Scotland Museum of Edinburgh mourning dress

Available for over a year

At the Museum of Edinburgh, presenter Susan Morrison and costume historian Lucie Whitmore of Glasgow University take a look at some mourning dress. People often think that mourning went out of fashion in World War 1 but in fact it was adapted to the times. There were an awful lot of young widows who still had a life while they grieved who weren’t going to swathe themselves head-to-toe in heavy black fabrics. Mourning had to be fashionable and quickly available. Some more simple fashions were tried like black armbands but they never really caught on. Mourning dress continued to be emotionally important to women of all classes even those who might have found it hard on the pocket.