As George Bernard Shaw put it, "England and America are two countries separated by a common language."
Certainly Union underwear is not something that you see in the UK, and I always saw it as a quintessentially American item of clothing, and rather synonymous with the frontier. And Hillbillies. Whether that was the case back then I don't know, but in the Victorian era America was seen as uncouth and uncivilised, so it's highly unlikely that there would have been any adoption of American fashion.
Also, wasn't union underwear basically worn all winter without being removed? I vaguely remember reading that the pioneers dealt with extreme low temperatures (which were far less common even in Scotland) by never taking of the underwear until spring. That wouldn't be the case so much in the UK, and certainly not for any Gentleman. Heaven forfend!
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Date: 2009-08-24 11:05 pm (UTC)Certainly Union underwear is not something that you see in the UK, and I always saw it as a quintessentially American item of clothing, and rather synonymous with the frontier. And Hillbillies. Whether that was the case back then I don't know, but in the Victorian era America was seen as uncouth and uncivilised, so it's highly unlikely that there would have been any adoption of American fashion.
Also, wasn't union underwear basically worn all winter without being removed? I vaguely remember reading that the pioneers dealt with extreme low temperatures (which were far less common even in Scotland) by never taking of the underwear until spring. That wouldn't be the case so much in the UK, and certainly not for any Gentleman. Heaven forfend!