Costume: Fanciful, Historical and Theatrical

CHAPTER VI

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

The Tudor period brought an extraordinary revolution in dress, the first important change taking place in the sleeves, which were now of different material and different colour from the gown. Several pairs of sleeves would be allotted to each gown, and were necessarily made detachable, while in shape they were full and puffed, padded and quilted and slashed and fitting tightly; and the square-necked, short-waisted style of dress was punctilious in a display of a stomacher and a full train.

Cloth of gold was the favourite fabric, being used alike for decoration as for garments, and indeed gold asserted itself on every rich material, and there was a silver taffeta embroidered in gold; and a damask of crimson or yellow wrought with gold offered itself persuasively for fur trimming, lynx and sable and marten accepting the responsibility with zeal.

The fair footed it bravely in low shoes adorned with large ribbon Tudor roses, which were also allotted the delicate duty of ornamenting elaborate garters. The plainer variety of shoe was of wood covered with velvet or leather, stitched with silk and fastened with buckles or rosettes; and a wooden shoe in vogue was known as the pantoffle, and not unlike that chopine worn in Italy at this time and later, when it attained the pinnacle of the preposterous. This shoe was, however, known in England only in a modified form.

None of the fashions of the day could truthfully be called comfortable. Comfort obviously was banished from consideration, and each innovation during the sixteenth century shows its demands more and more disregarded.

The hoop appeared, and held the best affections in its grasp of iron, wood, or whalebone, the indispensable edicts against it following quickly upon its popularity. Rich and poor alike fell victims to its aggressive charms, and alike insisted upon its wear, and, on the occasion of her marriage with Prince Arthur of Wales, Catherine of Medici wore the dress of Spain and a mantilla bordered with gold and precious stones, and her skirt was distended by several hoops.

The wives of that merry polygamist Henry VIII. were sympathetically attached to beautiful clothes, and Anne Boleyn is credited with wearing a cap of blue velvet trimmed with golden bells, and a vest of velvet starred with silver, and over it a surcoat of watered silk lined with miniver, with large pendent sleeves; blue velvet brodequins were on her feet, with a diamond star on each instep, and above her long curls was placed an aureole of plaited gold. It is a well-known fact that Anne, because of some slight deformity of the hand, held affectionately to the charms of the hanging sleeve after it had been discarded in favour of the full puffed and slashed sleeve. There is an attractive picture of her by Holbein, with the hair drawn from her forehead in small curls, and a plait hanging from the top of the head over one ear, the crown being worn rather far back and kept in place by a jewelled caul.

To Spain historians have granted the laurel of the ruff, which became first popular in England in the reign of Henry VIII.; and Anne Boleyn introduced lappets made of velvet and adorned with precious stones, either pointed at the hem or square and broad.

During those days the length of the gown denoted the rank of the wearer, countesses and baronesses and ladies of lower degree stamping their estate upon the dimensions of their train. Embroidery decorated the gowns and petticoats alike, many of the dresses being cut open in front to display a satin kirtle and an apron embroidered in gold and many colours. The bodice of the dress sometimes differed in colour from the skirt, and the sleeves would match the skirt; and there was much variety in head-dress, the velvet cap tasselled and set with jewels above a floating veil being a popular style. But cauls, coifs, and French hoods, and the high bands in front, were in evidence, together with a white three-cornered cap, the original no doubt of the Marie Stuart cap of succeeding years.

The men were as prodigal as the women, and spared no expense or time or thought in their pursuit of the sumptuous and the elegant; their shoes and garters and hats glittered with gems, and they wore rings and chains in profusion, raising the trades of tailors and goldsmiths and cloth-makers to supreme importance. Jack of Newbury, a famous cloth merchant of the time of Henry VIII., is described as appearing before that monarch in a plain russet coat and a pair of white kersey slops, the stockings of the same piece being sewn to his slops. Slops was a term developed from "slip," and signified any garment easily adjusted, and an example of its use occurs in Much Ado About Nothing, a phrase running "as, a German from the waist downward, all slops"; hence may the suspicious glean that the Teuton habit of costume was not mainly trim.

IN THE TIME OF HENRY VII.

Men yielded to the general craze for an expanded hip, wearing great breeches stuffed with hair or bran or wool, and exhibiting no less than feminine enthusiasm in the width of their ruffles. Their hose, of different detail, was either of cloth or silk, and blazed with colour, being ornamented with gold or threads of Venetian silver, though the King himself preferred cloth hose, which also had the honour of decorating Queen Elizabeth, until she chanced to meet with the silk stocking, to which she thereafter clung with tenacity.

