolutionary War and was known as the “Late Colonial Fashion Period”.  As with fashion today, there was no exact line that was crossed saying when one Era started and another began.  Some women liked to keep their favorite clothing and wore it long after it went …