1550-1600 in fashion
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Fashion in the period 1550-1600 in Western European clothing is characterized by increased opulence, the rise of the ruff, the expansion of the farthingale for women, and, for men, the disappearance of the codpiece.
Contents |
[edit] General trends
The severe fashions of the Spanish court under Philip II of Spain were dominant through the early part of the period everywhere except France; black garments were worn for the most formal occasions. Regional styles were still distinct. Janet Arnold in her analysis of Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe records identifies French, Italian, Dutch, and Polish styles for bodices and sleeves, as well as Spanish.
The general trend toward abundant surface ornamentation in the Elizabethan Era was mirrored in clothing, especially amongst the aristocracy in England: shirts and chemises were embroidered with blackwork and edged in lace, and heavy cut velvets and brocades were further ornamented with applied lace, gold and silver embroidery, and jewels.
Leather and fabric garments continued to be decorated by slashing and punching the fabric in regular patterns, and linings could be pulled through the slashes in small puffs.
By the end of the period, a sharp distinction could be seen between the sober fashions favored by Protestants in England and the Netherlands, which still showed heavy Spanish influence, and the light, revealing fashions of the French and Italian courts; this distinction would carry over well into the seventeenth century.
[edit] Women's Fashion
[edit] Bodices and sleeves
The narrow-shouldered, wide-cuffed "trumpet" sleeves characteristic of the 1540s and 1550s disappeared with the accession of Elizabeth, in favor of French and Spanish styles with narrower sleeves.
Emphasis was on high or wide shoulders. Slashed upper sleeves with puffs of the chemise pulled through, seen in Italian dress in the 1560s, evolved into single or double rows of loops at the shoulder with contrasting linings. By the 1580s these had been adapted in England as padded and jeweled shoulder rolls.
Bodices could be high-necked or have a broad, low, square neckline, often with a slight arch at the front early in the period. French, Spanish, and English bodices were stiffened into a cone shape or worn over corsets. Bodices fastened with hooks in front or were laced at the side-back seam; high-necked bodices styled like men's doublets might fasten with hooks or buttons. The bodice ended in a V-shape at the front waist in French, English, annd Spanish fashion. Italian and German fashion retained the front-laced bodice of the previous period, with the ties laced in parallel rows; Italian fashion uniquely featured a broad U-shape rather than a V at the front waist.
A low neckline could be filled in with a partlet. English partlets were usually of embroidered linen with matching sleeves. Embroidered sets of partlet and sleeves were frequently given to Elizabeth as New Year's gifts. Alternatively, a high-necked chemise with a standing collar and ruff could be worn.
[edit] Gowns
Gowns with hanging sleeves in various styles, often lined in fur, were worn as an extra layer indoors and out through the period. Loose gowns of the 1560s hung from the shoulders, and some had puffed upper sleeves. Loose gowns could be worn over a one-piece kirtle or under-dress, usually laced at the back.
Later gowns were fitted to the figure and had full or round sleeves with a wristband. These were worn over a bodice and matching skirt or petticoat and undersleeves. Extremely long hanging sleeves came into fashion at the end of the period.
[edit] Skirts
The fashion for skirts worn open at the front to display a rich petticoat or separate forepart continued into the 1580s. The forepart was a heavily decorated panel to fill in the front opening; it might be sewn to a plain petticoat or pinned in place. Often the forepart matched the bodice sleeves.
[edit] Underwear
During this period, underwear consisted of a linen chemise or smock and (optionally) linen drawers. The chemise could have a low, square neckline or a high collar and ruff like a man's shirt. Fine chemises were embroidered and trimmed with narrow lace.
