Humanities & Classics 1002
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Renaissance Forum
Humanities & Classics 1002 |
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"Fashion wears out more apparel than the man."
William Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing
People of the Renaissance Era expressed themselves through their clothing, here are some facets of the costumes they wore.
Bathing:
Tips from the Renaissance Spa:
Beauty is as beauty does, and in the Renaissance the doing is a complicated art that is taken quite seriously:
Herbal essence: Elder flowers improve skin tone. Rosemary restores the hair. Geranium leaves color on the cheeks. Brushing with sage whitens the teeth. For that fresh breath moment, try a little spiced wine as a mouthwash.
For skin as smooth as Mary Queen of Scots', bathe daily in elderberry wine. If you're planning on getting used to this luxury, take steps to see that you're not imprisoned- pressed elderberries aren't on the dungeon menu. Want a supple, white complexion? Soak raw veal in hot milk for several hours. Then place the veal on your cheeks and watch it work its wonderful magic on your ruddy cheeks.
Secret formula of "The Earl of Oxford's Perfume," worn exclusively until now by Queen Elizabeth: Add eight grains of musk to eight spoonfuls of rose water, with three spoonfuls of damask water and a quarter ounce of sugar; boil five hours and strain.
Want to be an egghead? Wear egg whites and honey to condition your skin. To erase those wrinkles, slap on layers of white lead- and now that necklines have taken the plunge, do remember to dab some on your neck and bosom, too. For a spot of color in your cheeks, rub on some mercuric sulphide.
Better still, when in England, wash your face with your own urine to keep your complexion smooth and pale. (For the squeamish: one part rose water, one part wine.)
For a brisk, cleansing body rub, mix rosemary, cedar and turpentine with alcohol. Dip sponges into this mixture and squeeze out into your body and hair. Stay away from an open flame unless you really want to be a hot number!
Underwear:
Corset:
Get thee to a nunnery in 1559 if you don't want to be laced into a bone-crunching corset: fearing for their health, Emperor Ferdinand of Austria passes a law forbidding young girls to wear corsets in nunneries and other places of education. Like Catherine de'Medici, Queen Elizabeth at first wears an iron-winged corset, but the opts for a "softer" device made of leather or canvas, boned with wood or steel. They are lined with sheer silk and laced up the back. The corset goes on after the chemise. Then the Queen, like other noblewomen, puts on a petticoat, topped off with a farthingale. Corsets of gold and silver are found only on courtesans; until, that is, they catch Catherine de'Medici's fancy. Then Catherine de'Medici decrees that having a thick waist is "bad manners." Her ideal? A svelte thirteen inches. To achieve this end, she designs the hinged corset.
Underskirt:
In 1470, Queen Juana of Portugal invents the very first stiffened underskirt- a system of rigid hoops-to hide her pregnancy, which cannot have resulted from her marriage to the invalid Alphonso V. This is just the start of an inexplicable female desire to wear skirts that rival the expanding circumference of the earth. By 1530, linen petticoats are made with circular bands of steel or whalebone that grow wider from the waist to the hem. The voluminous skirt of a gown spreads luxuriously over the steel and linen farthingale, and is sometimes left open to show off an embroidered underskirt.
In France, the farthingale has no hooped inserts. Instead, a bourrelet, or roll of padding, usually made of felt, is stuffed around the waist to widen the skirt. In 1587, the French introduce the drum farthingale, in which there are hoops of the same size, giving the skirt a boxy look. As the farthingale grows in popularity, so do its dimensions-by the time it reaches England, Queen Elizabeth expands its hoops to exaggerated widths.
The farthingale makes sitting so uncomfortable that women are forced to perch, pashalike, on piles of cushions on the floor. Only a real princess could feel a pea in such a situation, but then again, only a real princess or a member of the upper class would be wearing an extremely wide farthingale-laws resrtict the size of the farthingales that can be worn by the bourgeoisie. Besides, middle-class women are too busy working to worry about widening their skirts.
Women's Hosiery:
In 1561 Queen Elizabeth recieves her first pair of silk stockings. Black and sexy, they are presented by her silk woman, Mistress Montague, who knits them expressly for Bess. It's not just gentlemen who prefer the new hose to the woolly knitted worn up till now; Liz is wild about silk and tries to wear nothing else. But when William Lee asks for funding for a machine that will do the knitting, the queen turns him down, fearing the unemployment of hand-knitters. Lee takes his invention to France, where in time it revolutionizes the hosery trade. A week is required to hand-knot two pairs of stockings, and up to six months for one exceptionally fine pair.
