Two things off the list

I finally got two projects done that have been haunting me for quite some time :-)
The first one is a woollen dress I started making nearly two years ago. The other one was putting the skirt-part on my 'bra'-shirt.

Find more info on this project here.

More on this project here (the theory) and here (the practice).

I'm not sure yet what the next project will be. At this moment I'm helping my man with a new dress aka caparison for his horse, a matching banner and tabbard for his herald. After that we'll see!

Casting pearls before rabbits

 

Already two weeks ago, Mr. B. and I visited my mother in Rome. In between visiting the Colosseum, Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fauntain, the Vatican and strolling through the ghetto and along the river Tiber, on Sunday we went to a (flea)market in Trastevere. All kinds of people, including Roma, Pakistani and Asians, were trying to sell all kinds of things. Roman women apparently are extremely fond of fur coats, so in trying to meet the demand for fur, vintage furs were on offer everywhere. I found a nice rabbit jacket for half the price I would normaly pay in Belgium. And an even more spectacular find are the tiny pearls in the bottom picture. I've been trying to find this type of pearls for years now. Most suppliers only have oval shaped small pearls, but in Medieval embroidery you only see the round variety. So, yay, finally I have them. I bought all four strands they had. Now they will probably sit in my cupboard for four years before I finally find the time for using them.

I haven't been posting lately for various reasons, one being that I've spent all of my weekends trying to finish a dress that I hope to blog about in a few weeks!

Kroatian flokloric brick-stitch emroidery

When I was on vacation in Itria, Croatia last september, I happened accross several traditional garments with this style of brick stitch embroidery, for instance in the Etnographic Museum of Pazin, and the Museum in Labin. It so remarkable how similar the patterns are to many late medieval brick stitck embroideries...

I'm just here for a short post before going to bed. I'm very busy lately with teaching a material culture / probate inventory research seminar at university to third year history students. It's intensive but a lot of fun as well! On Tuesday I'll do a class just on 15th and 16th century textiles and clothing. Looking for pictures to include in the powerpoit presentation, I just came across this post about two extant Italian dresses from the sixteenth century.  It's lovely so be sure to take a look :)

Good night!

Word of the week: quispels

During my work with 16th century probate inventories, I come across a lot of lovely words for things related to clothing, sewing and silkwork. I decided to share them with you every now and then. The first word in what will hopefully become a row, is 'quispel'. The modern Dutch equivalent 'kwispel(en)' means 'to wag' or in a very archaic use: a brush or tassel. In this inventory dated 1580 from Antwerp, we find "ij flouwijnen met witte quispels"(two pillow cases with white tassels). I will never ever be able to think about tassels again without thinking of wagging tails :-)

15th century sprang

Just two photographs with details of the sprang inserts found on one of the 'breast-bags' at Lengberg castle. Found here and here.

Supportive underwear in written sources

Das Braunschweiger Skizzenbuch, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Kupferstichkabinett, Braunschweig. c. 1380-1420.

The past week I've been working on making a fourteenth century supportive shirt. You can see the progress here. Once it is finished I'll do a more detailed post on the construction on this blog as well.

For now, I'm giving you a line-up of the written sources that mention breast-bags in shirts, which have come to light so far. Most of these have also been briefly mentioned in the BBC History article by Beatrix Nutz and in this blogpost.

The earliest text I know referring to restraining the breasts, is cited in Umberto Eco's book Art & Beauty in the Middle Ages quotes Gilbert of Hoyland's (a twelfth-century English Cistercian abbot) Sermones in Canticum Salomonis, on ideals of feminine beauty:

The breasts are most pleasing when they are of moderate size and eminence… they should be bound but not flattened, restrained with gentleness but not given too much licence.

Christine Frieder Waugh (Well-cut through the body: fitted clothing in twelfth-century Europe, Dress, 1999 volume 26) quotes him advising his monks to practise restraint in their speach, much as women restrained their breasts.

I refer you to the devices of women, who cultivate and develop physical beauty and have mastered this art. For what are they more anxious to avoid in embellishing the bosom, than that the breasts be overgrown and shapeless and flabby? … Therefore they constrain overgrown and flabby breasts with breast-bands, artfully remedying the shortcomings of nature.

And in the Roman de la Rose, a thirteenth-century poem begun by Guillaume de Lorris and finished by an anonymus poet, the Old Woman character offers advice:

And if her breasts are too full, let her take a kerchief or scarf and wrap it round her ribs to bind her bosom, and then fasten it with a stitch or knot; she will then be able to disport herself.

The earliest text referring to something more advanced than a simple piece of cloth to bind the breasts, dates to the beginning of the fourteenth century. It was written by Henri de Mondeville, surgeon to Philip the Fair of France and his successor Louis X, in his medical work Cyrurgia (1306-1320). The original text was in Latin (full text and translation found here and here):

Et aliquae mulieres non potentes aut non audentes habere cyrurgicum aut nolentes suam indeoentiam revelare faciunt in camisiis suis duos saccules proportionales mammillis tamen breves et eos imponunt omni mane, postmodum quantum possunt, eos stringunt cum fascia competenti. Et aliae, sicut illае de Montepessulano, cum strictis tunicis et laqueis ipsas stringunt, non stringentes muliebria, quamvis sit ibi majas periculum, attendentes propter casus fatuitos et diurnos, quod non faciunt anni quod facit una dies, et ideo faciunt suas tunicas inferios laxiores.