Jane Seymour's coronation dress was of her faithless spouse's favourite material, cloth of gold; all his wives seem to have been obliging enough to yield to his fancy for this extravagance, and this poor lady's choice was decorated with a raised design of embroidery and pearls, and the stomacher beneath was thickly encrusted with jewels, while her surcoat was of purple velvet bordered with ermine and embroidered with gold, and a jewelled velvet caul was on her head. Anne of Cleves endeavoured to popularise the Dutch fashion of a gown without a train, and she was as much a failure in this as in her other ambitions. Catharine Parr, the last of the noble six, had a gown of cloth of gold made with a sleeve quite tight at the shoulder, bordered at the elbow with fur, and showing beneath a slashed and puffed under-sleeve, finished by a small ruffle at the wrist.

Mary inherited her father's love of splendour and costly apparel, and her favourite head-dress was of cloth of gold, and her gowns were generally of velvet trimmed with fur and jewelled. Elizabeth devoted herself to fashion in a frank, whole-hearted way that brooked no half-measures, and amongst her terrors of death must have been parting with her gowns, for she died possessed of no fewer than three thousand dresses. What a harvest for the ladies-in-waiting or the dealers of the day to gather! Her crimson locks she piled high up in curls and puffs, surmounted by crowns of jewels, and her sleeves and hooped skirts were padded into diamond design traced with embroidery, and every point would hold a pendent jewel. She showed no desire to achieve grace or elegance below the waist; nothing more entirely unbecoming to the feminine figure can be imagined than the tight, hard, flat, narrow bodice terminating in a point at the front, cut off at the waist on the hips, above the monstrously distended petticoat. The over-part of the dress and the skirt beneath it were boned and wired, and tight lacing ruled in an injurious degree, though the enormous sleeves, ruffles, and skirts might well have accorded such an effect of slimness as to render stringent measures unnecessary.

A TRIO OF RUFFS.

Dress was a magnificent affair altogether; velvet and taffeta and fine scarlet cloth were used, lace played its part bravely, and silken scarves fringed with gold and silver were thrown over the shoulders, with deep capes of satin or velvet edged with lace. Every shape and length of garment obtained, and the only extravagance from which dress did not suffer was in the dÉcolletage, which was narrow and straight and of dimensions eminently decent.

QUEEN ELIZABETH IN FULL DRESS.

Elizabeth introduced the whalebone corset, and hers might well have been called the "wire and whalebone age," for the influence of these was needed for the petticoats, the gowns and stays, and it had a considerable share in the good conduct of the ruffles which extended some nine inches from the neck. In France the ruffles were so enormous that they hardly allowed their wearers to turn their heads at all, and courtiers who affected them were provided with long-handled spoons to enable them to take their soup in comfort. These huge ruffs were trimmed with lace outlined with wire threads to ensure sufficient stiffness, a demand creating the supply of starch, which made its appearance in this century, being introduced by the wife of Elizabeth's coachman, who established herself as Lady High Laundress of the Court, and made at once a competence and a reputation. Ruffs were of yellow as well as white, and yellow too were some of the extensive lace collars jewelled and embroidered in gold, which with wired edges outlined the shoulders of all dresses worn on state occasions.

Pins and ribbons were first brought into use in the reign of Elizabeth, and really to her interest in the subject of fashion we owe much. Silk stockings amongst other things, such as cosmetics, face washes and perfumes, and embroidered and scented gloves, and fans made of ostrich or peacock feathers with gold and silver handles, were adopted by the men as well as by the women.

Of the many head-dresses favoured by Elizabeth one resembled a cushion, ornamented with jewels; another, known as a ship-tire, left the neck and shoulders bare; and another, dubbed the tire valiant, was made of many kerchiefs, so disposed as to allow only the nose, eyes, and mouth to be visible.