To shape the figure, the fashionable lady wore a corset called a pair of bodies. Her skirts were held in the proper shape by a farthingale or hoop skirt. In Spain, the cone-shaped Spanish farthingale remained in fashion into the early 17th century. It was only briefly fashionable in France, where a padded roll or French farthingale held the skirts out in a rounded shape at the waist, falling in soft folds to the floor. In England, the Spanish farthingale was worn through the 1570s, and was gradually replaced by the French farthingale. By the 1590s, skirts were pinned to wide wheel farthingales to achieve a drum shape.
Italian women wore skirts gathered at the waist, without hoops.
[edit] Outerwear
Women wore sturdy overskirts call safeguards over their gowns for riding or travel on dirty roads. Hooded cloaks were worn overall in bad weather.
[edit] Hairstyles and headgear
Early in the period, hair was parted in the center and fluffed over the temples; later front hair was curled and puffed high over the forehead. Wigs and false hairpieces were used to extend the hair.
In keeping with tradition, married women wore their hair pinned up and covered. A close-fitting linen cap called a coif or biggins was worn, alone or under other hats; many embroidered and lace-trimmed coifs survive from this period. A cap wired or starched into slight heart-shape is called by costume historians a Mary Stuart cap after the Queen of Scots who wears one in several portraits.
In this period, women began to wear hats similar to those worn by men, a fashion which was deplored by Puritan commentator Philip Stubbes in his Anatomie of Abuses 1583 (ironically, a tall hat would become a characteristic of Puritan women's costume in the 1590s and for half a century thereafter, contributing to the popular notion of "Pilgrim" dress).
First-time brides wore their hair down in token of virginity and wore orange blossoms in their hair.
[edit] Style gallery 1550s-1560s
1 - 1554 |
2 - 1555 |
3 - 1555-57 |
4 - 1555-58 |
5 - 1560 |
6 - 1562 |
7 - 1563 |
8 - 1560s |
- Dutch fashion of 1554: A black gown with high puffed upper sleeves is worn over a black bodice and a gray skirt with black trim. The high-necked chemise or partlet is worn open with the three pairs of ties that fasten it dangling free.
- Titian's Lady in White wears Italian fashion of 1555. The front-lacing bodice remained fashionable in Italy and the German States. She appears to be wearing a straight-bodied corset.
- The young Maria de' Medici wears a blue gown with a flared collar and tight undersleeves with horizontal trim. The uncorseted S-shaped figure is clearly shown, 1555-57.
- Mary I wears a brocade gown with fur-lined "trumpet" sleeves and a matching overpartlet with a flared collar, 1555-58. Neither the sleeves nor the overpartlet would survive as fashionable items in England into the 1560s.
- Eleanor of Toledo wears a red loose gown over a bodice and a sheer linen partlet. Her brown gloves have tan cuffs, 1560.
- Margaret Audley, Duchess of Norfolk wears the high-collared gown of the 1560s with puffed hanging sleeves. Under it she wears a high-necked bodice and tight undersleeves and a petticoat with an elaborately embroidered forepart, 1562.
- The Gripsholm Portrait, thought to be Elizabeth I, shows her wearing a red gown with a fur lining. She wears a red flat hat over a small cap or caul that confines her hair.
- Mary Queen of Scots wears an open French collar with an attached ruff under a black gown with a flared collar and white lining. Her black hat with a feather is decorated with pearls and worn over a caul that covers her hair, 1560s.
[edit] Style gallery 1570s
1 - 1570 |
2 - 1570 |
3 - 1571 |
4 - c. 1572 |
5 - c.1575 |
6 - c. 1578 |
7 - 1578 |
8 - 1579 |
- Horizontal lacing over a stomacher and an open chemise are characteristic of Italian fashion. The skirt is gathered at the waist.
- Jeanne d'Albret wears a high-necked partlet with an attached ruff open at her throat. Her long hair is twisted with pink ribbon and pinned in a crown on the back of her head; her front hair is parted in the center and tightly curled, 1570.
- Elizabeth of Austria is portrayed by the French court painter François Clouet in a brocade gown and a partlet with a lattice of jewels, 1571. The lattice partlet is a common French fashion.
