European Occupational Dress from the Fourteenth to the Eighteenth Century (The Library of Polish Ethnography, Vol. 49)

This book by Prof. Irena Turnau, outstanding specialist in the history of textile industry and clothing, presents a subject which has not attracted much attention: clothes used for working. Magnificent costumes indicated their owners' social status, wealth and power, but it was impossible to work in them. It was difficult even to move in heavy fur coats, elaborate headgear and shoes of fancy shapes. This study discusses comfortable garments which made physical labour possible and did not hinder any kind of activity. They were used in peasant farms and craftsmen's workshops, they served miners, steelworkers, masons and sailors, they were worn by servants in order to stress the high status of their masters. This book is dedicated to all those people of the past who tucked up their tunics, rolled up their sleeves and trousers, protected themselves with aprons, invented supports and yokes in order to carry commodities - to all the indigent inhabitants of Europe and the neighbouring regions of Asia who toiled to earn their living. The issue of occupational dress in past centuries is extremely complex. No one has ever tried to formulate exact definitions in this field, and the available studies are purely descriptive. --- Published in a limited edition of 500 copies.