Sources - farming/gardening clothes for women?

I have a question!

So I just recently finally got my hands on a kitchen garden. I'm chuffed, but obviously I want to look my best.. by which I mean comfortable and practical. I wear historically inspired silhouettes on the daily and as such, I wanted to look for sources of farming/gardening clothes for women through history. I'd love to do some experimenting in the style of living archaeology.

Obviously women wore their everyday clothes, long skirts and all, but I'm looking for more details and examples: descriptions, paintings, tapestries, possibly photographs. Were skirts pulled up? Tied back? How? What's practical for digging, climbing, picking fruit, weeding, etc?

For location, I'm looking for European sources, particularly anything northern European, since unfortunately the climate near the Mediterranean is too different from my own.

Any period pre-WW2, because I just know there are people here with their own niche time periods and I'm interested in any source so that I can start my research somewhere.

Posted Sep 12, 2026, 8:23 AM UTC

610
Loading comments…