Thursday, July 17, 2008

Fashion Continuity of 1600 - 1650.

1600-1650 in fashion

Frans Hals' Laughing Cavalier (in the Wallace Collection) wears a slashed doublet, wide reticella lace collar and cuffs, and a broadbrimmed hat, 1624

Fashion in the period 1600-1650 in Western European clothing is characterized by the disappearance of the ruff in favour of broad lace or linen collars. Waistlines rose through the period for both men and women. Other notable fashions included full, slashed sleeves and tall or broad hats with brims. For men, hose disappeared in favour of breeches.


Overview

The artist Rubens with his first wife c. 1610. Her long, rounded stomacher and jacket-like bodice are characteristic Dutch fashions

The silhouette, which was essentially close to the body with tight sleeves and a low, pointed waist to around 1615, gradually softened and broadened. Sleeves became very full, and in the 1620s and 1630s were often paned or slashed to show the voluminous sleeves of the shirt or chemise beneath. Waistlines rose.
Spanish fashions remained very conservative. The ruff lingered longest in Spain and Holland, but disappeared first for men and later for women in France and England.
The social tensions leading to the English Civil War were reflected in English fashion, with the elaborate French styles popular at the courts of James I and his son Charles I contrasting with the sober styles in sadd or somber colours favoured by Puritans and exported to the early settlements of New England (see below).
In the early decades of the century, a trend among poets and artists to adopt a fashionable pose of melancholia is reflected in fashion, where the characteristic touches are dark colours, open collars, unbuttoned gowns or doublets, and a generally disheveled appearance, accompanied in portraits by world-weary poses and sad expressions.


Fashions influenced by royal courts

Fabric and patterns

Scrolling floral embroidery decorates this Englishwoman's gown, petticoat, and linen jacket, accented with yellow-tinted reticella collar, cuffs, and headdress, c. 1614-18.

Figured silks with elaborate pomegranate or artichoke patterns are still seen in this period, especially in Spain, but a lighter style of scrolling floral motifs, woven or embroidered, was popular, especially in England.
The great flowering of needlelace occurred in this period. Geometric reticella deriving from cutwork was elaborated into true needlelace or punto in aria (called in England "point lace"), which also reflected the popular scrolling foral designs.
In England, embroidered linen jackets fastened with ribbon ties were fashionable for both men and women from c. 1600-1620, as was reticella tinted with yellow starch. Gowns with split sleeves (often trimmed with horizontal rows of braid) were worn by both men and women.
From the 1620s, surface ornament fell out of fashion in favour of solid-colour satins, and functional ribbon bows or points became elaborate masses of rosettes and looped trim.

Portraiture and fantasy
In England from the 1630s, under the influence of literature and especially court masques, Anthony van Dyck and his followers created a fashion for having one's portrait painted in exotic, historical or pastoral dress, or in simplified contemporary fashion with various scarves, cloaks, mantles, and jewels added to evoke a classic or romantic mood, and also to prevent the portrait appearing dated within a few years. These paintings are the progenitors of the fashion of the later 17th century for having one's portrait painted in undress, and do not necessarily reflect clothing as it was actually worn.

Women's fashions


Elizabeth Poulett wears a low rounded neckline and a small ruff with paired with a winged collar. Her tight sleeves have pronounced shoulder wings and deep lace cuffs. English court costume, 1616
Gowns, bodices, and petticoats
In the early years of the new century, fashionable bodices had high necklines or extremely low, rounded necklines, and short wings at the shoulders. Separate closed cartwheel ruffs were worn. Long sleeves were worn with deep cuffs to match the ruff. The cartwheel ruff disappeared in fashionable England by 1613.
By the mid-1620s, styles were relaxing. Ruffs were discarded in favour of wired wing collars called rebatos and, later, wide, flat collars. By the 1630s and 1640s, collars were accompanied by kerchiefs similar to the linen kerchiefs worn by middle-class women in the previous century; often the collar and kerchief were trimmed with matching lace.
Bodices were long-waisted at the beginning of the century, but waistlines rose steadily to the 1640s before beginning to drop again. Bodices with wide, low, straight necklines were worn with matching or contrasting stomachers that ended in a broad, rounded point below the higher waist. Separate stomachers later disappeared in favour of bodices closed in front with tabbed skirts called basques; these were often worn with a ribbon sash.

Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I of England, wears a closed satin high-waisted bodice with tabbed skirts and open three-quarter sleeves over full chemise sleeves. She wears a ribbon sash. C. 1632-1635.

