My comments are in reference to this site:
http://www.ninyamikhaila.com/Princesselizabeth.html
> So what she has is:
> smock
> bodice and wool skirt
> petticoat
> farthingale
> kirtle/corset
> gown.
> Is this correct?
> I have alway thought it was:
> smock (maybe underwear)
> kirtle
> gown
I'm hoping that the _Tudor Tailor_ book that's coming out soon will answer
these questions. Based on my perusal of portraits the Farthingale layer is
optional -- c1530 most portraits don't show it, however by 1545, the royal
family at least is wearing farthingales. Supposedly farthingales were
introduced into England by Catharine of Aragon, but they don't seem to have
caught on immediately. According to Ninya, "The first farthingale mentioned in
England was in the Royal Wardrobe accounts in 1545 for Princess Elizabeth"
Ninya Mikhaila's site is the only reference I've seen to the odd red
bodice/wool skirt/petticoat thing. Awhile ago she had a pdf on her website
(which I can no longer find on-line; it was titled "Background and references
to the reproduction of the costume worn by
Princess Elizabeth in the 1546 portrait at Windsor" and the name of the pdf was
Sources_for_Elizabeth.pdf) that did talk a little about the petticoat:
"It is clear from household accounts of this period that a lady's outfit above
her smock consisted of a petticoat, kirtle and gown. Since we are not left with
much in the way of visual information to work from there is an amount of
conjecture as to exactly how these garments were constructed and what they
actually looked like. Petticoats are usually listed as having 'bodies' as well
as skirts, interestingly the Petre accounts suggest only one and a quarter
yards of cloth for a petticoat. Although cloth was wider than silk it still
suggests a fairly skimpy garment. Janet Arnold suggests that the upper part of
the petticoat was merely there to keep the skirts up and therefore could be
almost as minimal as a
pair of braces. The petticoat we have made to go with this costume has a red
taffeta bodice and a red wool skirt. This combination is based on an entry in
Mary I accounts for 1554 - '...a peticoate of scarlet, the upper bodyes of
crimson tapheta...' Petticoats mentioned in contemporary accounts from
Thomasine Petre to Mary I are always red, it may have been thought that some
kind of healthful benefit could be derived from wearing red close to the body,
one of Henry VIII's physicians advised that scarlet be worn next over the shirt
(cunnington 1970, 26)"
The layers Ninya used, as I see it are:
Smock
Red wool/taffeta petticoat
Farthingale
Kirtle
Gown
Hope that's useful!
-sunny
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