There’s a common misconception about what homesteaders wore, since women arriving on this continent at the turn of the century were more likely to dress in close-fitting dark skirts and high-necked blouses, rather than the calico gowns and sunbonnets seen in Little House on the Prairie.
Welcome to Letters From Windermere, a monthly blog in which I write about:
- HISTORY: mostly Western Canada history, plus anything else that interests me.
- WRITING: behind-the-scenes info about my next historical novel.
- BOOKS: I recommend a good book every month.
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Dressing My Characters
I recently received an author endorsement for my new novel, Finding Flora, from a veteran writer named Maureen Jennings in Toronto. She is best known for creating the Murdoch Mystery books, which were turned into a long-running television series.
She wrote to me: “I loved your attention to historical detail. I’ve found that if I get the dress right, a lot more things fall into place. I liked the way you described what people wore.”
I wasn’t able to indulge in my wardrobe fantasies earlier. In my first novel, Bird’s Eye View, my heroine Rose wore a blue air force uniform throughout, so I had no joy there. And in my contemporary novel Wildwood, Molly usually wore jeans because she was working around the farm.
So I had great fun creating a wardrobe for my Scottish immigrant Flora and the other characters who lived in Alberta during the span of this novel, from 1905 to 1908.
The majority of homesteaders arrived in Western Canada around the turn of the century during the short-lived Edwardian era. King Edward the Seventh was the eldest son of Queen Victoria. He was a bearded, portly hedonist, sarcastically termed “the playboy prince.” He finally ascended to the throne when his mother died in 1901, but only lasted another ten years himself.
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What Homesteaders Wore: Women
During Edward’s reign, female homesteaders were not wearing the full-skirted dresses often seen in Western movies. Instead, they copied styles held over from the Victorian era, mainly long dark skirts and high-necked blouses with pleated bodices, called shirtwaists.
These could be very plain, or embellished with lace and ruffles. The homesteaders would have worn simple shirtwaists, sewn by hand since few of them had machines at the time. This is an advertisement for a sewing pattern.
Can you imagine trying to homestead in long skirts, not to mention corsets and petticoats and parasols? Alone on her land with nobody to judge her, Flora throws away her corset and shortens her skirt to her calves so she can move around more freely.
She is soon persuaded to abandon her lady’s English side-saddle and ride her horse Felicity astride like a man, so she cuts one of her skirts down the centre and creates a divided skirt or “pantaloon skirt,” like the one in this 1910 photograph.
And later, Flora even dons a pair of men’s trousers, although she is careful to change into more respectable garb when she rides into town for supplies.
(I read an amusing account in one pioneer memoir about a woman who was forced to wear a skirt when she milked the cow, because the cow was so terrified to see her wearing trousers that it wouldn’t stand still!)
Flora’s Métis neighbour Jessie is even more practical when it comes to work wear. In keeping with her Indigenous heritage, she wears buckskin leggings while practicing her profession of training horses. However, she dons a skirt and blouse when the occasion calls for something more formal.
(I found this photograph of a young woman in buckskins. You can tell this is an American photograph because she is packing a revolver. Handguns were much less common in Canada, and since 1885 it has been illegal to possess a handgun in this country without a permit).
Several of the ladies in my novel dress more traditionally. One of the hoity-toity English settlers is Alix Westhead, the first white woman to settle in the area of Alix, Alberta. I created a wine-colored tailored suit for her and a matching hat adorned with black ostrich feathers. Along with skirts, tailored suits were very much in style, like the one worn by the woman on the left.
Hats meant everything in the Edwardian age. Huge cartwheels, laden with flowers, lace, and feathers were all the rage. And I must admit, they were very fetching!
In this tinted postcard from the era, it looks like the hat can hardly hold up the weight of its embellishments — let alone the poor woman’s neck. But isn’t she lovely?
In this formal family portrait, the women have decked out their hats with some elaborate feather constructions. (The child might be a boy, since all youngsters wore dresses for the first few years.)
It is a matter of chagrin to Flora that she only has one plain felt hat that she tries to dress up with pheasant feathers she finds in her yard. I imagined that it looked similar to this hat worn by the Alberta women’s rights activist Irene Parlby, who also plays a role in my novel.
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What Homesteaders Wore: Men
For work and casual dress, men and boys generally wore tweed or twill pants, cotton or woollen shirts, and suspenders. Why didn’t they wear belts in those days, I wonder?
They also wore broad-brimmed hats to protect them from the burning sun (the only sunscreen in those days was mud.) If he wore a Stetson, the homesteader might turn back the brim as shown in this photo of actor Henry Fonda.
This was either a practical solution (so the brim didn’t get in the way of his rifle or his lariat), or else a fashion statement called “the Fort Worth flare” since this style originated in Texas.
If not dressed for manual labor, the homesteader probably wore a three-piece suit with a high, round-collared white shirt, necktie, and a derby or bowler hat (a small round hat with a rolled brim).
Speaking of Fort Worth, this photo shows the five outlaws called The Wild Bunch, otherwise known as the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, pictured in Fort Worth, Texas in 1900. They clearly got gussied up in three-piece suits and derby hats for their photograph.
From left to right: Harry A. Longabaugh (the Sundance Kid), Ben Kilpatrick (the Tall Texan), Robert Leroy Parker (Butch Cassidy), Harvey Logan (Kid Curry), and Will Carver.
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For more homesteading history about the inspiration behind Finding Flora:
Homesteaders Built Basic Shacks to Survive
Homesteaders Hoodwinked by Unscrupulous Land Agents
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Preorder Finding Flora
Thank you very much to everyone who has preordered Finding Flora, since this sends a signal to booksellers that readers are interested. You may place your order at any bookstore or online site, either for the trade paperback or the e-book, and you won’t be billed until it arrives on April 1, 2025.
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Book of the Month
After Maureen Jennings kindly read the Advance Reading Copy for Finding Flora, she wrote this:
“Elinor Florence has vividly captured a time in Canadian history when life for so many people was physically very hard, and rigid demarcations separated both class and gender. The struggle of her female characters to forge a life for themselves against daunting odds, grabs our sympathy and doesn’t let go until the totally satisfying ending. They are women I, for one, would love to hang out with.”
I’m very grateful to Maureen, and filled with respect for her own work. After decades of writing, she was recently named the 2024 recipient of the Grand Master award of the Crime Writers of Canada, and her new book titled March Roars was just released by Cormorant Books. I have purchased the book and can’t wait to start reading!
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Friends, the gorgeous autumn weather is here at last. September always seems like the beginning of a new year, and I’m filled with good intentions about writing, fitness, and keeping up with friends. Please don’t hesitate to drop me an email or message me on Facebook or Instagram. Remember, I answer EVERY message.
With the greatest affection, Elinor