Shopping in Kiel (Part 1): ‘Clothes were my own chief care’

In my role as ‘notCarruthers’, I am determined to make sure that we keep our eye on the most important aspects of the adventure: what we’re going to eat, and what we’re going to wear.

On October 2 a lot of shopping takes place, and having already ruined two pairs of white flannels, Carruthers is keen to kit himself with clothes that are more appropriate to the task ahead:

‘I bought a great pair of seaboots of the country, felt-lined and wooden-soled, and both of us got a number of rough woollen garments (as worn by the local fishermen), breeches, jerseys, helmets, gloves; all of a colour chosen to harmonize with paraffin stains and anchor mud.’

During our first attempt at live streaming on Periscope, we were asked if we would be dressing up in full Victorian/Edwardian garb as we cycle and sail our way through Northern Germany in the late autumn (subject to your support). I think it’s unlikely that we’ll be doing this all the time; not least because we have to cover a fair few miles on bikes on some days, and I don’t think it’ll be practical to be wearing tweed jackets or full working sailors’ outfits.

At the point where we manage to get on boats, I’m also concerned that vintage sailing garb might actually endanger our lives. The sea boots, for example, are quite simply not fit for purpose – get washed overboard and the ‘felt-lined,wooden-soled’ nature of our footwear is likely to be the reason we sink rather than float. Don’t believe me? -Take a look at the photo of a Filey fisherman of the period on the Yorkshire Coast Maritime Archive website. The caption reads:

‘A Filey fisherman about 1870, showing typical fishermens garb, including the heavy leather sea-boots that were the cause of many deaths if the fisherman went overboard.’

I imagine the heavy woollen jerseys wouldn’t be exactly buoyant either  – although at least they’d be useful for recognising our fish-nibbled bodies when we washed up on the beach. Apparently, fishermens sweaters of the time would almost certainly have been cable-knit with very particular patterns and motifs, and might even have had the wearer’s initials knitted in.

I’ve heard stories in the past about Aran sweaters being packed with bespoke patterns to the point that each jumper is unique to the wearer. Wikipedia debunks this myth thoroughly, but does note that it’s in the age of Carruthers that this idea first gripped the imagination. In the 1904 play ‘Riders to the Sea‘ by J M Synge, a dead Islander is identified by the hand-knitted stitches on one of his garments. As two fellow Anglo-Irish gents who spent time in Germany, Synge and Childers must surely have known each other.

There is another kind of ‘jersey’ of German origin, by the way, that I think Carruthers would definitely have been interested in: Dr Jãger’s knitted underwear.

It was the Germans who started a craze in the late 18th century for woollen undergarments, followed by woollen sportswear. Considered both hygienic and therapeutic, Jäger’s woolwear became the very thing, following the publication of the good doctor’s seminal work: ‘Standardized Apparel For Health Protection’ (1880).  

Jägerwear was popular with both arty stay-at-home aesthetes like Oscar Wilde and Bernard-Shaw, and also macho adventurers like Stanley during his search for Livingstone and Shackleton in the Arctic. Jäger’s most famous disciple was the Arctic explorer Nansen who liked to dress in German jersey from top to toe, and styled his woollen jacket so distinctively that still today we talk about ‘Nansen jackets’.

(I found another Arctic explorer btw called Jackson – the man who found the missing Nansen in 1897 – who also made his own jacket out of a Jäger blanket. There’s a photo of it on the Scott Polar Research Institute website in a post entitled ‘Men who sew’.)

What I’m really getting at, I suppose, is that I’ve found a good excuse not to worry too much about wearing authentic old mud-coloured woollens, helmets and gloves on this trip, and instead  sport stylish Jaeger outerwear. I think Carruthers would approve.

EXTRA LINKS ABOUT CLOTHING

An excellent potted history of knitwear here: http://visforvintage.net/2013/01/17/history-of-knitwear/

Lovely stuff about the Nansen jacket (in Norwegian): http://larsegeland.com/2015/03/16/historien-om-nansen-jakka/

Massive props to Club member Kevin Butler who has been supplying us via email with *loads* of information about clothing. Here’s just a few snippets below. We probably need to do a separate post to do full justice to Kevin’s research:

On Sweaters

Just come across the below at: http://www.long-john.nl/category/books/page/2/….. fascinating stuff on the individual village patterns:

-Alpine Hat -1890’s- a soft felt hat with low round crown slightly depressed circularly

 

–Alpine Jacket -1876 – an ‘improved’ form of Norfolk jacket…double breasted with pleat down the centre of the back….worn fastened up to the neck

 

-Aquatic Shirt – 1830’ onwards – early form of “sports” shirt for boating; also for country and seaside wear. Of cotton in coloured stripes or checks or in whole colours(red, blue, green). decorated with sporting designs popular with the class known as ‘the Gent’. it developed into the coloured shirt and by 1894 had become ‘perfectly good form even with frock coats’ provided the collar was white’ solid colours are barred; neat stripes in pink and blue are favourites’.

-Bendigo -19th century – a rough fur cap worn by the working classes (wrong class i know, but seems the most practical all the bits of headgear around at the time for being out off the coast of norther europe in October)

 

-Blazer – -1890- originally scarlet jacket worn with cricketing or boating costume

-Box Bottoms – 19th century- the close-fitting extensions of breeches fastened below the knees and there stiffened with lining

-Cake Hat -1890’s – a soft felt hat with a low round crown slightly depressed circularly; similar to the Alpine hat