Clothes for Work

Distinctive livery was a feature of male servant's dress in aristocratic households for two centuires from the Restoration of Charles ll in 1660. This livery outift with its bold yellow colouring for the breeches and waistcoat, dates from the middle of the nineteenth century and still shows features of eighteenth century dress including the style of the coat, and the breeches. This type of retrospective styling was also used for court dress, reinforcing the timeless and traditional feel, and the difference from changing contemporary fashions.

With household uniforms, this distinctive garb also served to distinguish the servant clearly from his master, as well as ensuring that such employees felt noticeably subserviant. Only male servants wore such uniforms, although some advocated its introduction for female staff. In 1725, Daniel Defoe wrote a broadsheet urging the adoption of uniforms for women servants, professing that he had mistakenly kissed a chamber maid, believing her to be one of his friend's guests! It was not until the later nineteenth century that female house servants were usually dressed in similar cotton print dresses with white bibbed cotton aprons and caps.

Full item descriptions:

"footman's livery uniform" [1962.41/3]

Related Themes:

Men's Servant Dress
Women's Servant Dress
Waistcoats