Frontier isolation forced gentlewomen into improvised, mended clothing routines.

Evidence

I have a solitary pocket handkerchief and one pair of stockings, such a mass of darns that hardly a trace of the original wool remains. Owing to my inability to get money in Denver I am almost without shoes, have nothing but a pair of slippers and some “arctics.” For outer garmentswell, I have a trained black silk dress, with a black silk polonaise! and nothing else but my old flannel riding suit, which is quite threadbare, and requires such frequent mending that I am sometimes obliged to “dress” for supper, and patch and darn it during the evening. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 228

Categorization

• CANDY: The image of a woman in a trained black silk gown patching her only riding suit during evening visits is instantly retellable.
• FICTION: Costume as compressed biography for a lone woman on the frontier — a single silk dress and darned stockings telling her whole arc.