Men's Hosiery:
Sixteenth-century men have a sense of fun about their clothes, and hose are still are still a means of self-expression. Hose come in all sorts of bright colors, and contrasting checked and striped patterns are playfully worn at the same time. Around 1500, upper stocks became popular. A kind of minibreeches, these cover the tops the legs and are laced ot fastened with points to the doublet. Lower stocks - you guessed it - cover the shins and are held up by elaborately jeweled or embroidered garters or streamers of fabric at the knee.
Early on, upper stocks look like smooth shorts and pedal pushers, but they soon became a favorie site for slashing. A dashing cavalier will make elaborate cuts in his hose to let his brightly colored underhose show through - but a daring one will forego underwear to reveal a thrilling glimpse of thigh.
But it's not till midcentury that upper hose will truly come into their own, when they blossom into fantastic pumpkin breeches, Venetians, and gallagaskins.
Night wear:
In 1497 Vasco da Gama sails around the Cape of Good Hope and discovers pajamas (from the Hindi for "leg clothing"). Worn for centuries by Indians, pajamas are gauzy, brightly-colored cottons twisted around the hips.
Still, no one in Europe pays much attention. Everyone who isn't still sleeping in the nude wears a silk or linen nightshirt, a long-sleeved, floor-length chemise that first becomes popular in the sixteenth century. The queen of the night is Lucrezia Borgia, who includes some 200 nightshifts in her arsenal of charms.
Outerwear:
Cloaks:
People do have to go outdoors and the fashionable Renaissance man will usually don a thigh-length cloak cut from one piece of brocaded material. In England, by the time of Elizabeth's reign, men wear lots of different kinds of cloaks: short, long, with or without sleeves. Military men wear mandillion - a short tabard (like a poncho), open on both sides, and bordered with a heavy braid. Horseback riders require short cloaks. Dress cloaks come in velvet and tafeta and are lined with fur for luxurious warmth.
Spanish women wear a manto - mantle in English - indoors and out. The length depends not on age, but on a wearer's married state: a widow's manto reaches the ground, and shrouds her completely; and unmarried woman's manto covers all of her face except her eyes. The very rich only wear small head-covering mantos of lace, because they don't ever go outside unless absolutely necessary.
In France, women in mourning wear black hooded cloaks.
In Florence, coarse wool cloaks are given to the poor.
Guild members in Germany never go outdoors without their cloaks.
Nobles, according to sumptuary laws, are allowed to wear preey much what ever they want. Men's cloaks are shorter than women's (because men are wearing shorter and shorter doublets), and fur-lined cloaks and capes are fashionable: Paris alone had more than four hundred furriers filling orders in the fifteenth century. In Elizabethan England, short cloaks must be flung over one shoulder and worn that way. Fashionable men must have three cloaks: for morning, afternoon, and evening.
The historical dish on Little Red Riding Hood's cloak is right, but a little too much has been made of Sir Walter Raleigh's: while it is true that he gallantly spread his cloak across a muddy street so good Queen Bess could pass, it wasn't as great a sacrifice as you think. The cloak was made of leather, and easily cleaned.
Soldier's Dress:
While most Renaissance men are decked out in fancy pants, soldiers still like their skirts. And who can blame them- bases are apronlike wraparounds, tied over armor or sleeveless tops, and made of very glamourous fabrics with organ-pipe pleats. In 1520, Henry VIII boasts bases made of panels of silver and gold cloth, trimmed with elaborate embroidery.
And then, in 1525, those tired old military fashions get a boost from the great Michelangelo. He pioneers a line of soldiers' uniforms still worn by the Swiss guards at the Vatican today. Sadly, Michelangelo never gets his due recognition as a fashion designer; he does, however, find other work.
Sleeves:
Yes, they can afford the sleeves. Nevertheless, around 1520, the sleeveless fur-trimmed gown of sable, ermine, or miniver, worn with a gold chain, is de rigueur. Why? Because during the Renaissance, sleeves themselves became an important fashion focus, too glamorous to be kept under wraps. Men and women both wear gownd with plain sleeves that they cover with detachable, elaborate dress sleeves - pleated, sewn like wings to shoulders, adorned with slashes and /or studded jewels. Favorite styles are the finistrella, two or three panels attatched at intervals, to let puffs of the underchemise show through; the wicked virago, a full, bloused sleeve reigned in at various points with bands; or the lavish puff of every concievable size and design. One dress and a dozen sleeves can make any number of different outfits.
