Smoking Caps at dances?

[Euphemia]

I don't usually pay a lot of attention to men's clothes, but lately I've been wondering about the large amount of smoking caps I see bouncing around at dances. At one event there were so many tassels I thought a Zouave unit had arrived. All my research seems to suggest this was part of a gentleman's leisure time at home attire. Am I wrong? My mom and I are currently making smoking caps for my brother and the last thing we want to see is these things flying around during the Virginia Reel. So are we wrong in our thinking that this is at home wear?

Thanks,
E.

[SouthernAngel]

I have always understood them to be at home attire as well, so I do not think you are wrong in your thinking, if so, we are both wrong! Happy Sewing!

[toccoa42]

All my research seems to suggest this was part of a gentleman's leisure time at home attire. Am I wrong?

No. It's proper name was "lounging cap" and was universally ued as home attire.

Dance, depending on the veune, would normally require a black tailcoat. Barn dnaces are another matter, but you wouldn't wear a lounging cap there, either.

Of course, nothing is very accurate in CW reenacting . . .

[reddcorp]

Smoking caps at a dance? How gauche. IMHO, smoking or lounging caps are to be worn about one's residence or quarters, preferably whilst enjoying a fine pipe or cigar and a snifter of brandy. Not at a public affair.
A.Redd

[Marc]

Smoking caps at a dance? How gauche. IMHO, smoking or lounging caps are to be worn about one's residence or quarters, preferably whilst enjoying a fine pipe or cigar and a snifter of brandy. Not at a public affair.
A.Redd

I would just change the brandy to a fine glass of Port...I am a past member of a Victorian Dance Troupe and I do not think I would have been a member long wearing a smoking/lounge cap at a dance.

[Curt-Heinrich Schmidt]

Hallo!

"So are we wrong in our thinking that this is at home wear?"

Yes, they are also sometimes worn as a "camp cap."

However, IMHO...

A ball for an enlisted soldier, in the field, on campaign in a smelly, dirty, fatigue uniform accompanied by a wife in a silk or other expensive material that is beyond the socio-economic class of the wearer... is kind of a reenacting "invention" or fantasy activity to begin with.
If a lad wants to wear a smoking cap or sleeping cap, go for it.


Others' mileage will vary...

CHS

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

Balls of the period were social occasions for the elite, or at least those of an upper station. For the military, they were for officers only, with the occasional enlisted man serving as stewards or servants, and they were in the background. You wore you finest service dress, without belts or weapons of any kind. With reenacting providing more social outreach programs than the average welfare office sometimes, the etiquette of period balls fly out the door to allow everyone the opportunity for evening fun with the wife, girlfriend, or sometimes both. Smoking or lounge caps are just another thing to add to the list of whats wrong at the beer/battle/ball type events anyway. I personally plan to finish the silk smoking jacket I started awhile back, don the beautiful knitted tam that Mrs. Lawson made some time back, pack a bowl in my favorite pipe (as opposed to the social reprehensible chew I usually have), and firmly plant my folding director's chair on the fringes of the next ball/campdance I can find and thoroughly enjoy the festivities.

[mmescher]

It seems that the posts on this thread are leading us down a rather slippery slope.

Admittedly there are many elements of any reenactment where realism is lacking. The dance in a tent, sometimes with remains of cowpies on the dance floor, being billed as a ball is one. You could also look around the camps and see all the undocumented camp furniture and enough blue speckleware that some tables look like you've wandered into an indian turquoise jewelry shop. And the battles have to willingly suspend disbelief when the opposing lines get within ten yards of each other and then start fiercely duck hunting. These are just a few examples of things which are historically inaccurate.

That being said, do we just shrug our shoulders and figure "If that much is wrong, what does it matter if we add something else?" It would seem, rather, that there are many elements we cannot change but many that we can. So let's fix the easy ones right away and take care of more difficult over time.

And sloppiness breeds more. Although the dances are usually closed to the public, being lax there with something that doesn't take much effort to fix could easily create and attitude throughout of "I'm just here to have fun. Why does historic accuracy matter?" This then works through other elements of the weekend. It also works its way to the spectators who come with hopes of seeing accurate portrayals. Many is the time I've heard spectators saying to each other "I didn't know they had [fill in the blank] back then."

So before I get up on my soapbox too much and just to focus on the dancing, I would urge all reenactors to learn appropriate attire and manners for a dance so they can portray the dancers as well as they can under the circumstances. Soldiers should learn to dance. Officers should learn appropriate attire and advise their soldiers in what is correct. People who come to the dance should, out of consideration for the other dancers, be sober. And, if you are just going to watch, do it from outside the tent and don't block the dance floor.

Conclusion: Let's improve our impressions at every opportunity as best we can, especially the easily fixables.

My two cents.

Michael Mescher

[hanktrent]

So before I get up on my soapbox too much and just to focus on the dancing, I would urge all reenactors to learn appropriate attire and manners for a dance so they can portray the dancers as well as they can under the circumstances.

And yet, that can start a slippery slope the other way. If a dance is out of context for the historic situation, why do the difficult fix of adopting manners and attire for an inaccurate activity? The other direction to turn would be instead to focus on what one would have actually been doing at the historic time and place. But then you start down the slippery slope of reasoning that begins: why am I at this dance? Shouldn't I be standing picket duty, or cooking three days' rations before the march tomorrow? But I need officers to post me and bring the reliefs. Could I talk them into doing that....? And imagine if we were actually issued rations... And if there really was going to be a march tomorrow....

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Slickrick214]

And yet, that can start a slippery slope the other way. If a dance is out of context for the historic situation, why do the difficult fix of adopting manners and attire for an inaccurate activity? The other direction to turn would be instead to focus on what one would have actually been doing at the historic time and place. But then you start down the slippery slope of reasoning that begins: why am I at this dance? Shouldn't I be standing picket duty, or cooking three days' rations before the march tomorrow? But I need officers to post me and bring the reliefs. Could I talk them into doing that....? And imagine if we were actually issued rations... And if there really was going to be a march tomorrow....

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

I agree. The dances are inaccurate to begin with. The people who put on the event want to include everyone. If we were to try and "fix" the problem and make it historically accurate which to me is what mmescher is saying then no one would be able to go to the dances except for the officers. I'm for historical accuracy but I'm also for including everyone. It wouldn't be right to have the officers go to the dance while the privates sit around and feel left out.