Looking Fantastic in the 18th Century…（在线收听）

If you’re lucky enough to live near a museum with a collection of real 18th-century clothes, you can see the kind of fancy outfits Mozart wore. It’s amazing to remember that these handsome clothes, usually embroidered, were made entirely by hand. The only tools available for sewing were scissors, needles, and a “goose”—an iron that could be heated over a fire.

Elegant men wore embroidered coats and vests and knee-length pants. Dresses for fashionable ladies were sometimes ridiculously fancy, with skirts that were six feet wide! A lady had to turn sideways to go through a door.