Closets

When I was about six or seven years old, I was sitting on my grandmother's bed, watching her while she was preparing to change from her cotton housedress and apron into a more formal outfit. We were going to go shopping downtown with my mother and my little sister shortly, and I was looking forward to a wonderful afternoon! The sun was shining through the dainty lace curtains hanging in my grandmother's bedroom windows, and as the light filtered through them, I noticed how it gave a soft glow to the pink and blue flowers on her bedroom wallpaper.

I loved visiting my grandparents and found them always glad to see me too. I enjoyed being with them, asking questions and learning new things. It was my grandfather who especially liked to talk about the "olden days," and he would tell me lots of interesting stories about what it was like when he was young.

Today, I was chatting with my grandmother. She had just finished selecting the dress she was going to wear to go shopping and was hanging it on a hook on her closet door. The closet door was open, and I could see almost everything in it from where I was sitting on her bed. That was when I noticed a pair of shoes in the closet that I had never seen before. They seemed quite unusual, and I wondered why they looked so different.

"Grammie, what kind of shoes are those?" I asked, pointing at them.

She turned around, reached into her closet, picked up the shoes, and brought them over to the bed to show them to me. She said that they were an old pair of high-button shoes and that she didn't wear them anymore. I asked her why she didn't, and she said, "Because they are way too old-fashioned and too small anyway, and would be very uncomfortable." I looked at the shoes even more carefully now. They were of black leather with little heels and had many small, black buttons on the front. I had never seen shoes with so many buttons before! They were very interesting indeed.

While I was thinking intently about buttons, evidently my grandmother was noticing how much attention I was giving to the shoes, because she walked to her dresser and picked up a strange-looking instrument from a small crystal vase. She brought it over to show it to me and said that it was a tool called a "buttonhook." Then she showed me how it helped to button the shoes for her. I was fascinated! My grandmother also told me the shoes were made of very nice kid leather and that when she was young and they were in style, they made her feet look tiny, and she used to love to wear them. She playfully winked at me and said, "Those shoes bring back some good memories from long ago."

I continued to watch my grandmother, and we kept right on chatting while she changed from the dress she was wearing into a more formal-looking one. That was when I happened to notice something else that made me curious. She was wearing an interesting-looking undergarment. It had lots of laces pulled very tight and sort of reminded me of the shoes we had just talked about, and so I felt I had to ask her about it. I was told that it was called a corset, and she said that when she was young, she had "quite a figure wearing it." Then she said, "In those days, we all wore them because having a tiny waist, like tiny feet, was also very desirable, and a corset was needed to help keep one's figure in shape for the fashions worn then." My grandmother also told me that through the years she continued to wear one. "Now," she said with a sigh, "I can't manage without it because of wearing one for so long." She zipped up her dress and then walked over to her dresser to comb her hair.

I happily observed my stylishly dressed grandmother who was now all finished changing clothes and watched her as she put on her jewelry. When that was all done, she turned toward me with a smile, took my hands, and told me we were now ready to go shopping! She helped me down off the bed, and as we walked out of her bedroom, I looked back at her closet with delight, silently wondering to myself what other kinds of treasures might be lurking inside. I think that afternoon was the very beginning of my interest in old-fashioned clothing.

* * *

Now, as we begin our journey together, I would like to start by discussing some of the material in my preceding story. I titled it "Closets" because many searches for answers regarding what to do with aged textiles, clothing, and other related objects begin with what is discovered in closets.

If you were to look into your closet, you might realize that you are somewhat sentimental about a particular garment or other item there. Perhaps it is one you wore when you were younger for a special occasion, and you still treasure the memories attached to it. If so, then you would understand how others might feel the same way. Of course, some might have worn it in a different time period many years ago, but like you, they thought it was important to keep the particular item. Perhaps they were hoping to use it again in some way in the future, but that future use never materialized, and so the object remained sequestered for a long time. Eventually, it was found by someone else and then made its way to another person, the trash, a secondhand shop, an antique shop, a theater, or museum collection. Where it went next would determine its future.

Strange as it may seem, I have spoken with people who found textile objects and even shoes in quite unusual places, including between walls and behind fireplaces, when they were renovating very old houses. I was told that some very interesting textiles were found in the ground beneath an old, deserted outhouse that was on a farm. It was not uncommon in the past for people to have an area on their property where things no longer needed were just piled up over the years, to decay in a mound behind the barn. Some of these actions relate to customs and habits long forgotten. However, occasionally some of those long-ago discarded items surface, and in the process, they prove to be historically important and quite valuable.

But let us not underestimate the closet. A closet containing aged clothing and other such items can be quite exciting, especially when you find something that you think is very interesting. Perhaps the object you find is a dress that was in fashion many years ago. Now try to imagine how the woman who originally wore it felt when she was wearing it. Was it tight? Was the fabric rather heavy with that long skirt, making the dress...