Dress design $b: an account of costume for artists & dressmakersHughes, Talbot
History
Dress design $b: an account of costume for artists & dressmakers
Hughes, Talbot
Clothing and dress; Clothing and dress -- Great Britain
The costly splendour of attire is well known in Elizabeth's reign, which
began with the same form of hair and head-dress as with Mary, the hat
being set rather higher on the hair. The ruffs, which were imported
already starched from Holland, assumed larger proportions and
complications when the methods of starching became known in England
about 1564. Stow describes ruffs growing to a quarter of a yard deep;
these were no doubt supported by piccalilloes, though they are not
actually mentioned till after 1600, but they surely came with the
fan-shaped structures of these later days. White, red, blue or purple
colours were used in the starching, and yellow in the latter days of
this century. The introduction of this curved fanlike collar setting
became a grand and complicated feature right into the 17th century.
"Make up" became very apparent on the faces at this time, for
Bishop Hall censured the fashion in a choice sermon, saying, "Hear this,
ye plaster-faced Jezabels! God will one day wash them with fire and
brimstone."
[Illustration: FIG. 54.--Elizabethan modes.]
[Illustration: Plate XII.--
(_a_) Lady's Outdoor Costume. 1785-95.
(_b_) Costume. Early 18th Century.
(_c_) Silk Brocade Dress. 1760-80.]
[Illustration: FIG. 55.
1585-1610
1600-1620
1595-1605
1605-1615
1589-1600]
The bodices grew very long and pointed in the waist, the neck setting
being mostly treated in the same =V= shape, even open down to the waist
point was filled with a decorated stomacher, and a deep oval-shaped neck
was seen at the end of the reign. An outer opened sleeve was now
favoured, caught in front at the elbow and hanging to the knee over a
fairly tight undersleeve with a turned-back lace cuff or ruffle. With
this came the high-set fan ruff on its wooden support at the back of the
neck, and consequently a higher coiffure.
[Illustration: FIG. 56.
Nos. 1, 2, 3, 1540-50, and other shoe forms worn in the reign of
Elizabeth.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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