How to Dress Your Child, 1890

H. O'Neill & Co., Fall and Winter 1890-1

"Besides one nicer suit of dress, white English nainsook and flannel skirts, it is well to have four day dresses of French nainsook; six slips of cambric, dimity or checked nainsook that answer for night-gowns, as well as the first day dresses; four cashmere shirts, four flannel bands, three barrow coats or pinning blankets, four dozen napkins, three flannel skirts, three cambric skirts, two wrappers, one flannel shawl, two crocheted sacques, four pairs of socks, a bath blanket, six bibs and a well-furnished basket…. 

Pure white is used for all babies – blue for girls and pink for boys, when a color is wished." 

The Ladies' Home Journal

Timeless fashion rules: blue is for girls, pink is for boys, and cashmere is for everyone.

How to Dress, 1530

Well turned out, you say?
Francis I of France,  c. 1520-5

"Naturally good or bad taste does exist. Things which are useless to the function of an article of dress, for example, are in bad taste... It was once held to be somewhat effeminate not to wear a belt, but nowadays nobody is faulted for this, because with the invention of underwear, shirts, and hose, the private parts are concealed even if the tunic fly open... Slashed garments are for fools; embroidered and multicoloured ones for idiots and apes... If your parents have given you clothing of a superior elegance, do not swivel about to admire yourself or leap for joy and preen yourself in front of other people, for the former behaviour is for apes, the latter for peacocks. Let others admire while you yourself appear unaware that you are well turned out." 

Desiderius Erasmus, De civilitate morum puerilium

Outfit check: your garments are a sexy monochrome, and you're wearing your best hose in case of tunic malfunction. You're looking fine and you know it. But please stop jumping for joy.

How to Wear Gentlemanly Underwear, 1891

"White or Pink?"
Gentlemen, 1896

"Underclothing. This consists of shirt, drawers, and half-hose. The material may be flannel, balbriggan, or silk. White is the proper color, because it is pure and clean. Such colors as pink, or blue, or black may be worn. Have the drawers fit tight, or the trousers will set ill... Underclothing should be changed at least twice a day. Silk is worn always with evening dress."  

Mortimer Delano de Lannoy, Simplex Munditiis. Gentlemen (1891)

You can tell a gentleman by his evening drawers. They are silk. They are tight. They may be pink. And they are extremely fresh.

How to Wear Platform Shoes, 1600

Vecellio, Habiti antichi e moderni (1598)

"Now in order to walk nicely, and to wear chopines properly on one's feet, so that they do not twist or go awry (for if one is ignorant of how to wear them, one may splinter them, or fall frequently, as has been and still is observed at parties and in church), it is better for [the lady] to raise the toe of the foot she moves first when she takes a step, for by raising it thus, she straightens the knee of that foot, and this extension keeps her body attractive and erect, besides which her chopine will not fall off that foot. Also by thus raising it she avoids sliding it along [the ground], nor does she make any unpleasant noise. Then she should put it down, and repeat the same thing with the other foot (which follows)... By walking this way, therefore, even if the lady's chopines are more than a handbreadth-and-a-half high, she will seem to be on chopines only three fingerbreadths high, and will be able to dance flourishes and galliard variations at a ball, as I have just shown the world this day." 

Fabritio Caroso, Nobilità di dame (1600)

Have you ever fallen on your face at a party in your six-inch platforms? Awkward! And it's even worse when it happens in church. Just practice this technique and you'll be strutting like a Venetian courtesan in no time.

How to Look Good on a Budget, c. 1280

Cantigas de Santa Maria

"Your clothing should be pleasing and fine, cut to your figure. If you have no expensive cloth to make clothing, then have it cut nicely from something less than the best, so that it looks good and you appear well dressed. If you lack good clothing, you should accept this: but let your shoes and footwear, belt, purse, and knife be the finest you can have... Be very careful not to wear unkempt clothing, for anything torn is lovelier by far: one appears ill-bred when wearing unkempt clothes, but torn ones simply cannot be helped. It never takes great skill to make something lovely look nice, but one who knows how to wear well what is not lovely appears pleasing and courtly."

Amanieu de Sescás, Enssenhamen de l'escudier (Instruction for a Squire), c. 1280

Stretch your fashion budget in a "distressed" tunic! The courtly look is all in the accessories.

How to Wear a Waistcoat, 1860

"What a handsome waistcoat you have on!"
Gazette of Fashion, 1872

"Dear Past, How should a man wear a waistcoat?" 

"A gentleman should always be so well dressed that his dress shall never be observed at all. Does this sound like an enigma? It is not meant for one. It only implies that perfect simplicity is perfect elegance, and that the true test of taste in the toilette of a gentleman is its entire harmony, unobtrusiveness and becomingness. If any friend should say to you, 'What a handsome waistcoat you have on!' you may depend that a less handsome waistcoat would be in better taste."

Mixing in Society (1860)

This is a good method for taste-testing your toilette. And also for ridiculing the garish waistcoats of your acquaintances.

How to Adorn Yourself, 1899

But what's below the furbelow?

"Dear Past, Should I adorn myself with furbelows?  How much is too much? Sincerely, Plainly in the Present"

"Friends, never follow the far-fetched, fleeting, fantastic freaks; the frivolous, farcical follies of Fashion... fancying you are fascinating, when you really are frumps, funny fools at finest functions, for all your furbelows and Frenchified fixings." 

Kate Sanborn, "Fashion, and How Far to Follow It" (1899)

Furbelows are like alliteration: best when used sparingly.