Jacobite shirt origins?

**MacKenzie** · 18th May 23, 08:17 AM

Originally Posted by Tobus

... my wife had made me a shirt from a "Folkwear" pattern called the Missouri River Boatman's Shirt. It is supposedly based on paintings from the latter half of the 1800s, including the Civil War.

Very much like "Mississippi Boatman by George Caleb Bingham, 1850" from the article I linked above.

**OC Richard** · 19th May 23, 06:56 AM

Originally Posted by Tobus

...supposedly based on paintings from the latter half of the 1800s, including the Civil War...it has simple fabric ties to close the collar at the throat.

It's the "supposedly" part I worry about. I'd like to see the paintings.

In these I don't see laces. https://witness2fashion.wordpress.co...s-1700s-1900s/

About ACW shirts, I've looked at many photos and some surviving garments and as best I remember they're all buttoned.

There's a YouTuber who is an expert on historical clothing who reviews the accuracy of Hollywood costuming and one of her pet peeves is Hollywood making everything tie with laces.

Here she's doing something a bit different, a tongue-in-cheek video of how to transform cheap Halloween costumes into historically accurate ones. She gets into laces at 3:35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAoaksK9mZM

**Tobus** · 19th May 23, 10:11 AM

Originally Posted by OC Richard

It's the "supposedly" part I worry about. I'd like to see the paintings.

Well, that's why I put the "supposedly" in my statement. Grain of salt and all.

I looked at the paintings they referenced in that pattern, and it does seem to be pretty accurate on all the details except the ties. (Note, I was referencing fabric ties at the top, not the leather laces you're talking about on pirate shirts.) From the paintings I see, the collars were either closed with a button or a tied kerchief, even though the chest area of the shirt remained open/gapped below the collar. Perhaps the sewn-in fabric ties were added to the Folkwear pattern just for convenience, to allow some sort of integral closure.

If nothing else, this stands as an example of how historical styles can be manipulated by modern costumers and passed off to the public as being authentic when they're not.