Shaker Fancy Goods by Catherine S. Goldring

Author:Catherine S. Goldring
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Down East Books
Published: 2022-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

FINAL DAYS OF SHAKER CLOAK SALES

THE CLOAK INDUSTRY faded from prominence after 1930. Why this happened has never been entirely clear, but women’s styles had changed dramatically since the era of the Shaker cloak’s greatest popularity at the turn of the century. As noted earlier, since 1915, sales suffered a gradual but steady decline. In part, this must have been a reaction to changing styles of dress during these crucial years of the First World War, the women’s suffrage movement, and finally the Great Depression of October 1929. The drop-waisted, loose fitting flapper dresses of the twenties had given way to the trimmer, high-waisted, longer dresses and fitted coats of the thirties, when trousers for certain pastimes were considered commeilfaut— proper or acceptable for women. The “liberated woman” of the thirties was less likely to want to be hampered by a cloak swirling around her ankles, restricting freedom of movement with an excess of cloth, and not nearly so practical as a coat for keeping out the weather. Eveningwear for the well-heeled fashion-conscious woman then included fur-embellished coats, stoles, wraps, and accessories.

Another factor for many was that money was tight in these years, when it was more common for a woman to remake old clothes than it was for her to buy new. Meanwhile, “new” to the clothing industry in the early days of mass production, as today, meant ready-to-wear, and not just for the woman on a budget.

Still, sources reveal an enduring, though far scarcer, enthusiastic following for Shaker cloaks into the mid-twentieth century. In 1930, for example, a note in the Canterbury records reads: “Jan. 7 M.A. Wilson [Eldress Mary Ann] and B.L. Phelps [Sister Bertha Lillian] to Florida and other southern resorts to sell cloaks and fancy goods. Home April 6th.” In November 1933, we find this description presumably concerning a cloak made to order: “Black Dorothy cloak lined entirely with purple satin $36.00.” 42 More poignant, as late as 1948, a letter from the Canterbury Shakers confirms the shipment of two children’s cloaks to a customer: “. . . today Parcel Post Ins. a child’s cloak in red, and a baby cape, to complete the samples previously sent to you. Trust they will be satisfactory in every way,” followed by this pointed reference to marketing the cloaks: “We appreciate your kindness in trying to help us to a market for our work.”43

By mid-century, a Shaker cloak was a treasured possession whose provenance was meticulously recorded and updated as the cloak changed hands several times before finding its way into a museum or private collection. For instance, the “beautiful medium dark red cloak” with a hood lined in purplish-red silk made before 1917 by Sister Emma J. Neale of Mount Lebanon for a Mrs. Cheeney of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was subsequently purchased in 1955 from a woman in Ohio who had in turn bought it from Sister Jennie Wells, of Hancock Shaker Village. The cloak, as noted on the accession card at the Shaker Museum in Mount Lebanon, was “in fine condition” but for a few moth holes.

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