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Baskets - the early modern carrier bag
Louise Moillon - Scène de marché avec pickpocket The 17th century equivalent of the modern carrier bag was the shopping basket in rush or wicker, in fact baskets have been described as “One of the most...
View ArticleThe future "Patterns of Fashion"
I have my copy of Costume, vol 49, no.2, it arrived in the post this week and there is an article by Jenny Tiramani on the next volumes of Patterns of Fashion that they are planning. First, which I was...
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The power of gold – Costume Society Conference 2015
At the beginning of the month I went to London and the Victoria and Albert Museum for the 50th anniversary conference of the Costume Society. Being the 50th the theme was gold, and many of the papers...
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Clothes for the Bridlington Poor 1637.
Detail of the poor. Tichborne Dole 1671With many thanks to Paul Leask who passed the information to me. The information we have on clothing provided to the poor in the mid seventeenth century has...
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The Ladies Dressing Room – a 1694 A to Z
1694 - Lady in winter clothingWomen’s headdresses in the late seventeenth century were incredibly complex, and reached heights unseen since the hennin in the fifteenth century. The Ladies Dictionary,...
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Fans – Special issue of Seventeenth-Century French Studies
Louis XIV R°" by Bruno Befreetv, via Wikimedia Commons For those with an interest in the history of fan the journal Seventeenth-Century French Studies has published an entire issue of the subject,...
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One woman’s clothes - 1628-1637
C Johnson. Unknown woman c.1630 In an earlier post I looked at the clothes bought for Nicholas LeStrange for his marriage in 1630, and that post gives the background to the family. In this post I will...
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A Sixteenth Century Mitten from London – with pattern
Original mitten in Museum of LondonAmong the collection of sixteenth century knitted items in the Museum of London is a child's knitted mittenfound at Finsbury. It looks as though it could have been...
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Blandford Fashion Museum
Blandford Fashion MuseumPaid a visit to the Blandford Fashion Museum, housed in a mid 18th century house in the town of Blandford Forum, Dorset. The museum collection started life as the personal...
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The old laundry at Killerton
Figure 1 This is not early modern but a nineteenth, stretching into early twentieth century laundry. It is a reminder that before electricity laundry techniques had changed little for centuries. The...
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A farmer's wife - 1540s
From Heywood's Spider & the Flie. 1556John (or possibly his brother Anthony (1470-1538)) Fitzherbert's Book of Husbandry, first published 1523, is a classic in the history of English farming...
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Smock Shift Chemise
Figure 1: Engraving of a portrait of Nell GwynI am fascinated by words and their origins. There are three words that describe what was the main women’s undergarment for over a thousand years – the...
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Hollar's Autumn
Figure 1 - P608Having done blog posts on Hollar’s Winter and Spring, but not done one on his summer, now that the weather is changing I thought it a good idea to look at his Autumn. There are three...
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Montaigne - Of the use of apparell
Michel de MontaigneI have been reading the essay by Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) on the subject of clothes, and since he says he wrote it in the chill-cold season, I thought it appropriate for a...
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Book review: Mathew Gnagy, The Modern Maker: Men's 17th Century Doublets.
This book was my Christmas present to myself. It is useful for two reasons, first it is on men’s wear and there is very little on the subject, and secondly it is a practical book on how to make early...
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Probates inventories as a source of clothing information: a 1550-90...
Speed 1611Probate inventories are a wonderful source for information on clothing, however they have their limitations, as Spufford (1984) said, “Inventories are too useful not to use, but when they are...
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Book review – Moroni by Giovanni Battista
Fig 1. - Book coverThis was going to be an exhibition review as well, but as I went on the last day of the exhibition it’s a book review since the book is still available. And it is well worth the £20...
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“Ordinary” women’s wardrobes 1620-1646
Figure 1 - Hollar's CountrywomanThis is an examination of eighteen probate inventory accounts from the town of Marlborough in Wiltshire, covering the period 1620-1646. (Williams & Thomson, 2007) Of...
View ArticleSocial structure and occupations: 1608 and 1688
Many within the various groups who do ECW re-enactment use Gregory King’s 1688 estimate of the population and wealth of England and Wales to provide a plan of the social structure of society in the mid...
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Kersey and the Colours of Kersey
Woollen yarn dyed with woad.What are kersies Kersey is a twill woven wool fabric. Kerridge (1985) describes them in his book as “warp back cloths woven in twill order,” it is more complex than that,...
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