There’s often this undercurrent of, “Well of course I know more. I live in the 21st century and they were just peasants.”
Friends, we live in an era where people don’t know what silk is. We would be scammed silly by an 18th century fabric merchant.
I honestly feel like the first thing that has to be tackled in any serious conversation about historical textiles and dress is the reminder that people in the past were not stupid about what they wore. In fact, they were far, far more knowledgeable about clothing than us.
extremely vivid dream last night where everyone was mad because they did a restoration of Casablanca but changed it so that he says “here’s looking at you, bitch”