Calico Dresses and Buffalo Robes: American West Fashions from the 1840s to 1890s (Dressing a Nation: the History of U.S. Fashion)

Calico Dresses and Buffalo Robes: American West Fashions from the 1840s to 1890s (Dressing a Nation: the History of U.S. Fashion)

What would you have worn if you lived in the Old West? It depends on who you were:

* Native Americans made clothing from rabbit fur, deerskins, buffalo hides, and plant fibers. They decorated their clothing with beads, porcupine quills, fringe, and feathers.
* Farm women wore calico dresses, cotton aprons, and wide-brimmed prairie bonnets. Some farm women sheared sheep, spun wool, and sewed clothing for their whole families.
* White fur trappers and frontiersmen often dressed like Native Americans, in deerskins, moccasins, and buffalo robes. They also wore thick woolen shirts and trousers.
* Gold miners needed strong, sturdy clothing, like the tough denim jeans made by Levi Strauss and Company.
* Cowboy gear included leather chaps, boots, and bandanas. Cowboys used their tall, wide-brimmed hats for protection from sun and rain and sometimes to carry water.
* Women of the Southwest put on lacy head coverings called mantillas and wore embroidered mantas, or sh

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