- In this allegorical painting c. 1572, Elizabeth I wears a fitted gown with hanging sleeves over a matching arched bodice and skirt or petticoat, elaborate undersleeves, and a high-necked chemise with a ruff. Her skirt fits smoothly over a Spanish farthingale.
- Elizabeth I wears a doublet with fringed braid trim that forms button loops and a matching petticoat. Janet Arnold suggests that this method of trimming may be a Polish fashion (similar trimmings à la hussar were worn in the nineteenth century).
- Mary Queen of Scots in captivity wears French fashions: her open ruff fastens at the base of the neck, and her skirt hangs in soft folds over a French farthingale. She wears a cap and veil.
- Nicholas Hilliard's miniature of his wife Alice shows her wearing an open partlet and a closed ruff. Her blackwork sleeves have a sheer overlayer. She wears a black hood with a veil, 1578.
- German fashion: Margarethe Elisabeth von Ansbach-Bayreuth wears a tall-collared black gown over a reddish-pink doublet with tight sleeves and a matching petticoat. She wears a black hat.
[edit] Style gallery 1580s
1 - 1580s |
2 - 1580s |
3 - 1582 |
4 - 1584 |
5 - 1585-90 |
6 - 1585-90 |
7 - 1589 |
- Lettice Knollys wears an embroidered black high-necked bodice with round sleeves and skirt over a gold petticoat or forepart and matching undersleeves, a lace cartwheel ruff and lace cuffs, and a tall black hat with a jeweled ostrich feather, c. 1580s.
- Elizabeth I wears a black gown with vertical bands of trim on the bodice. The curved waistline and dropped front opening of the overskirt suggest that she is wearing a French roll to support her skirt. She wears a heart-shaped cap and a sheer veil decorated with a pattern of pearls, early 1580s.
- Anne Knollys wears a black gown and full white sleeves trimmed with gold lace or braid. She wears a French hood with a jewelled billiment and a black veil, 1582.
- Spanish fashion:The Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia wears a Spanish farthingale and closed overskirt. The long pointed oversleeves are uniquely Spanish.
- Nicholas Hilliard's Unknow Woman wears a cutwork cartwheel ruff. Her stomacher and wired heart-shaped coif are both decorated with blackwork embroidery, 1585-90.
- Elizabeth I wears a cartwheel ruff slightly open at the front, supported by a supportasse. Her blackwork sleeves have sheer linen oversleeves, and she wears wired veil with bads of gold lace, 1585-90.
- Elizabeth Brydges, aged 14, wears a black brocade gown over a French farthingale. The blackwork embroidery on her smock is visible above the arch of her bodice; her cuffs are also trimmed with blackwork. This style is uniquely English. She wears an open-fronted cartwheel ruff.
[edit] Style gallery 1590s
1 - 1592 |
2 - 1592 |
3 - 1592 |
4 - c. 1592 |
5 - 1593-95 |
6 - 1594 |
7 - 1590s |
- The widowed Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury, wears a black gown and cap with a linen ruff, 1590.
- Elizabeth I, 1592, wears a dark red gown (the fabric is just visible at the waist under her arms) with hanging sleeves lined in white satin to match her bodice, undersleeves, and petticoat, which is pinned to a cartwheel farthingale. She carries leather gloves and an early folding fan.
- Elizabeth I wears a painted petticoat with her black gown and cartwheel farthingale. She wears an open lace ruff and a sheer, wired veil frames her head and shoulders. Her skirt is ankle-length and shows her shoes, 1592.
- English woman wears a fashion seen in many formal portaits of Puritan women in the 1590s, characterized by a black gown worn with a blackwork stomacher and a small French farthingale or half-roll, with a fine linen ruff and moderate use of lace and other trim. She wears a tall black hat called a capotain over a sheer linen cap and simple jewelry.
