The Clothes Hanger
It’s easy to forget when we have been so used to seeing the simple clothes hanger in our wardrobes each day, that they haven’t always been there. And it is essential to remember if you are writing a Regency novel not to write them into your manuscript. Clothes were most often stored folded in drawers in an armoire, placed on a shelf, or hung on a hook or peg.
Clothes hangers didn’t exist during the Regency.
There is some dispute about who actually invented the first wooden clothes hanger, but what is clear is that it didn’t appear until around 1869. Some attribute it to a man named O.A. North in Connecticut, and some to the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson who was himself an inventor.
In later years, the hanger would evolve to suit the needs of fashion. Victorians made great use of clothes hangers for their increasingly complicated attire, bustles, petticoats etc., and there were hundreds of patents submitted for variations of the hanger in the early 1900s. It is said the first wire hanger was created by Albert J. Parkhouse who worked for a novelty company in Jackson, Mississippi in 1903, and the first molded plastic hanger was created in 1967 by J.H. Batts.
So, if you're planning to have your Regency heroine hide in a wardrobe, closet, or armoire, it might be more plausible to have her hiding in the dressing room.