The long, tight sleeves of the early 1600s grew shorter, fuller, and looser. A common style of 1620s and 1630s was the virago sleeve, a full, slashed sleeve gathered into two puffs by a ribbon or other trim above the elbow.
In France and England, lightweight bright or pastel-coloured satins replaced dark, heavy fabrics. As in other periods, painters tended to avoid the difficulty of painting striped fabrics; it is clear from inventories that these were common. Short strings of pearls were fashionable.
Unfitted gowns (called nightgowns in England) with long hanging sleeves, short open sleeves, or no sleeves at all were worn over the bodice and skirt and tied with a ribbon sash at the waist. In England of the 1610s and '20s, a loose nightgown was often worn over an embroidered jacket called a waistcoat and a contrasting embroidered petticoat, without a farthingale. Black gowns were worn for the most formal occasions; they fell out of fashion in England in the 1630s in favour of gowns to match the bodice and petticoat, but remained an important item of clothing on the Continent.
At least in the Netherlands the open-fronted overgown or vlieger was strictly reserved for married women. Before marriage the bouwen, "a dress with a fitted bodice and a skirt that was closed all round" was worn instead; it was known in England as a "Dutch" or "round gown".
Skirts might be open in front to reveal an underskirt or petticoat until about 1630, or closed all around; closed skirts were sometimes carried or worn looped up to reveal a petticoat.

Underwear
Underwear consisted of a linen chemise or smock and (optionally) linen drawers. The chemise could have a low, square neckline or a high neckline; either style could be worn with ruffs (to c. 1625) or the newly fashionable broad collars.
Corsets were shorter to suit the new bodices, and might have a very stiff busk in the center front extending to the depth of the stomacher. Skirts were held in the proper shape by a padded roll or French farthingale holding the skirts out in a rounded shape at the waist, falling in soft folds to the floor. The drum or wheel farthingale was worn at the English court until the death of Anne of Denmark in 1619.
In conservative Spanish court fashion, the cone-shaped Spanish farthingale of the last century lingered well into the period, to be replaced by wide French farthingales toward the 1650s, long after they had gone out of style elsewhere.


Men's fashions

Charles I wears a slashed doublet with paned sleeves, breeches, and tall narrow boots with turned-over tops, 1631

Shirts, doublets, and jerkins
Doublet of embroidered glazed linen, 1635-40, V&A Museum no. 177-1900.
Linen shirts had deep cuffs. Shirt sleeves became fuller throughout the period. To the 1620s, a collar wired to stick out horizontally, called a whisk, was popular. Other styles included an unstarched ruff-like collar and, later, a rectangular falling band lying on the shoulders. Beards adopted the term Van Dyke, they were pointed and often a large and wide moustache was grown too. Doublets were pointed and fitted close to the body, with tight sleeves, to about 1615. Gradually waistlines rose and sleeves became fuller, and both body and upper sleeves might be slashed to show the shirt beneath. By 1640 doublets were full and unfitted, and might be open at the front below the high waist to show the shirt.
Sleeveless leather jerkins were worn by soldiers and are seen in portraits, but otherwise the jerkin rapidly fell out of fashion for indoor wear.

Hose and breeches
Paned or pansied trunk hose or round hose, padded hose with strips of fabric (panes) over a full inner layer or lining, were worn early in the period, over cannions, fitted hose that ended above the knee. Trunk hose were longer than in the previous period, and were pear-shaped, with less fullness at the waist and more at mid-thigh.
Slops or galligaskins, loose hose reaching just below the knee, replaced all other styles of hose by the 1620s, and were now generally called breeches. Breeches might be fastened up the outer leg with buttons or buckles over a full lining.
From 1600 to c. 1630, hose or breeches were fastened to doublets by means of ties or points, short laces or ribbons pulled through matching sets of worked eyelets. Points were tied in bows at the waist and became more elaborate until they disappeared with the very short waisted doublets of the late 1630s. Decorated metal tips on points were called aiguillettes or aiglets, and those of the wealthy were made of precious metals set with pearls and other gemstones.
Spanish breeches, rather stiff ungathered breeches, were also popular throughout the era.

Outerwear
The Duke of Buckingham wears a wired collar with lace trim and a slashed doublet and sleeves. His hair falls in loose curls to his collar. C. 1625
Gowns were worn early in the period, but fell out of fashion in the 1620s.
Short cloaks or capes, usually hip-length, often with sleeves, were worn by fashionable men, usually slung artistically over the left shoulder, even indoors; a fashion of the 1630s matched the cape fabric to the breeches and its lining to the doublet. Long cloaks were worn for inclement weather.





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