Késsinnimek - Roots - RacinesWHEN FASHION WAS MORE THAN A PASSING FANCY
by Louise Dubrule
by Louise Dubrule
Please click on each graphic for an enlarged view
Mama was somewhat of a packrat. Luckily for us, she
saved many things that give us a glimpse of what life
was like many decades ago. Among those items is a
little red packet of tintypes, some dating back to the
1860s. Long-gone family members, as well as some
folks that are totally unknown to me, are frozen in
time, presenting a record of what people were wearing.
Mama used to say that getting one’s picture made was
considered ‘the’ thing to do when the country people
came to town on a rare occasion. If nothing else, it
proved that you had been somewhere besides the back
pasture. Two of the surviving tintypes are of groups
of young men in town on a holiday.
I’m tempted to
believe that these were lumberjacks who had spent the
winter months in the deep woods and now they had their
full pay to spend on something special.
Since my maternal grandfather, Eugene Levesque,
undertook contracts to cut wood for the Price Brothers
of England, perhaps they were part of his crew.
(Fig. 1) There is another group of five, too dim to scan, and
this in this one, the men are dressed in their working
clothes, so perhaps they hadn’t had a chance to
change. Their trousers have the look of Melton wool,
the better to keep them warm in the deep freeze of
northern Quebec. My maternal great-grandfather was a
fuller by trade in the Jonquiere area, and it was he
who processed the home-loomed wool to tighten the
weave. (Think of a U. S. Navy pea coat.) When Mama
accompanied her parents to the lumber camps, her
mother did the washing for the lumbering gang, and it
strains the imagination to think of her trying to wash
those heavy woolen pants. Surely they didn’t get
washed every week?
(Fig. 2) Here is the tintype of grandfather Eugene
Levesque, (far right) taken before the turn of the
century, along with his brother Andre (far left) and
business partner Harvey (center). Grandfather is the
only one with a proper cravat and a watch chain
showing against his vest front. The other two have
four-button jackets, and it is the top button which is
fastened, just below the top shirt button, and the
jackets button from right to left as women’s clothes
do today. To my eye, it appears that these jackets
were cut from shirt patterns, for they have that shape
and fit.
(Fig. 5) (Fig. 7) (Fig. 8) 
This group of nine looks freshly shaved and
barbered, and two or three sport neat moustaches.
Easily visible are long underwear shirts (were they
red or gray?) under collarless shirts open at the
neck.
Their ordinary trousers are held up by wide
suspenders or ‘braces’ and there are two men with
vests and three with shapeless jackets, obviously
homemade. Boots that show are heavy and suitable for
hard work. These were working men dressed for a
social outing.
(Fig. 3) Apparently, jackets with that fit and habit of closure
were common enough. My paternal
grandmother’s brother, Napoleon Jolicoeur, is
outfitted this way, and he was from the Beauce area of
Quebec. There is a young unknown couple posed in the
Edwardian manner with the man sitting, and his bride
standing by his side; his jacket is of the same style.
Grandfather Victor Philippon buttoned only
the top button of his jacket too, and it fastened
right to left like the others, but his jacket has a
shawl collar instead of a shirt collar. (Fig. 4)
On the other hand, proper tailor-made clothes appeared
to button from left to right. Lending credence to
this notion, there is a photo of Napoleon’s brother,
Theophile, in a knee-length over- coat with what seems
to be a velvet collar.
This elegant garment
is highlighted by a Cossack-type fur hat. What that
must have cost! His companion is equally well
dressed, though he wears a hat with a shallow, flat
crown. Both display dress gloves.
Elzear Philippon,
brother to Victor, is resplendent in a
similar outfit: well-tailored great-coat reaching
almost to his ankles, watch chain prominent across his
middle, and the ends of his neck cloth or scarf tucked
neatly under his shirt collar. He’s pictured standing
casually near a small table, feet crossed easily. He
could have been a contemporary of John Wilkes Booth
judging by grooming and dress.(Fig. 6)
The most touching among the tintypes are those of
total innocents. One shows two young men, probably
farm boys under the age of 15. Their
background in the studio is a fence, and they stand
side by side in their homemade splendor. The jackets
are buttoned left to right, but they have the
shapeless fit of shirts. The youngster on the left
has sleeves that show too much of his growing arms,
and he doesn’t appear to have a shirt under his
jacket.
The tintypes tell us that women’s fashions were not
very comfortable. Grandmother Delina, posed
as a young widow, is tightly laced in a dress that was
really a skirt and matching bodice. Her hair is
pulled back as befits a matron, though she was quite
young. In other pictures, the young brides with
their husbands wear floor-skimming skirts. One young
woman is wearing a dress that looks more like a suit,
for the bodice (jacket) falls to the knee. Mama’s
favorite aunt Marie Louise (far right in Fig. 9) was a
Rubenesque woman, well endowed of face and body, but
style dictated that she be tightly corseted in the
middle to create an hourglass appearance. Did she
dress that way every day, even at home, I wonder?
Incidentally, the little girl in front is Mama at age
two and a half, and the photo shows her family at the
time.
(Fig. 9)
I think of the women who endured whalebone and multiple petticoats that were made of flannel in the winter. I imagine the mothers who attempted to dress the men of the family to the best of their ability. Did they have the convenience and luxury of a sewing machine, or did they make these garments by hand by flickering lamplight after their long days of ordinary chores?
What a wealth of choices we have today. Fashion magazines arrive in the mail every other day, and the stores carry the latest styles. Our closets bulge with outdated things that will probably come back in fashion if we hang onto them long enough. Mama used to say that when she was young she had three dresses: one on her back, one in the wash, and one in reserve for ‘best.’ That was before being ‘in style’ was important to the average person. We may well be remembered for changing our clothes as often as we change our minds, and for having an abundance of everything.
Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines
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Created 1 Feb 2003