Period Outfit

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Wearing a Civil War-era dress she made herself, Avery Huffman of Bainbridge addresses a Heritage Preservation Society audience at the Putnam County Museum Thursday night to help kick off a Civil War-related exhibit at the museum. Huffman spoke about Civil War fashion and etiquette, noting that women of the period always wore gloves when going out and had to have their hair covered in public. Women also had to have an escort when they went out, she said. "You couldn't go out in public by yourself. You'd be accompanied by your mother or a widow woman or maybe a gentleman if you were going to a concert." She noted that if a Civil War-era woman needed to raise her dress to step over something, it was with a slight tug of the right hand. "Never both hands," Huffman said, "that's considered vulgar." She concluded with a rhyming piece of advice often given the young women of the era: "Never stare, never giggle, never walk with a wiggle."

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