Even when the women weren't dressed up they still looked elegant. There was no such thing as comfort with colonial clothing; it was just worn for fashion (Baumgarten Looking at Eighteenth-Century Clothing). .
Other than your gender money most definitely controlled what you wore. If you could not afford the fancy dresses and tunics people could tell. The materials were different and more elegant looking. The colonial clothes that are on display now give people the urged to touch them. If you were very poor usually, you wore cheaper materials and clothes that were passed down and women still had to wear dress and or skirts even if they couldn't afford them. Another aspect to what you wore could be defined by your race. If someone were a certain race and or a certain religion some places wouldn't hire you for the job. This would really hurt the men and women because of the amount of money they had so, they would not be able to afford clothing. If you had a certain job because of your race it was possible you had special clothing. The clothing prices would be different depending on the resources used to make the finish product. Most clothing was made from wool though (Gale From Colonial India Lessons for a Changed Economy).
The clothing worn was big and covered everything compared to today, to us it looks awful and uncomfortable. I do not think the clothing was right with women, they said it was a free country but women were judged if they were not in a dress. The clothing was too big for them to work in. There were many layers involved and it was not what people would wear today. Men's clothing was a lot more reasonable, if they were not dressed up they were most likely in comfortable clothing that can be seen as similar to today's clothing for men. The clothing they wore was fashionable during this time period. Also working in the colonial era was difficult for women because they were not comfortable.
