Frequently, the first reaction to the news that Plimoth Plantation is making a 17^th century embroidered jacket is “Hmmm. Bit fancy for the colonies, isn’t it?”

It’s absolutely true. It is extremely unlikely that anyone in Plymouth Colony, either a resident or visitor, ever wore a jacket of the sort we’re making. These jackets were a fashionable style for the wives and daughters of the wealthiest merchants and the gentry, the class of people above the one to which most of the Plymouth colonists belonged.

So why do it? Well, the jacket is intended for Plimoth Plantation’s upcoming exhibit (not till the summer of 2008, though, we need time to accomplish this project!) on the history of personal adornment. We want to explore the way two peoples – the Native Wampanoag and the English colonists – viewed and judged each other’s appearance through their own cultural lens; to investigate the assumptions each made about the other based on their own society’s ideas of what a proper man and woman looked like. We want to use the experience of the past to lead those who visit the exhibit to examine their own assumptions about proper appearance, and to consider the misunderstandings, past and present, that occur when people pre-judge each other. Pretty ambitious, we realize. (The exhibit team has an impressive track record with ambitious projects, though, if I do say so. Plimoth Plantation’s current exhibit tells the 400+ year history of Thanksgiving through the perspectives of the Native Wampanoag and the English/American cultures in about 5000 square feet. You can still see this one, but it has to come down before adornment can go up, so you want to come see it soon.)

The centerpiece of the adornment exhibit will be two garments – The Jacket and a Native Wampanoag turkey feather mantle. I’ve mentioned before that the feather mantle was settled on as the Native centerpiece for several weeks before we decided to make an embroidered jacket to keep it company. Choosing the English item was difficult.

We didn’t want an item of everyday clothing, the sort of work clothes the colonists likely wore most of the time. Nor did we even want an example of the working class’s ‘Sunday best.’ We wanted an iconic garment, something that summed up the aesthetic of early 17^th century English society, which captured the extravagant opulence that was the hallmark of dress at this period.

We also wanted something we could accomplish. We didn’t want to have to make compromises right from the get-go because historic materials were unobtainable, for instance, and substitutes are prohibitively expensive. We also didn’t want something that would require years of intensive research before a recreation could be attempted; or an item of which no example survives for study.

We wanted something that would speak to a modern audience, that would be attractive to look at, that could partner the feather mantle. Once it was suggested, an embroidered jacket was the obvious winner; it was almost a “why didn’t we think of this before?” moment. And the overwhelming and positive response has only confirmed that it was the right choice.

Tags: , Plymouth Colony

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 17th, 2007 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Historical Background. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.