In the early days of the sixteenth century dress in France was somewhat simple, but about 1550 tastes altered and every kind of trimming was eagerly sought and found, and the lappets, which became a popular addition to the head-dress, displayed jewelled borders or golden tassels in the shape of a flower. The hair fell in curls about the face and on the neck, and in a long description which we have from Rabelais, of a dress of the period in Paris, there is mention of a beautiful bouquet of feathers, a panache, which matched the muff, and was thickly spangled with gold. To him also we owe an excellent account of crimson stockings with the edges embroidered three inches above the knee, and of garters of elaborate detail to hold these, and of shoes and slippers of crimson or violet velvet to complete them. Attire consisted of a chemise worn beneath a corset of silk camlet, a hood of silk, and above this a cotte in silver tissue embroidered in gold. In summer the Parisian wore, instead of a dress, wraps made in a loose burnous style of velvet seamed with pearls, and no costume was complete without its rosary, its girdle, jewelled necklaces and bracelets. The most popular head-dress was a velvet hood with a hanging curtain, and the turban wound its graceful way above a network of pearls or precious stones. Muffs received much attention and elaboration, fur and lace and jewels alike being dedicated to their service, and in their depths would nestle the dog or monkey or marmoset whose mistress counted such a pet in her armoury of attractions. A description of a robe montante, which appears to have been comparatively a nÉgligÉ, not permitted the honour of attending Court functions, shows it cut square in the neck, with a collar of fine cambric finished with a small ruff, the sleeves, puffed and slashed and fitting tightly to the wrists, being of a different material from the dress; and in France, as in England, rank determined the length of the train, queens burdening themselves with no less than six yards.

A CHEMISETTE.

AN ITALIAN LADY.

TWO ITALIAN COIFFURES.

In the early days of this century turban head-dresses were popular in Italy, and slashed and puffed sleeves were trimmed with ribbon. It is interesting to note that the women of Genoa were bound by law to wear a dress of plain cloth, but that their under-garments were of the richest silks, and shoes and hose were costly details. The sketch on page 59 shows an Italian lady under attractive conditions, with a stomacher and collar traced with a raised design of gold outlined with pearls, and puffed sleeves tied with ribbons tagged with metal; and, covering her hair, is a close coif edged with pearls. Italian also are the two heads illustrated, lace and jewels and ribbons being used for their adornment. The Italian gentleman wears a full-crowned cap of velvet, and a cloth coat showing slashings and collar of velvet, the lawn frill inside the collar being repeated at the wrists of the sleeves, whose detail of slashing may well be left to the imagination.

AN ITALIAN GENTLEMAN.

A SPANIARD IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Spain was faithful to the horned head-dress late into the sixteenth century; and talking of Spain, I am reminded of that illustration opposite, where a sixteenth-century Spaniard is exploiting an unusual form of trunk, in cut-out cloth, showing white beneath, and buttoned with straps on to the hose. His white shirt is slashed, and from the double collar falls a tassel; tassels are pendent from the drapery of the long gold-bordered cloak, and a gold net appears beneath the characteristic cap of velvet.

A SHOULDER-JACKET.

The picture on page 64 of Maximilian of fame shows him brave in upstanding felt hat, encircled with flaunting feathers, and beneath this a striped scarf is bound round his head, and the monstrous sleeves have slashings of colour. Tassels dangle from the scarf beneath the chin and over either ear, and bold bows assert themselves above one knee, and claim their right to hold the folds of his sash in front.

A sixteenth-century sacque coat in its original sin—or grace—appears illustrated on the left, with sleeves slashed and the armholes bearing padded rolls on the top. The inner vest has a high collar boned to stand out at the back, and the helmet-shaped hat is trimmed with bands of braid buttoned with gold, with two feathers waving at one side.

THE CAPE WITH BUTTONED SLEEVE.

Another edition of the helmet-shaped hat, far less successful, however, in the interests of beauty, decorates the right-hand figure, which bears round the neck a wonderful ruff, and gives a capital idea of a strange form of cape buttoned down the sleeve, gathered slightly in the process, and bordered with a band of plain colour.

MAXIMILIAN.

Fair and sweet looks the maiden on page 58 beneath the kilted frill of her cap, and her little bodice shows her chemisette of white lawn tied in front with small bows.

"I will ruffle it with the best of them" was distinctly the determination of the valiant queen who smiles upon you on page 56. Lace forms her huge collar and her pendent lappets, and tightly round her throat sits a lace ruffle; an audacious feather stands rampant on top of her crown, and beneath this is a cap bordered with jewels, curved at one side to allow a good view of her curled head, where the flat cap of jewels holds a golden pendant in the centre of her forehead.

Far more demure are the ruffle and cap which appear on page 55 beneath the closely-hooded mantle, and severity marks the net and lace of the dame whose hair is entwined with pearls; and a typical Medici collar of lace is elaborately wired to form a frame to the fair head, upon which jewels and feathers alike disport themselves.

In this century fashion was playing the woman who often varies, and La BruyÈre in reviewing the situation says: "A fashion has no sooner supplanted some other fashion than its place is taken by a new one, which in turn makes way for the next, and so on; such is the feebleness of our character. While these changes are taking place a century has rolled away, relegating all this finery to the dominion of the past." And writing in the twentieth century, I can see some satisfaction in that.

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