- Italian style: Maria de Medici wears a bodice with split, round hanging sleeves. Her tight undersleeves are chartacteristic of Spanish influence. From the folds of her skirt, she appears to be wearing a small roll over a narrow Spanish farthingale. Note that her oversleeves are the same shape as those worn by Lettice Knollys.
- This portrait (assumed to be Maria de Medici) shows the adaptation of fashion to accommodate pregnancy. A loose dark gown is worn over a matching bodice and skirt, with tight white undersleeves. The lady wears an open figure-of-eight ruff of reticella lace, 1594.
- Italian fashion of the 1590s featured bodices cut below the breasts and terminating in a blunt U-shape at the front waist, worn over open high-necked chemises with ruffled collars that frame the head. The Dogaressa of Venice wears a cloth of gold gown and matching cape and a sheer veil over a small cap, 1590s.
[edit] Men's Fashion
[edit] Overview
Men's fashionable clothing consisted of:
- A linen shirt with a ruff and matching wrist ruffs early, replaced by a collar and matching cuffs later in the period.
- A doublet with separate sleeves tied or laced to the shoulders.
- Optionally, a jerkin, usually sleeveless and often made of leather, worn over the doublet.
- Hose, in variety of styles, worn with a codpiece early in the period:
- Trunk hose or round hose, short padded hose. Very short trunk hose were worn over cannions, fitted hose that ended above the knee. Trunk hose could be paned or pansied, with strips of fabric (panes) over a full inner layer or lining.
- Slops or galligaskins, loose hose reaching just below the knee. Slops could also be pansied.
- Pluderhosen, a Northern European form of pansied slops with a very full inner layer pulled out between the panes and hanging below the knee.
- Venetians, semi-fitted hose reaching just below the knee.
- Stockings or netherstocks.
- Flat shoes with rounded toes, with slashes early in the period and ties over the instep later.
[edit] Outerwear
Short cloaks or capes, usually hip-length, often with sleeves, or a military jacket like a mandilion, were fashionable. Long cloaks were worn for inclement weather. Gowns were increasingly old-fashioned, and were worn by older men for warmth indoors and out. In this period gowns began their transition from general garments to traditional clothing of specific occupations, such as scholars (see Academic dress).
[edit] Hairstyles and headgear
Hair was generally worn short, brushed back from the forehead. Longer styles were popular in the 1580s. In the 1590s, young men of fashion wore a lovelock, a long section of hair hanging over one shoulder.
Through the 1570s, a soft fabric hat with a gathered crown was worn. These derived from the flat hat of the previous period, and over time the hat was stiffened and the crown became taller and far from flat. Later, a conical felt hat with a rounded crown called a capotain or copotain became fashionable. These became very tall toward the end of century. Hats were decorated with a jewel or feather, and were worn indoors and out.
Close-fitting caps covering the ears and tied under the chin called coifs or biggins continued to be worn by children and older men under their hats or alone indoors; men's coifs were usually black.
A conical cap of linen with a turned up brim called a nightcap was worn informally indoors; these were often embroidered.
[edit] Style gallery 1550s-1570s
1 - 1557 |
2 - 1560 |
3 - 1563 |
4 - 1568 |
5 - 1570 |
6 - c. 1570 |
7 - c. 1575 |
8 - 1577 |
- Antoine de Bourbon wears an embroidered black doublet with worked buttons and a matching gown. His high collar is worn open at the top in the French fashion.
- Charles IX of France wears an embroidered black jerkin with long skirts over a white satin doublet and matching padded hose, 1560.
- Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk wears a shirt trimmed in black on ruff and sleeve ruffles. He wears a belt pouch at his waist. 1563.
- Portrait of Henry Lee of Ditchley in a black jerkin over a white satin doublet decorated with a pattern of armillary spheres, 1568.
- Francois-Hercule, The Duke of Alencon and Anjou (wears doublet and matching cape with the high collar and figure-of-eight ruff of c. 1570).
