Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I got to thinking about someting. I have been reading somethings and I got to thinking. It was a warm (some say hot) day that day. I was just wondering why Andrew was wearing a heavy morning coat if it was a warm day?

Probably because daily dress during the Victorian era was a lot more formal than now, regardless of the season. Andrew had been out conducting business and had to wear the proper attire.

Even ladies wore high necked, long sleeved dresses in the hottest days of summer...anything low cut and short sleeved would have been for formal evening wear.

In the hot days of summer when I am wearing shorts and a short sleeved or sleeveless top, I can only wonder how women endured those dresses and undergarments in the heat.....without even fans or AC!!!

Tell me about it! I volunteer for a circa 1860's site and we do outdoor reenactments in the summer that involve cooking over an open fire. In that high necked dress with hoop skirt, I have sometimes felt like passing out from the heat.

SallyG @ Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:16 am wrote:Even ladies wore high necked, long sleeved dresses in the hottest days of summer...anything low cut and short sleeved would have been for formal evening wear.

In the hot days of summer when I am wearing shorts and a short sleeved or sleeveless top, I can only wonder how women endured those dresses and undergarments in the heat.....with
out even fans or AC!!!

I was taking this as it was an outdoor coat. Why wear such a heay outdoor coat?

I believe a morning coat in that was era is what we'd now call a suit jacket. It wasn't considered outerwear.

If it was a Prince Albert, that would have been comparable to a man's suit coat or sport jacket...I would imagine it was a lightweight sort of coat.

Andrew's Prince Albert was a tad old-fashioned, but for an elderly man set in his fashion ways- it was probably typical. I doubt Andrew followed fashion much. Gentlemen, even in summer did not appear on the street in their "shirt sleeves" even in summer-nor would then appear at their dinner table or answer their door in such an informal attire. Andrew changed his frock coat (which I understand was his one and only business coat, and is probably most likely the one in which he was buried after being cleaned) and put on his wooly reefer cardigan when he came home just before his murder. Nowadays I guess the man of the house would have on a "tee" and a pair of bermuda shorts in August to be murdered in! This site has a nice description and some good photos of the frock coat and what it was made of. http://www.lahacal.org/gentleman/frock.html

The Prince Albert seemed to be a sign of social standing. One of the jurors at the trial, Finn of Taunton, switched from an ordinary jacket to a Prince Albert.

There was also a heat wave during the trial drawing a lot of comments from the press. It didn't stop Dr. Bowen from wearing his Prince Albert. This from the Evening Standard of June 8th, 1893:

"... When "court" was called Dr. Bowen was called. He looks more like a clergyman than a physician, with his clear-cut face, short side-whiskers and Prince Albert frock buttoned closely in front. He stood easily with one hand resting on the rail of the witness stand, and answered questions clearly and readily. ..."

The Standard also commented on Boston Globe reporter Joe Howard's attire:

"...His individuality cropped out in spite of himself, and he was especially noticeable as being the only man in the court room who has utterly disregarded conventionality and appeared in genuine summer apparel. ..."

To most comfort was definitely secondary to appearance.

I have to agree with you on that one. It was a social standard with Andrew. There were other coats he could have worn that day that wouldn't have been that hot.

Drawings of the Borden trial draw our attention to the fact that the accepted attire for males in a formal setting was a shirt, tie, vest and jacket - for spectators as well as trial participants.

Today even presidential aspirants appear in photographs and on TV wearing open necked shirts with rolled-up sleeves.

How different from our past when dignified men were the quintessence of sartorial excellence!

Respectability was all important to people in those days. They would rather die from heat stroke than get caught out without being "dressed properly."

I wonder what the public's reaction would have been if I had strolled through town wearing my usual levis and short-sleeve shirt in the dead of winter? I would probably end up in jail.

-1bigsteve (o: