A lot of the time, we look back at 18th century clothing and develop a serious case of presentism: we decide that our 
clothing today is so much more practical and comfortable. However, 18th century women’s clothing was designed for practicality and comfort in their daily lives–and maybe fewer serious body image issues!
Here are 13 things 18th century women didn’t have to do because of their clothes:
- Buy new clothes if they lost weight. 18th century clothing was adjustable. A chemise was loose fitting. Stays, the supportive undergarment of the day, laced up, so were fully adjustable. A separate gown or jacket was pinned in place to stays, and the petticoats tied like aprons front and back.
- Buy new clothes if they gained weight. Other than changes in your arms/shoulders, you could accommodate this too!
- Change their body to fit external beauty standards. Did they change their body’s appearance? Sure. They wore stays that had offered some amount of shaping effect (maybe 2″ difference), false rumps, panniers and more. But nobody was under the illusion that the image they presented to the world was exactly what their body looked like. You changed your clothes or your undergarments, not your body itself!
- Diet. Setting aside the fact that a plump figure could be a sign of prosperity, when you don’t have to change your body to be acceptable to society, you don’t have to worry about controlling your food intake.
- Excessively worry about overeating. You might think this is part of the previous one, but it’s separate! Stays, the supportive undergarments women wore, make it extremely uncomfortable to overeat.
- Wear the wrong size bra. Until the 1790s, stays supported the bust, but the torso was kind of all one “ice cream cone” shape (i.e. no cups in stays). Also, they were adjustable!
- Wear clothing without sufficient pockets (unless they chose to). The pocket was also separate! Tying at the waist, one or two pockets were worn under petticoats and accessible through the same side slits that helped to make petticoats adjustable.
- Carry a handbag (or try to coordinate it!). They were BIG pockets, easily the size of a pocketbook or handbag today. (They were often pretty, too, with embroidery!)
- Remember not to slouch. The boning in stays as well as busk made of wood or bone helped to support erect posture. Stand tall, 18th century ladies!
- Wear SPF. It hadn’t been invented, but don’t think 18th century women were unaware of sun damage. We didn’t invent the sunburn. They wore kerchiefs around their necks, tucked into stays at the bust, to protect their neck and décolletage from the sun, as well as wide brimmed straw hats and other bonnets.
- Wear antiperspirant. The layer of clothing closest to the skin was the chemise. It was usually made of linen, which is naturally wicking, and kept the wearer cool!
- Put up with ill-fitting off-the-rack clothing. In addition to being highly adjustable, most clothing was bespoke, made custom to fit the wearer.
- Pay a premium for natural fibers. Today, natural fibers like cotton, wool, silk and linen are often prized as a mark of higher quality. Of course, in the 18th century, they didn’t have many other choices. Even the poorest woman wore natural fibers—the richer ones just wore fancier and finer fabrics.