- An Italian tailor wears a pinked doublet over heavily padded hose. His shirt has a small ruff.
- Sir Christopher Hatton's shirt collar is embroidered with blackwork, 1575.
- Sir Martin Frobisher in a peascod-bellied doublet with full sleeves under a buff jerkin with matching hose, 1577.
[edit] Style gallery 1580s-1590s
1 - 1585 |
2 - 1586 |
3 - 1588 |
4 - 1588 |
5 - 1588 |
6 - 1590s |
7 - c. 1590 |
8 - c. 1600 |
- Miniature of Sir Walter Raleigh shows a linen cartwheel ruff with lace (possibly reticella) edging and the stylish small pointed beard of 1585.
- Sir Henry Unton He wears the cartwheel ruff popular in England in the 1580s. His white satin doublet is laced with a red-and-white cord at the neck. A red cloak with gold trim is slung fashionably over one shoulder, and he wears a tall black hat with a feather, 1586.
- Unknown man of 1588 wears a lace or cutwork-edged collar rather than a ruff, with matching sleeve cuffs. He wears a tall grey hat with a feather.
- Sir Walter Raleigh wears the Queen's colors (black and white). His cloak is lined and collared with fur, 1588.
- Robert Sidney wears a loose military jacket called a mandilion colley-westonward, or with the sleeves hanging in front and back, 1588.
- Philip II of Spain (d. 1598) in old age. Spanish fashion changed very little from the 1560s to the end of the century.
- Sir Christopher Hatton wears a fur-lined gown with hanging sleeves over a slashed doublet and hose, with the livery collar of the Order of the Garter, c. 1590.
- Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, c. 1600. Note the lovelock hanging over one shoulder, the wide lace-trimmed collar, and gloves with deep embroidered cuffs. Trunk hose are still worn over cannions, but without a prominent codpiece, and are longer, with fullness at the bottom.
[edit] Shoes
For most of this period, fashionable shoes for men and women were similar, with a flat one-piece sole and rounded toes. Later shoes tied with a ribbon over the instep.
Thick-soled pattens were worn over delicate indoor shoes to protect them from the muck of the streets, and men wore boots for riding.
A variant on the patten popular in Venice was the chopine – a platform-soled mule that raised the wearer sometimes as high as two feet off the ground.
[edit] Children's fashion
Toddler boys wore gowns or skirts and doublets until they were breeched.
French boy, 1556-58 |
Italy, c. 1570 |
Spain, c. 1571 |
England, 1590 |
Dutch, 1598 |
[edit] See also
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
[edit] References
- Arnold, Janet: Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, W S Maney and Son Ltd, Leeds 1988. ISBN 0-901286-20-6
- Arnold, Janet: Patterns of Fashion: the cut and construction of clothes for men and women 1560-1620, Macmillan 1985. Revised edition 1986. (ISBN 0-89676-083-9)
- Ashelford, Jane: The Art of Dress: Clothing and Society 1500-1914, Abrams, 1996. ISBN 0-8109-6317-5
- Ashelford, Jane. The Visual History of Costume: The Sixteenth Century. 1983 edition (ISBN 0-89676-076-6), 1994 reprint (ISBN 0-7134-6828-9).
- Digby, George Wingfield. Elizabethan Embroidery. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1964.
- Hearn, Karen, ed. Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630. New York: Rizzoli, 1995. ISBN 0-8478-1940-X.
[edit] External links
- The Elizabethan Costuming Page ***updated link!
- Description Of Elizabethan England, 1577(from Holinshed's Chronicles), Chapter VII: Of Our Apparel And Attire
- Fathingales and Bumrolls
- Shirts and Camicia of the 1500's
- Elizabethan costumer, historical sewing teacher and historical dance display troupe manager
| Preceded by: 1500-1550 | History of Western Fashion 1550-1600 | Followed by: 1600-1650 |