Accesories:
Ruffs:
One of the most extravagant clothing items of the sixteenth century is the ruff, a detatchable pleated collar, supported by a wire frame, that can reach enormous proportions. The style has its roots in the East, where Indians wear collars stiffened with rice water, to protect their clothes from their hair.
In Europe, the ruff begins innocently enough as the simple, high collar of the early century, trimmed with a modest fril. But then, legend has it, in 1540 the queen of Navarre begins widening the frill to hide her ugly throat- and so the ruff is born. It soon spreads to Italy, where Catherine de'Medici, always a trendsetter, is quick to adopt it; and to England, after Mary Tudor weds Phillip II of Spain. The fad gets a boost (and the phrase "Hold the starch!" is invented), when the Dutch Madame Dingham Vander Plasse arrives in England to teach the "art of starching," using a paste made of wheat and other grains, various roots, and evin pigments for a bold note of color. (Yellow is a special favorite.)
A ruff is made of linen that is goffered or folded with a poking stick while still damp. After it dries, it is stored in a band box. The most popular styles include the large cartwheel ruff, the two-layer double ruff, and the cabbage ruff, with asymmetrical folds. Married women wear circular styles, while heart-shaped ones are favored by ladies who are still looking. Among the most elegant ruffs are those in the collection of Queen Elizabeth I of England-
made of exquisite intricately woven lace.
As the century progresses, wearing a stylish collar gets rough, as ruffs reach their outer limits: King Henry II sports a ruff that uses more than eighteen yards of linen and is over eleven feet deep. Two immediate products of the ruff: the chafed neck and the invention of the long-handled spoon- to help food reach people's mouths over these huge collars.
Beards:
The trend in the Renaissance is toward dignity, and what could be more dignified than a beard? Early styles are broad and square, a la Henry VIII, but as the sixteenth century progresses, a whole range of styles crops up: the tiny pointed Spanish beard; the pencil beard, nothing but a tuft; the stiletto beard, a razored strip; the cathedral beard, an august mass of fluff; the spade beard; and the fetching, double-pronged swallow's tail. Beards are powdered, waxed and perfumed- and, in a compliment to russet-haired Queen Elizabeth I, even dyed red. To preserve their hairy treasures overnight, men tie cloth bags around their beards or keep them clamped in iron presses.
Shoes:
Necessity being the mother of invention, Charles VIII of France wears an unusual , broad-toed shoe to hide his deformed foot. A generation later, Francis I goes him one better: His broad-toed, low-cut slipers are attached to straps across the instep. Everyone knows that when Francis I is setting a fashion trend, Henry VIII of England will not be far behind. Henry gets in step, and soon Renaissance men everywhere are wearing soft slippers of velvet, silk, leather, and brocad, the most fashionable insisting on violet cloth or leather. And to show off their beloved hose, glamorous, style-conscious courtiers even slash their shoes.
Extra bits of leather make the slippers sturdier, and over time cork soles are added for height and durability. By midcentury, the flat-foot look is dead, abandoned for more elegantly styled heeled shoes. And shoe business gains a new respectability in 1579, when Queen Elizabeth I grants shoemakers their own coat of arms.
Jewelry: What to do with your jewels?
Pendants: You can wear them (instead of your heart) on your sleeve, or around your neck, dangling from a chain. You might want a dragon, a sea monster, a mermaid, or a ship to celebrate the age of exploration. For more classic tastes, there are animals, birds, insects, lizards, crosses - or simply your initials.
Chains: Whether you wear a pendant or not, you'll certainly want some chains - long, heavy gold ones decorated with filigree or studded with - what else? - jewels. If you're a king, you might even want an entire collar of links strewn with fabulous gems.
Bracelets, Necklaces, and Rings: These old standbys of course, never go out of style, and if you have some gems left over, you can have them set in aglets, small brooches that you can pin all over your clothes. If your ruff gets so big that it swallows up your necklace, you can wear your strung jewels as a belt instead.
Headgear: In the early sisteenth century, you'll enjoy a chaplet of pearls or a hairnet studded with gems. But as the century progresses, and hairdos grow more upswept, your jewels will look better in an elaborate diadem. For men there is the hat badge: a handsome jeweled brooch tacked boldly to an upturned brim. You might want yours to feature a picture from the Scriptures - a nice St. John writing his gospel, say, while borne on the back of an eagle - or later, a portrait of your king.
