Title: Dress - Colonial America | Britannica
Headings: Colonial America
Colonial America
The Ottoman Empire
Europe and America: 19th and 20th centuries
The 19th century

Content: For many English colonists the early years were hard. Most people made their own clothes, cultivating flax and cotton and raising sheep for wool. Clothes for everyday wear were plainer versions of those worn back in England. Best clothes were kept for Sundays and holidays; such garments lasted a long time, and most colonists were therefore wearing styles considered old-fashioned in England. For example, men wore breeches full at the waist, a doublet and jerkin, and a hip-length, loose overgarment that had been fashionable in Europe in the later 16th century. This was the mandilion, derived from the medieval tabard. It was now a loose jacket with free-hanging sleeves. It had been adopted by the Puritans, whose version was generally lined with cotton and fastened with hooks and eyes. By mid-century the buff coat had also become a staple garment among colonists in New England.