Pyjamas
Category
Costume
Date
Unknown
Materials
Cotton
Measurements
700 x 580 mm
Order this imageCollection
Mr Straw's House, Nottinghamshire
NT 744444
Caption
Privacy as we know it today is still a relatively recent concept – before the Victorians, amongst the higher classes it was an honour to be asked to join someone for their toilette! Thanks to this, bedrooms only really became private spaces in the Victorian era, and it was still very different to today. It was considered immodest for a person to be without clothes in the bedroom except for specific circumstances, and bedrooms often had an attached dressing room to avoid the immodesty of undressing. For men, pyjamas were the norm from the Victorians onwards, with patterns starting small, developing into loud splashes of colour after the First World War. Women continued to wear a nightdress, developed from the shift worn under clothing in earlier eras. These could be elaborately decorated with pintucks and lace but were almost always white and from neck to ankle and wrist. Even lighting was considered in terms of politeness – light fittings were often placed right behind a window to avoid casting a potentially indecent shadow on drawn curtains!
Summary
White cotton pyjama jacket with dark and light blue stripes. 'Wulcosa, 36' label.
Provenance
Straw collection bequeathed to the National Trust on the death in 1990 of William Straw.
Marks and inscriptions
Wulcosa, 36 (label)