Bedgown

A bedgown (sometimes bedjacket or shortgown) is an article of women's clothing for the upper body, usually thigh-length and wrapping or tying in front. Bedgowns of lightweight printed cotton fabric were fashionable at-home morning wear in the 18th century. Over time, bedgowns (also called in this context shortgowns) became the staple upper garment of British and American female working-class street wear from the 18th to early 19th centuries, worn over petticoats and often topped with an apron. Made of sturdy cotton, linen, wool or linsey-woolsey, these bedgowns were simply cut to a T-shaped pattern, and were worn overlapped in front or with the front skirts cutaway. [Baumgarten, "What Clothes Reveal", p. 166-119]

In the Welsh spelling "betgwn", the bedgown is part of Welsh national dress.----Bedgowns lingered as fashion garments into the mid-20th century, usually under the newer name "bedjackets", in the form of short robes or wrappers worn over a nightgown or negligee for warmth and modesty while sitting up in bed for breakfast, reading, or similar pursuits They had mostly fallen out of fashion by the 1960s.

ee also

* 1750-1795 in fashion

References

* Ashelford, Jane: "The Art of Dress: Clothes and Society 1500-1914", Abrams, 1996. (ISBN 0-8109-6317-5)

*Baumgarten, Linda: "What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America", Yale University Press,2002. ISBN 0-300-09580-5

External links

* [http://www.marquise.de/en/1700/howto/frauen/18mdelit.shtml Making an 18th century bedgown]
* [http://www.manchestergalleries.org/costume/narrative.php?irn=55&themeback=1&CostumeTheme=Clothes%20for%20Work Clothes for Work at the Manchester Galleries]