Duster (clothing)
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A duster is a light, loose-fitting coat.
The original dusters were full-length, light-colored canvas or linen coats worn by horsemen to protect their clothing from trail dust. These dusters were typically slit up the back to hip level for ease of wear on horseback. At the turn of the 20th century, both men and women wore dusters to protect their clothes when riding in open motorcars on the dirt roads of the day.[1] In the 1950s, a duster was a woman's knee-length, button-front unfitted housecoat which could be thrown on over underwear for housework or cooking.[2]
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[edit] Contemporary dusters
Western horsemen's dusters gained renewed popularity in the late twentieth century, primarily through the J. Peterman catalog, and are now a standard item of western wear. They figured little in Western films until Sergio Leone re-introduced them in his movies The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West. The latter played for many months in Paris and was in part credited with a revival of the duster in men's fashions in that city.
In contemporary women's clothing, a duster is any knee-length or longer unfitted coat. Women's dusters may be similar to bath robes, sometimes sleeveless, and are often sold with matching pants or skirt.
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[edit] References
- George-Warren, Holly, and Michelle Freedman: How the West Was Worn, Harry N. Abrams (2001), ISBN 0-8109-0615-5.
- Picken, Mary Brooks: The Fashion Dictionary, Funk and Wagnalls, 1957. (1973 edition ISBN 0-308-10052-2)
- Merriam Webster's 10th Collegiate Dictionary
- Oxford English Dictionary
