I've heard this story before. I doubt that it's true, but you never know. The other part of the story was that you got your best friend or the guy with the best aim to slash the fabric on your codpiece. Frankly, I personally think it was a bunch of mercenary who a) wanted a distinctive look, and b) wanted to look like the upper classes who could afford all the slashings on their clothing.
In many cases, fabric was much more tightly woven than it is today, so if it were cut, it would not fray. Also, one could use gum arabic (like today's Fray Chek) on the edges of the fabric so it wouldn't fray. Landsknenechts were like later hussars -- all about the look. Kathleen Norvell -----Original Message----- From: Julie <[email protected]> To: h-costume <[email protected]> Cc: h-costume <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, Jul 22, 2014 3:54 pm Subject: [h-cost] slashing fabric I saw this on another list and I thought I'd check with the wise folks on his list. I've never heard this before. Truth or myth? " I took a history of fashion class in college (design major) and the ecorative cutting of clothes goes back to the 16th century if not earlier. It started with the german warriors who would take the fine silk clothing f the people they bested in battle but the clothing was too small (these ere evidently big guys) so they cut the pants up in decorative slashes so hat they could still wear them. (look up "landschkinects") This was of ourse before the invention of the washing machine so the fabric didn't isintegrate like it would now with modern washing practices. And the ashion spread throughout Europe. The frayed edges of the cuts were efinitely part of the design element of it to the extent that there were ome fabrics woven to look like they had been decoratively cut...the frayed dge duplicated with an overlaid weft that was severed after weaving (like elvet, only in spots) and there were special chisels made for the tailors o do the cutting with." Thanks for your wisdom ulie On Tue, Jul 22, 2014 at 11:00 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Send h-costume mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of h-costume digest..." Today's Topics: 1. LonCon Membership for sale ([email protected]) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 16:06:49 -0400 (EDT) From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [h-cost] LonCon Membership for sale Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hello, I am selling my membership to LonCon, the world SF con in London. I am asking $100, which is what it cost me at ChiCon. Henry Osier ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume End of h-costume Digest, Vol 13, Issue 62 ***************************************** ______________________________________________ -costume mailing list [email protected] ttp://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
