Q: re. women's riding clothes
Posted by Carolyn B on January 26, 1998 at 18:46:50:
In response to Changing clothes, written by P. Bingham on January 26, 1998 at 14:24:38
] There was a different sort of dress for every occasion: riding dress, carriage dress, traveling suit, garden dress, ball gown, walking dress, theater dress, etc
How did riding clothes in this era differ from a regular dress? I know that in the later 1800s (my source says 1870s) a woman might be fitted for a riding habit while sitting in a sidesaddle on a wooden horse at the tailors so the skirts would be draped appropriately (but would look very pouchy when she wasn't sitting on a horse) Would the riding habits have been this specially made in the earlier part of the century?
Is the dress and hat Emma T's Elinor wears in S&S fairly typical of the period?
And were there any circumstances in which a woman could ride astride? I'm wondering about farm women,etc whose family perhaps could not afford the luxury of a separate side saddle.
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