How long would people actually wear clothes for before washing them? I'm interested in the difference between classes in, say, the high medieval period compared to the Victorian period and the thirties/forties (Western Europe).

by Ivyleaf3
chocolatepot

I'm not sure this question is fully answerable due to the scarcity of primary sources on the subject (and the vast timespan involved here). However, it's worth remembering that, for the time periods you're talking about, men and women would wear a shirt/smock/shift/chemise underneath their outer clothing. Covering much of the arms and body, this would protect the clothing from sweat and body oils so that the only cleaning issue would be whether or not external dirt had gotten onto it, which could be spot-cleaned as needed (or dried and brushed off). Clothes on the whole wouldn't be laundered; underclothes were.

How many times someone would wear a shirt/smock/etc. before laundering was dependent on income. For example, an 18th century French book on the sewing of personal linens lists the trousseau of a well-to-do young woman with 72 shifts - way more than enough to wear once between washes, probably even enough to change your shift for dinner - but records of around the same time show some American slaves being given two (which would mean rewearing between washes).