I was fortunate enough to have lived with the US forces in Germany several years while we were forming what is now the Kingdom (then Principality) of Drachenwald. One thing I treasure more than many others is a trip into the cellars of the German History Museum in Nuremberg with the Curator. We saw several slashed outfits and asked how "they", meaning the people who made the clothing for wearing, finished the slashes. His answer was "fish glue" on some of them. When the conservators opened up the linings and began to work with the garment you could still smell it very faintly. Other items were simply slashed across the bias and as Sharon says, they weren't washed so they didn't fray.
Still other things such as shoes in velvet DID fray. They were ephemera anyway and not meant to last but be thrown/given away when they were no longer wearable. When we pounced on the steel shanked pearl buttons and lace cuff on several garments he sadly admitted that they had been rented in the early 1950's for costume balls!!! to raise money for the museum which was almost destroyed during the War. They had replaced the real buttons and put the cuffs on to do as much as possible to save the costumes. He had a picture of the loose gown with the undergown with silver lace like overlay (see Janet Arnold) on a lady who was holding her little lap dog in her arms and smiling for the camera. He had another of one of the men's outfits where the man was holding the glory of the collection, a huge gold and silver fully rigged ship style Nef as he poured wine or dispensed salt or spices to the diners at a "Medieval Dinner" held in the old town hall. At the time money was of more importance in saving the entire collection than individual items. The Nef originally had 110 little silver and gold men working on it. Now there are only 10. It's not so different now. An important collection of manuscripts held in the State Library of Baden in Karlsruhe, once a Duchy, will be auctioned off in order to raise enough money to keep up the Ducal castle of Salem (the name made me blink too) which is a school and a landmark. They hope the collection will bring about 70 million Euros. Sigh! At least the manuscripts will probably go to good homes who will love and treasure them. The castle, on the other hand could burn down, fall over, and sink into the swamp (or landscape since I don't remember swamps around there :-( Regina Romsey > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Behalf Of Sharon at Collierfam.com > The slashes -looks like the painter was trying to show shadow lines, which > you'd see if the inner material wasn't tight to the outer > material. I have a > book, "Historical Fashion in Detail", which shows pinked edges > _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
