News Letter Excerpts

Written by Guillaume Charette
Editorial by Lorraine Freeman

I'm often asked at the Centre "what did the Metis people wear years ago". There are various descriptions of what the men wore but not too much written on the women. Fashion varied depending on the region in which they lived. Mr. Louis Goulet, born 1859, in his memoirs described the women’s & men’s dress of his time around the 1850's. The Metis women wore moccasins especially embroidered ones, leggings, a dress with a long skirt falling to the ankles topped by a kind of jerkin called a "Basque" with sleeves that puffed out between the elbow and shoulder, ending at the top with a point rising as high as the ear. Velvet was the favourite material.

Men's traditional wear (below)              

The Metis men had their own fashion of the time consisting of "capot crait-rien", a between seasons coat with a hood; trousers that opened at the hip called "culottes bavaloises"; coarse wool clothes; big H.B.C. flannel shirts - usually grey and a sash "ceinture fléchée", Mr. Goulet recounts "to prevent a descent" of their pants. The men also wore cotton shirts brightly colored, trousers of broadcloth usually navy blue, preferably made of English cloth they called corduroy. Their leggings or "mitasses" were like long cuffs wore on the leg as a kind of over stocking made of leather or cloth especially velvet, the stitching was quite intricate. And the identifiable moccasins at this time in history there were three styles: the mitten type which consisted of two pieces of leather sewn together; the pointed-toed moccasin without embroidery; the third type with an upper part and crown richly decorated with needlework, strands of colored horse hair, porcupine quills, as well as bead work. These moccasins were usually worn without socks but with a pouch made from a wool blanket or rabbit skin to protect the feet. This pouch was called a "housse".

Information taken from 'Vanishing Spaces - Memoirs of Louis Goulet'
"Metis dress" courtesy of Russell Wells
"Men's traditional wear" courtesy of St. Boniface Historical Society