Some women unable or unwilling to resort to a surgeon, or not wanting to reveal their indecency, insert two bags in their chemises, adjusted to the breasts, fitting tight, and they put them [the breasts] into them [the bags] every morning and compress them as much as possible with a matching band. Others, like the women of Montpellier, compress them with tight tunics and laces...

Eustache Deschamps in the late fourteenth - early fifteenth century wrote a ballad entirely on the subject of female breasts: Balade sur Les Femmes Qui Troussent Leur Tetins / Ballad about Women Who Truss Their Breasts. What follows is an excerpt from the ballad, translated into English by Katherine Knudsen Barichand posted to the Medieval Textiles and Clothing discussion list.

Car ce qui en ce point mis l'a
Est par juenesse seulement;
Rons, petiz, durs, lors se cela,
Sanz moustrer si publiquement;
Puis s'abandonna folement.
Et pour ce, a esté mis en deux
Sacs cousus par my la poitrine,
Estrains de cordes et de neux:
Dame aiez pité de tettine!

Because those who in this point take it
Is for youth only;
Round, petite, firm, then being that,
Without display so publicly;
Then will abandon folly,
Many become, though, ungracious,
And for that, have taken and put in two
sewn sacks upon the chest,
Squeezing with cords and knots:
Lady, have pity of breast!

In an extract of a satirical poem written by an unknown fifteenth-century author from southern Germany, also called "Meister Reuauß”, we can read the following (Vienna, Austrian National Library Cod. 2880, fol. 130v to 141r) (translation: Beatrix Nutz):

Ir manche macht zwen tuttenseck
Damit so snurt sie umb die eck,
Das sie anschau ein ieder knab,
Wie sie hübsche tütlein hab;
Aber welcher sie zu groß sein,
Die macht enge secklein,
Das man icht sag in der stat,
Das sie so groß tutten hab.

Many [a woman] makes two bags for the breast
With them she roams the streets,
So that all the guys look at her,
And see what beautiful breasts she has got;
But whose breasts are too large,
Makes tight pouches,
So there is no gossip in the city,
About her big breasts.

Another German writer of the fifteenth century, Konrad Stolle,  complained about “shirts with bags in which they put their breasts” in his chronicle of Thuringia and Erfurt in 1480, because to him they were “all indecent”. Possible because they, in contradiction to all the quotes above were used to make the bosom fuller, instead of restraining it.

In other, but strongly related news: Beatrix Nutz will be in London to speak at the Medieval Dress and Textile Society (Medats) Autumn meeting on Linens Next to the Skin on 27 October at the British Museum. For more info: www.medats.org.uk/events.

A c. 1400 variety of the Birgitta cap

One of the best things about studying clothing is the feeling you get when you finally understand something that has been a mystery to you for years.

When I was studying the Birgitta cap back in 2006-2007 (Dahl, C.L. & I. Sturtewagen, 2008, The Cap of St. Birgitta, Medieval Clothing and Textiles vol. IV, pp. 99-129.) I came accross several pieces of artwork from the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century that showed something that looked like a cap worn underneath other types of veils or alone that seemed very similar to the Birgitta cap. At the time I couldn't make sense of them though.

Effigy of Lodewijk van Lichtervelde and wife, c. 1380, Koolskamp, Belgium. Photo by the author.

The caps in these works of art were worn on top of buns which were placed high on the head or just above the temples. They were covered by fabric and showed two crossed ribbons seperating the two buns in the middle. I've always wondered how exactly this look was achieved, but never got to actually trying to recreate the style. This fashion is slightly out of my period of reenactment, so there were always things higher up on my to-do list.

Detail of the altarpiece of Hakendover, c. 1400-1410, Belgium. Photo: kikirpa.be

In the altarpiece of Hakendover, dated to the first decade of the fifteenth century we can see this type of headwear as well. On some of the figures however, we can just see the crossed ribbons and it seems the fabric of the cap is missing. It appears as if only the curly hair of the figure is shown. However, it is possible that these caps were made of translucent fabric or netting. This would allow the hair underneath to be clearly visible.

Detail of the altarpiece of Hakendover, c. 1400-1410, Belgium. Photo: kikirpa.be

Interestingly in the same altarpiece you can also spot one depiction of the 'old fashioned' style of Birgitta cap. The girl to the right is wearing her cap in exactly the same way. The only difference is that she is wearing fashionable buns underneath it.

Detail of the altarpiece of Hakendover, c. 1400-1410, Belgium. Photo: kikirpa.be

Last week at a small event in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, my friend and fellow reenactor Margje Wessels, however, was wearing this exact style of headwear. I was so excited to see how she did it, and it's actually so simple and ingenious I had to share.

As you can see, what she is wearing is simply a bigger version of the Birgitta cap, with enough space to accomodate the buns. She made two buns filled with flax and fixed to a headband that is pinned tight at the back of the neck. When you have long thick hair, of course you could make two buns using your natural hair. As with the traditional Birgitta cap, the ribbon of the cap is pulled to the front and crossed on the forehead. With the traditional style the loop/ribbon would just be pulled over the back of the head. With the 'modern style' however, the ribbon is pulled around the buns and back to the front. (You can find a diagram with instructions on how to achieve the traditional style here).

Like I said: ingeniously simple.