· By Bourgine
This week's report - July 20, 2025
Today's agenda: a presentation on Sunday dress, a Pyrenean wedding and Barcelona recommendations.
These days, Sunday = sweatpants, but in the 19th century, people paid particular attention to their Sunday best. For one day, work clothes were set aside to wear the finest items from one's wardrobe. A distinction was made between:
- la tenue du grand dimanche ("big Sunday" dress): reserved for exceptional occasions such as major religious or family celebrations.
- la tenue du petit dimanche ("little Sunday" dress): worn on ordinary Sundays to go to mass or for a walk.
Here are a few Sunday staples.
Kerchief
Ladies wore long skirts and corsets, which they covered with a richly decorated shawl draped around the shoulders, sometimes tucked into the neckline of dresses.
Headpiece
Everywhere in France, heads were adorned with headgear of all kinds, both serving as fashion accessory and marker of regional identity.
In Alsace for example, women wore the bow-shaped schlupfkapp. It steadily grew in size and by 1900 was almost a meter in diameter, requiring a metal frame to hold it in place.
Here an Alsatian, a Breton and a Vendean woman in their Sunday clothes:
Fichu de laine€165.00
Final touch of the silhouette, a round or oval bag carried delicately by the fingertips. It was often called a "sac ridicule" (ridiculous bag) because of its tiny size.
Réticule, carreaux€75.00
Three favorites:
Géneres de punt La Torre - Old-fashioned underwear shop. You can even buy a nightcap.
