Thanks for the lead. (The particular costuming project went in another
direction, but the theoretical question is still fascinating.) As you note,
the really problematic aspect for the bias cut is the lack of genealogy.
(There's a similar problem for that handful of Spanish bias-plaid garments, but
in that case I'm willing to put more weight on the careful depiction of how the
pattern behaves with respect to the cloth. I still have reservations in that
case on the genealogical side, but ...)
The woven-in-diagonals theory seems quite plausible to me from parallel
evidence for lozenge patterns. One of the 13th c. garments at Burgos, Spain is
made from a silk fabric woven in square checkerboard-style checks (i.e.,
alternating solid colors, not a gingham-style pattern) but set lozenge-wise
with respect to the grain of the fabric.
Heather
On Oct 30, 2010, at 1:11 AM, Danielle Nunn-Weinberg wrote:
Hi Heather,
I don't get on here much these days but this caught my eye because I was
pulling my hair out over it lately. I have seen, a couple of manuscript
images and I believe I might have at least one of them *somewhere* of weavers
actually weaving the diagonal stripes. But I will be damned if I can figure
out where I have seen them. I believe one was in a book of trades type
manuscript, one might have turned up in one of Shelly Nordtorp-Madson slides
that she showed us in class one day, and I'm sure one is one of my
manuscripts or manuscript related books but I haven't been able to track any
of them down yet. The problem with collecting those sorts of things is you
wind up with a lot of books. Now I'm not saying that those are proof either
way, but they open the door of possibility that it is fabric woven that way
rather worn bias-cut. Personally, I have trouble with the bias-cut garment
theory as well purely on the garment evolution issue - what did it come from,
and what!
did it become afterwards? Just my two cents... If I ever do turn up the
pictures, I will send them to you!
Cheers,
Danielle
At 11:47 PM 10/20/2010, you wrote:
With the caveats that artistic representations aren't always intended to
represent actual clothing construction, and that representations of clothing
decoration are sometimes intended to convey symbolism rather than fabric
structures, and that there are multiple ways to create any particular
decorative effect in fabric ...
What are people's thoughts on the garments depicted in the early 14th c.
Manesse Codex that have diagonal striped designs? Woven as diagonal
stripes? Print? Woven as straight-grain stripes and cut on the bias?
Symbolic interpretation of armorial designs not intending to represent
actual garments? Some other option?
How is a given hypothesis affected by other stripe-like designs in the
manuscript? (Primarily horizontal stripes, but also chevron designs.)
Here's a link to an image showing a variety of these designs, just for
reference.
I'm contemplating the plausibility of the bias cut hypothesis, but I'm
failing to convince myself, given that the reasoning that would support it
would also conclude that the diagonal-stripe and horizontal-stripe garments
in the manuscript represent two entirely different ways of cutting garments
that are otherwise identical in depiction.
Heather
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