You can find back lacing on gowns from Henry the 7th period (early tudor)in England and France. Rare but it did exist.
-----Original Message----- It is my gut instinct that the front fastening was probably lacing and just was not depicted. Men can have quite a tapered waist, but what it's tapering from isn't as 'squishy' as a women. This is common on depictions of women's tightly fitting garments, that the lacing was not shown when it was closed. The lacing was merely a functional element and not a decorative one. (This is based on Robin Netherton's work largely, but also on what I've seen in ms. illuminations.) I have never seen any depiction before, maybe 1480s ?? (purely memory here for dates) of any back lacing garment, and that was in Italy. Side fastenings may have had a brief vogue in the thirteenth century (the 'bliaut') and are sometimes shown as a letting-out device on a pregnant woman (the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth). Where you might see any fastenings shown at all is on allegorical depictions of The Fountain of Youth or a mass baptism, occasionally a swimming scene, where someone is stripping on shore. Naturally, these allegorical scenes have to be used cautiously. I believe a very flexible man or one who does not taper sharply along his trapezius muscles may achieve a similar look, but generally, either tight or pull-over. Ann in CT --- Zuzana Kraemerova <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > http://www.kazi.webz.cz/wagner/images/wag01-28.jpg > _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
