Not currently on display at the V&A

Shirt

1890s
Place of origin

White cotton shirt with high linen collar. The front of the shirt is fastened with four mother of pearl buttons. The collar is made of a finer material than the rest of the shirt as this part would have shown above the tie or cravat.


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
Cotton and linen with mother of pearl buttons. Hand-sewn
Physical description
White cotton shirt with high linen collar. The front of the shirt is fastened with four mother of pearl buttons. The collar is made of a finer material than the rest of the shirt as this part would have shown above the tie or cravat.
Dimensions
  • Centre back seam, neck to hem length: 92cm
  • Centre front seam, neck to hem length: 89cm
  • Sleeve, shoulder to cuff length: 46cm
  • Chest width: 70cm
Credit line
Given by Mrs. Valerie Mendes
Object history
Given by Mrs Valerie Mendes

Historical significance: This shirt makes an interesting comparision to the more fashionable styles of the period. The shirt also shows how little the actual shape of men's underclothes had changed throughout the nineteenth century
Historical context
This is probably a working man's shirt worn for best with a tie or cravat. It is likely that it was made at home. In the late 19th century most fashionable shirts were made by firms like Welch Margetson, Foster Porter & Co and McIntyre Hogg & Co. Cassell's Household Guide (1869-70, London, New York, Cassell, Petter and Galpin) reported:

'Shirt-making at home has fallen into disesteem, a result chiefly referable to two reasons. First, on the part of men, because home-made shirts are so ill cut as to be uncomfortable, untidy, and soon soiled; second, because the labour of shirt-making is close and unpleasant, and undoubtedly, trying to womankind…..

The supremacy of shop-made shirts, as they are called, have obtained over home-made, is due to the superiority of their cut. Home-made almost invariably 'bag', as the expressive term is, at the front or breast. This is because they are cut too wide at the breast.'
Collection
Accession number
T.2-2000

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Record createdNovember 22, 2001
Record URL
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