At 21:18 10/12/2008, you wrote:
Thank you for all that help. I think it will be all a bit much for
the customer. I am not making this outfit - they have an event, a one
off, and are trying to make as little as possible. Bloomin' gable
headdresses seem to be de rigeur at this time, and I can't see them
making those somehow! I made them costumes of around 1570 for other
events but they are not really suitable for quick and dirty conversions.
However, I'll pass this on, with thanks again.
Suzi
I'll give you a quick general run-down; I haven't got it in me right
now to look up all the documentation. Hopefully this'll give you a
good starting point. I'm guessing you're interested in English styles,
so I'll try to slant it that way, but I'll have to refer heavily to
continental styles because A) they're so much better documented and B)
a few years later when English fashions get easier to document, they
match up reasonably well with what the Franco-Flemish were doing 10-15
years earlier. So, when I get continental, I'll try to describe what
they were wearing c1488-1493.
Monumental brasses will be your best resource for c1500 English
fashions. They're not the most accurate source, but they're loads
better than almost nothing you'll find in the portraits arena.
However, Elizabeth of York's c1500 portrait shows what seems to be a
pretty typical style for the era/area, even if it is in much more
luxurious fabrics than your average gentlewoman would have been
wearing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Elizabeth_of_York.jpg
Henry the VIII's sisters, Mary Tudor--who went on to queen it in
France--and Margaret Tudor, who queened Scotland, have a few
illuminations floating around; they were famous beauties. (The
portraits I've found of them are probably wrong for your project,
though there's a painting of Margaret that's only a few years too
late, and a sketch of Mary that's only a tad too French.) Catherine
of Aragon has at least one great portrait from c1505, during her
widowhood:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Michel_Sittow_002.jpg
though again, the style she's wearing is not terribly English. Stick
with the brasses.
If you search through google books, you'll find some transcripts of
descriptions of coronations, inventories, etc from around that time.
For example, here's the privy purse expenses of Elizabeth of York:
http://books.google.com/books?id=p91CAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22elizabeth+of+york%22
(Sorry, this is just the first one I ran into in my bookmarks.
There's lots more good stuff there. The Victorians may have been
horrible costume historians in a lot of ways, but they were great at
transcribing.)
On to the overall style. I read one great description in a
Spaniard-visits-the-Engligh-court travelogue from the mid 1500s; even
though it's the wrong date, it pretty well sums up the English
fashions c1500: frumpy and ill-fitting, making the women look
shapeless and sloppy. Franco-Flemish high fashion in the last years
of the 15th century had a well-fitted 4-panel square-necked overgown
over a bust-supporting 4-panel undergown (directly descended from the
GFD). The English c1500 most likely also wore a bust-supporting
undergown, but rather than fitting like a glove, their overgowns
tended to fit like a brown paper bag.
(I'll be making sweeping generalizations here. This is not the only
style nor the only way it was done. It's just the most common,
stereotypical style.)
For illustration purposes (but not documentation, since I don't know
exactly when this is from... but it's the right style), here's a
typical c1500 English outfit:
http://www.uvm.edu/~hag/sca/tudor/trivick02.jpg
Here's a c1504 English brass--not as detailed, but more dateable:
http://www.thurrock-community.org.uk/historysoc/brasses/stiff2.jpg
For the overgown, start by picturing a non-bust-supporting GFD that
skims over the body but doesn't fit it closely. Give it a front
placket opening down to hip level, hiding a hook-and-eyes closure.
The neckline should be cut square (when you cut it square, it'll slip
off the shoulders a bit when worn and no longer look square--this is
the correct look) and high; up to about collarbone level. Much like
the French and Flemish in the 1490s, the English c1500 sometimes put
an angled-up peak at the center front of the neckline, like in that
second link. A fabric guard, most often shown as black, was usually
applied to the neckline and front opening. Most or all of the
overgowns seem to have been lined in some type of fur, which may be
part of the reason for the high frumpiness level.
(Apart from the frumpiness, the overgown is very very similar to that
worn in the 1490s on the continent. There are quite a lot of
Franco-Flemish paintings & illuminations that show it.)
On the continent, they were experimenting with waist seams across the
back that had pleats below, but not in England--no waist seams on this
style there yet. On most of the brasses, the length of the gown is
past-the-floor, but that's not necessarily realistic. The sleeves are
usually relatively closely fitted, with a large turned-up fur-lined
cuff at the end, often with a slit.
The one non-typical feature of the top image I linked to is the
chemise; a more typical look would be a sheer white scarf with the
ends tucked down into the overgown's neckline. (Just make a basic,
tunic-style, not-meant-to-be-seen chemise.) The belt, however, is very
typical; big, bulky, long, decorative, and buckled loosely so that it
hangs off the hips. The kennel/pediment gable hood is also almost
universal.
I'm not much of a shoe expert, but on some brasses of the time I've
seen little pointy toes sticking out from under the hem. The big
bearclaw type shoes don't seem to have hit England yet at this time,
but don't quote me on that.
As far as patterns go, there's none out there that I know of that get
it all right, but I'd bet you can come up with your own!
-E House
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