Clothing for Northeast Kansas Women in the 1870s.

Abstract

Women in 1870s Kansas lived in a time and land long regarded as wild and isolated. It is usually concluded, therefore, that Kansas lagged behind the rest of the nation, particularly in clothing fashions. It is generalized that women did not wear fancy clothes. Instead, women were said to have worn calico or gingham dresses, sunbonnets, and aprons and to have gone barefoot due to the amount of work and lack of money. By the 1870s, though, Kansas boasted enough towns to provide the necessary items to make or even buy clothing. Women also had access to current fashion trends through newspapers, catalogs, and magazines . As fashions changed during the decade, Kansas women had the ability to follow along. Living in the west had some impact on women's clothing but not to the extreme extent that is commonly thought.