"About the old-time attire and the contemporary fashion" from the point of view of Jakub Kazimierz Haur (1632-1709)

Abstract

The article describes the work of Jakub Kazimierz Haur, entitled The Store or Treasury of Excellent Secrets of Land Economy, first published in 1693. It is a voluminous book of more than five hundred pages, in which the author presented a lot of information from various disciplines – agriculture, meteorology, astrology, medicine, hygiene, veterinary medicine, plastic arts, geography and law, as well as some practical instructions on educating children, reading, hunting or protection against witchcraft. The book also touches on issues relating to costumes, and the parts of the text devoted to these issues were divided by the author into three categories. The first part is devoted to the history of costumes, both in Poland and in other countries, the second part provides information on 17th century fashion in the territory of Poland, and the third part gives practical tips on the cleaning and care of clothes. The book explicitly shows the author’s passion for didacticism, reflected especially in the fragments in which he criticizes women for being excessively influenced by fashion and for blindly copying foreign culture. Nevertheless, the 17th-century author considers clothing to be an important part of everyday life and recommends proper care of it. It should be noted that some of the in the book on how to take care of clothes is still valid today.