Trailblazing Styles: Fashion Show Examines the Clothing of the Oregon Trail Era

In the 1840s on the Oregon Trail, your summer look was typically an everyday look - as in you wore it everyday for the 2,000 mile journey until it wore out.

“Space was very limited in the wagon, they were literally bringing everything they needed for a new life in one wagon,” said Erica Layton, who served as the emcee at a Pioneer Fashion Show in Independence, Missouri, last month.

“What they did bring needed to last months on the trail through very hot or cold weather, extreme sun exposure, wind, rain and storms,” Layton said. “Shoes were usually the first item of clothing to wear out completely.”

The Oregon Trail is one of three historic trails, including the Santa Fe and California trails, that started in Independence.

To mark the 175th anniversary of the Great Migration on the Oregon Trail — when the largest immigrant train to date left Independence — the Jackson County Historical Society, in partnership with Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area, National Frontier Trails Museum, City of Independence Tourism, Independence Square Association and the Oregon California Trails Association, hosted the event, “Party Like It’s 1843”.

“The major goal was to bring history to life in Independence,” said Caitlin Eckard, the executive director of the Jackson County Historical Society. “There's just so much history in our area, we want to make sure everybody is aware of Independence's heritage.”

The event series included a live-action Oregon Trail Game, Westward Ho! Down, and a Pioneer fashion show, inspired in part by KCPT’s earlier event, “Street Style: A Civil War Fashion Show”.

Layton, whose expertise is in historic textiles and helped research and coordinate the fashion show, said finding information about 1840s fashion, let alone clothing and accessories, proved challenging.

“Although the clothing in each era may look similar to a modern observer, a 20-year difference is long time in the world of fashion,” Layton said.

With an emphasis on local history, the fashion show featured 13 different models wearing clothes of Independence townspeople, riverboat workers and an enslaved domestic housekeeper.

“The planning committee felt strongly that ‘Party Like It’s 1843’ should include all areas of history and not shy away from the fact that 1840s Independence was a slave-holding area and that slave labor contributed to the town’s prosperity,” Layton said. “We wanted to get a true representation of the City of Independence at the time.”