“By Measures Taken of Men”: Clothing the Classes in William Carlin’s Alexandria, 1763–1782

Tailor William Carlin clothed the inhabitants of Alexandria, Virginia fro 1763-1782. His account book, the only known surviving tailor’s ledger from eighteenth-century Virgnia, offers insight into the ways early Virginians chose to clothe their bodies. George Washington and other prominent members of Alexandria society were patrons to Carlin’s shop; so were the city’s artisans and merchants, as well as the enslaved and indentured. These patrons communicated to Carlin their choices in style, fabric, fit, and color, all of which had meaning and purpose in the larger society outside the shop’s walls. Alexandria’s diverse population relied on their local tailor to connect them to the goods and fashions of the Atlantic World, while also providing clothing to mitigate Virginia’s climate and celebrate life’s milestones. An analysis of Carlin’s accounts shows how colonial Virginians acquired clothing, what they wore, and the lives they lived in their clothes.