Fashion Field Trip to Plimoth Plantation

By Jen Smith
November 26, 2009

Who would have thought a 4^th grade field trip would yield a style harvest? Last week, I accompanied my son’s class on a trip to Plimoth Plantation. Located in Plymouth Rock, MA, the vast outdoor museum offers a wide variety of exhibits and re-enacted historic settings intended to bring to life the communities of the Colonial English and the Native American Wampanoag People who inhabited the area in the 1600s.

I know we were there for a history lesson, but isn’t fashion an important part of our nation’s past? From the Wampanoag Homesite, where the Native staff wore deerskin leggings and the traditional houses had fur skins hanging from the walls and beautiful woven bulrush mats on the floors to the 1627 English village, where costumed role players wore red riding coats and placed pewter dishes on hand-carved wooden tables, I had a new style crush.

Here’s how I’ll be weaving some “Colonial chic” into my New York city life.

1. Four Pewter Goblets (buy it now price, $34.99)

These glowing cups will make my simple white plates and every day cloth napkins take on an old world feel. Plus I love how water tastes in them!

2. Kenneth Cole Lace-Up Boots (buy it now price, $60.00)

These boots look like they’ve survived an ocean voyage on the leaky Speedwell.

3. Mini Handmade Mahogany Smoking Pipe (buy it now price, $5)

A little pipe was my favorite accessory worn by colonial interpreter “Dorothy.” I could tell she was waiting for us to get off the Mayflower 2 so she could have her smoke break. Remember, this was totally PC in the 1620s

4. Set of Four Wooden Pop-Pop Shooters (buy it now price, $6.99)

My son has not stopped playing with this since we left the gift store. He and his friends can battle it out at the kids’ table this Thanksgiving.

5. Custom Made Native American Regalia Dress/Skirt (buy it now price, $265)

The glamorous, sexy women of the Wampanoag tribe wore embellished deerskin wraps and dresses layered over simple white shirts they stole from conquered men. Very Rita Coolidge meets Kris Kristofferson!

6. Large Dream Catcher (buy it now price, $8.99)

According to Native American lore, the dream catcher traps the negative dreams and lets the positive dreams flow through the weave.

7. Two Quart Cast Iron Dutch Oven (buy it now price, $34.89)

I think I’ll pass on venison stew and make beans instead in this beauty.

8. Anthropologie Carbonella Wool Coat (buy it now price, $228)

According to Vicki Oman, colonial interpreter and museum educator, it was costly to dye clothing black. Grey and rich muted colors were the colors Colonialists favored.

9. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick (buy it now price, $15.95)

I have not put this book down since the bus trip home from Massachusetts. I wish I could read it by the fire.

10. Vintage Beaver Quality Felt Hat (buy it now price, $34.99)

My biggest fashion obsession of the trip was the tall felted hats worn by both men and women interpreters. This one needs to live through a few snow storms, so the brim softens and curls.