And if you still need more places to display your jewels, remember that in the Renaissance, anything goes. Just sprinkle them anywhere - sew them to our bodices, and on the edge of your robes, or even encrust them on your shoes.
Perfume:
In 1508, the Dominican brotherhood established the world's first perfumery at the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Returning Crusaders have brought scents of the East to Europe, and men and women have taken to waters made from tragacanth, styrax, calamus, and labdnum. But now, with generous contributions from the Medicis and the Pope, the brothers are able to put out a catalogue featuring long-life elixir; rhubarb elixir for cleaning out the system; and fragrant orris powder to sprinkle on linen, teeth, and skin. They also perfume gloves. Why are holy men involved in such a sensual pursuit? The cottage industry is ultimately an act of mercy in an era when most people never bathe.
Hats:
Women begin the Renaissance with a nod to the wimple, wearing Anne of Brittany caps, but now pushed back on the head to show a bit of hair; or the beguin, a linen hood with flaps framing the face and a veil trailing down the back of the neck. Variations include, the French hood, a crest that sits on the back of the head attached to a flowing veil; and the Mary Queen of Scots cap, a veil sspended from a rigid frame bowed our at the temples. But unlike their Middle Ages counterparts, these hoods are anything but demure - more often than not they're mad of rich velvets, studded with precious jewels.
Before long, however, the craze for ruffs makes it more practical for women to sport hats. By the 1570s, Spanish women are sporting high-crowned toques, often trimmed with plumes: the Germans opt for jaunty toppers, perched at dramatic angles; and the Italians, who spur the neoclassical revival of the Renaissance, adorn their hair with simple, jeweled fillets.
Men's hats of the sixtenth century are varied and elegant, ranging from smart flat caps to splashy cartwheels to top hats of velvet, felt or fur, trimmed with feathers or even narrow bands of precious gems.
In France men like small hats with large brims that dip down over one ear, while Germans opt for the widest brims and the most luxuriant plumes. These days a knight who exhibits special gallantry is awarded a special badge of honor- a feather in his cap. And for hunting, hoods, often made of leather, are still all the rage.
Many of these hat styles are created by costumers from Milan who have set up shop throughout Europe. Henceforth, any hatmaker comes to be known as a "Milaner."
With all these hat styles around, men try to abandon the flatbrimmed beret in the mid-1560s. To keep the beret industry going, a law is passes, requiring every male over the age of six to wear a wool beret on Sundays.
Gloves:
By the Renaissance, gloves that had begun to grace European courts during the Middle Ages have become the leading fashion accesory. Every country has at least one glovemaker and perfumer to meet the demands of its nobility; Portugal has eight. Charles V of Austria has close-fitting gold gloves studded with pearls. Elizabeth I of England likes embroidered animals, and one French duke, Jacques de Nemours, likes gloves so much he wears two pairs at the same time. Most other people just carry gloves, rather than wear them. And the most dubious achievement award for wedding presents goes to Spain's Philip III, who in 1599 presents his bride-to-be with two hundred pairs of gloves.
The ultimate luxury is perfumed gloves, a craze that lasts nearly two hundred years. But while perfume may mask unpleasant scents, it can also hide malevolent intentions: Jeanne d'Albret, mother of Henry IV of France, is murdered by a pair of poisonous perfumed gloves.
How to be a Botticelli Beauty:
1. Appear proud and delicate and pure- even if you have to fake it.
2. Shave off your widow's peak to achieve a high brow.
3. Arrange remaining hair in massive swirls, preferably colored strawberry blond.
4. Adjust your makeup to create wide-set, dream-laden eyes.
5. Affect a long, graceful neck and small breasts (by stretching and binding, in that order). Ample thighs are also de rigueur.
Their speech and their attire
Are such that an honest women
Would fear to be censured
For clothing so lascivious;
It is hard for them to turn their necks
In the long pleats of their ruffs,
White flour is not good enough
For the stiffening of their shirts;
To attain style more exquisite
They must have rice for starch
Their pates are clipped by compass
But not the same all over
For in fromt it is long
Over the ears, and in the back comes low.
It is held in place by artifice
For it is kept flat with gum
Or twisted into curls
And over their frivolous heads
A cap worn towards the back
Disguises them even further.
Author unknown
Printed aprox. 1580
Thank you for taking the time to read the whole damn thing. It took us a long time to type it and we appreciate your interest.
sources;
Let There Be Clothes by Lynn Schnurnberger, 1991
Fashion, the Mirror of History by Michael and Ariane Batterberry, 1977