Another work in progress. We'll try to add at least one new definition per day to help explain the clothing terminology and practices of the Frontier Era. And maybe a few other things. If you spot any errors, let us know. We don't really expect you to, but it's hard for even us to know everything.
A specific type of overalls introduced about 1890 by a now unknown regional manufacturer and originally marketed specifically to railroad trainmen. Bib overalls were distinguished from regular overalls by having a bib front sewn to the waist and covering the chest. The bib was held up by a pair of integral suspenders going over the shoulders and buttoning in front to the top of the bib. Almost always made of either denim or hickory cloth.
An earlier form of bib overalls with a bib only reaching up to about the sternum, shows up in a few photographs in the 1850's and '60's, but these are rarely encountered and seem to have been unpopular. However, the new style, with its connection to railroading, was a tremendous success and by 1900, only a decade after its introduction, almost completely replaced regular overalls for farmers and men in most trades. Only loggers and cowboys, who required full freedom of movement for the upper body to swing axes and throw lariats, resisted the new fashion. By the 1920's, the term "overalls" had become synonymous for "bib overalls" and regular overalls were being commonly referred to as "jeans" or "dungarees." Even so, many older people still use the full term "bib overalls", today.
The modern term for denim overalls. Probably first coming into use after the First World War as the word overalls began to refer only to "bib overalls." Blue jeans are always made of denim and never made of jean fabric. Never refer to your denim or duck trousers as "jeans" when doing an Old West "impression" at a museum or other historical event. The term is a modern anachronism.
A sturdy cotton fabric made with a twill weave of blue warp threads and white weft threads. The term was once thought to have originated as "Serges de Nimes" to indicate a French origin (serge — a form of twill — from the city of Nimes) . Modern scholarship now indicates the fabric has an English origin, with no connection to France, and the source of the name "denim", while a mystery, may have been a reference to its development from a possible earlier fabric known as "Nim." The original denim fabric is thought to have been made of wool fibers or a mix of wool and linen. Currently, the word "denim" is often misapplied to any heavy cotton twill fabric as a marketing ploy, but real denim is always made with a blue warp and a white weft, and can be light or heavy in weight.
Denim was among the first cotton fabrics manufactured in the first water-powered weaving mill built in the United States (1789). George Washington visited the factory within its first thirty days of operation and was shown a number of fabrics, including cotton denim. This was five years before the cotton gin was patented and cotton fabric was quite expensive to produce, but denim was already in demand, most likely for overalls.
Denim fabric used in the production of 19th and early 20th century overalls typically had a weight.of nine ounces (9 oz.) per yard. Today's "blue jeans" typically weigh in at 14 oz per yard, the heavier weight being the result of marketing wars in the thirties between various manufacturers of denim overalls.
Common term, now trademarked, for the riveted overalls patented and manufactured by Levi Strauss & Co., 13-14 Battery St., San Francisco, Calif. in 1873. However, Levis were invented and originally manufactured, but not called Levis, by tailor Jacob Davis, 31 Virginia St., Reno, Nev. in 1870. The very first pair of riveted overalls were sold to a very large Reno logger (reportedly a 56 waist and 29 thigh - must have been Paul Bunyan himself) and were made of light colored cotton duck, sold to Davis by the Strauss dry goods company. Davis, interviewed about 1875 when Levis were already a huge success, said the rivets were an afterthought, added to the pants just before the logger's wife picked them up. Davis shared his invention with Levi Strauss and the two became partners, with Davis overseeing production. The Levis made by LS&CO were available in denim and honey brown duck in a 9 oz weight.
Not what you think, and an extremely important development in the history of men's clothing. Today, the word "overalls" conjures up images of the baggy bib-fronted and suspendered clown suit more correctly known as "bib overalls" that was designed for railroad trainmen about 1890. Those only look good on babies and young women in tube tops (ah, yes...the 70's). Click for the full story on overalls.
What the Victorians knew as the sack coat first appeared in France at the end of the 1840's and quickly spread to England and America, becoming very popular in the East by the mid-1850's. Intended for extremely informal occasions, sack coats soon became working and business wear for skilled workers and clerks. By the end of the 1850's the U.S. Army had adopted a military version of the sack coat as fatigue wear. By the 1870's civilian sacks were being worn as general purpose outdoors and working jackets by many people out west. Many, many photographs of round ups and trail drives show cowboys from Texas to Montana wearing sack coats as everyday working dress.
Despite what you may have read, they are not called "sack coats" because they are oversized, loose, or otherwise fit like a sack. Sack, sac, sacque, etc. all refer to the way the back of the jacket is cut; i.e. "sack cut". This simply means the back is formed of two pieces only, cut relatively straight down, instead of being made up of four curved pieces with hidden pockets in the tails as on more formal and traditional coats such as tail coats, morning coats, and frocks. Some tailoring manuals of the 1850's and 1860's refer to the sack coat by other names, but it's the same garment. Length of skirt and sleeve, number and style of pockets, collar, lapels, and the cut of the front skirt were the elements of changing style in the sack coat from 1850 to 1900. At all times in the period, sack coats were made in "close cut", "full cut", "single breasted", and "double breasted" versions. See the Walton & Taylor 1870 single-breasted sack coat.
Term introduced in the 1920's by Levi Strauss & Co. for their traditional waist high overalls, as opposed to the newer and more popular bib overalls. In 1960, Levi's gave up and ditched the correct term "overalls" for the by then universal, but incorrect term "jeans."