Description

Cassells Household Guide , which billed itself as an encyclopedia of domestic and social economy, summed up the problem like this, circa 1880: As a general rule, ladies do not like to see their maids dressed in the clothes they themselves have wornthe difference in the social scale of mistress and maid renders this unpleasing. But Cassells made one exception: a black or a dark-colored silk. Previously, a simple black dress meant a wealthy woman was dressing down. But by the 19th century, the black dress had become a staple of the lower and middle classes