Costumes 1 - Smocks and Frocks

Monday 4th February 2013 at the Museum Resource & Learning Centre, Friars Street, Hereford.

We looked at the work of Mary Bufton and the life of the sempstresses of that era (she was active in Hereford in 1830s/40s). Our two objects borrowed from the collection were a sample man's smock and Mary's wedding dress. We found these very inspiring and among other things, we wrote SMOCK acrostics, anecdotes and memories of smocks or shirts and our own versions of modern wedding vows.

It is unusual to see a working class wedding dress as poorer women tended to wear them out - wedding dress to day dress to cut-offs for new clothes until the fabric was completely used up.  This blue cotton dress survives because Mary was fairly well-to-do and could evidently afford to keep her wedding dress.  It's good to remember this when one thinks of the terrible lives lived by many women employed in the clothing trade. 

The poet Thomas Hood famously wrote a lugubrious ballad called "The Song of the Shirt" which had a huge influence in its day.  A short sample will suffice:

The poem was published anonymously in the Christmas edition of Punch in 1843 and quickly became a phenomenon.

With fingers weary and worn,

With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread –
Stitch! Stitch! Stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch
She sang ‘The Song of the Shirt!’

To cheer us up we then read a parody of this poem attributed to Walt Whitman and published a year later.  He called it (inevitably) "The Tale of a Shirt". 

It begins:

A love-ly maid named Sally Stitch
   I once did sure-ly know,
Who made things for the tailor men
   And made them "very low."

And ends:

Had that sweet girl worked less, and not
   Got into such a pucker:
She might have lived this day, instead
   Of being a gone sucker.

Weddings past and present were discussed - Mary's blue patterned cotton dress seems unlike the modern traditional white dress - invariably plain fabric - and that may have something to to do with Wilkie Collins' "Woman in White" that started such a craze for white dresses. 

The Guardian website has a wonderful collection of modern wedding poems chosen by Carol Ann Duffy. Visit -  http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/23/wedding-carol-ann-duffy-poetry

Here are samples of two of them:  

Alan Jenkins
The Sailor's Vow

The life I spent so lavishly
Before we met
Seems one long night, in memory,
Of sea-fever and sea-fret –

Which led me here, to you, to this:
Our haven below decks.
You anchor me, I you, with a kiss 
(Though the coast is strewn with wrecks).

 

Ian Duhig
Bridled Vows

I will be faithful to you, I do vow 
but not until the seas have all run dry 
etcetera: although I mean it now, 
I'm not a prophet and I will not lie.

To be your perfect wife, I could not swear;
I'll love, yes; honour (maybe); won't obey,
but will co-operate if you will care
as much as you are seeming to today.

I'll do my best to be your better half,
but I don't have the patience of a saint;
not with you, at you I may sometimes laugh,
and snap too, though I'll try to learn restraint.

We might work out: no blame if we do not.
With all my heart, I think it's worth a shot.

Apparently it was common practice for Herefordian men to wear a smock when they got married and the tradition continued until fairly recently. Hard to imagine but then the tradition of kilt wearing on formal occasions is still a strong one in Scotland.

This is my last post for this series but I have handed the baton to the splendid Sara-Jane Arbury who is continuing to rifle the costume collection with the help of Althea Mackenzie.  I would like to thank Althea for her expert help and great enthusiasm for the project. 

I'd also like to thank once again Catherine Willson, Sam Craig, Siriol Collins and Jacki Addis whose help and support have been invaluable.

Segments is sponsored by Ledbury Poetry Festival.  http://www.poetry-festival.co.uk/