Corsets, Crinolines and Codpieces Part 6 Shape Changing

Shape Changing a dictate of Fashion?

Sage Grouse mating display

Birds change their appearance when looking for a mate...is there a parallel to humans and the need to change the shape of their bodies by artificial means. Does fashion dictate an altered body shape?

Shapes seem to change their focus on a regular basis over the centuries with seemingly little thought for the comfort of the wearer.

Padded Front

A portrait of Archduke Charles in a peascod doublet from 1569. Unknown artist

Melon shaped padded trousers

A peas cod belly or Goose belly was a exaggeratedly padded stomach area. This was very popular, mainly in mens dress, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and padded trousers 1550-1600.

Adding Height

Venetian courtesan  wearing chopines

 A chopine is a type of women's platform shoe that was popular in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, and were popularly worn in Venice by courtesans and were made of wood or cork. Note the padded breeches worn under the skirt. Chopines, besides their practical uses of protecting the foot from irregularly paved and wet or muddy streets, were also a status symbol becoming a  reference to the cultural and social standing of the wearer; the higher the chopine, the higher the status of the wearer. High chopines allowed a woman to tower over others.

 During the 18th century hair was dressed into elaborate
coiffures to give added height to the wearer.

Marie Antoinette by Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun

Hair styles became even more exaggerated with a variety of added decoration all giving extra height to the wearer.

Volume

Queen Elizabeth I ('The Ditchley portrait')

by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
1592

 The great farthingale so called because of it large circumference, was fashionable in the 1590's and died out during the mid 17th century when it was mainly worn only at court. The skirt was worn at an angle low in the front and higher behind giving the appearance of a longer torso and consequently shorter legs. The sitting problem seems to have been overcome by seating the wearer on a pile of cushions and spreading the vast skirts around themselves.Probably the nobility had special designed seating, perhaps padded stools. 

The stiffened cone shaped elongated bodice was also a feature of this fashion

 Added Length

German mens shoes 1550

and a reoccurring shape in 2014

Fashion does seem to repeat itself over the centuries!

Albino Peacock displaying

Face Framing

Unknown Flemish painter at the beginning of 17th century

 There certainly does seem to be a similarity to the peacock..but why did they wear ruffs, perhaps to emphasize the face? ..men wore them too.

Portrait of Sigismund III (1566 - 1632). Sigismund III was King of Sweden from 1592 until 1599

Most interesting costume..a peascod doublet, a scarcely visable cod piece, a ruff, and amazing fluted trousers with pristine tights...not a wrinkle in sight!

Charles XI of France 16th century

...and then in the 1800's the style for women was very loose and fluid though they still wore corsets to shape the high bust shape

Madam Hamelin by J L David 1800

...and of course there are many more changes of fashions....watch my blog for more in the shape changer series.

comments are always welcome!

Corsets, Crinolines and Codpieces.Part 3.Extremes of Fashion

Hennins and Footwear

The array of different hat shapes in this picture shows the extraordinary variety of head wear of the renaissance period.

  

from Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

The renaissance was well known for its extremes of fashion, perhaps the oddest woman’s headdress was known as the hennin,worn mainly in Northern Europe.

 The hennin was a cone of stiffened material sometimes metal, covered with sumptuous cloth. It was worn balanced on the head with a light veil hanging from the  point often woven in gold, this veil also sometimes framed the face.

 
Isabella of Bavaria wore a hennin 30 cms in length,covered with gold brocade and studied with precious stones, the veil covered her shoulders and back. In France the doorways in the Castle of Blois had to be enlarged to allow the court ladies to pass through without stooping.

                                       Different shapes of hennin

Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a young woman of the Burgundian gentry wearing a "beehive" or perhaps truncated cone hennin, 1460s. Part of the veil comes forward to cover the eyebrows.

Truncated hennin, Burgundy, ca. 1480

Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy in a divided hennin. Copy of original of 1445–50.

Christine de Pisan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of France. She and her ladies wear jewelled heart-shaped stuffed or hollow "bourrelets" on top of hair dressed in horns. Christine wears a divided hennin covered in white cloth.

Maria Portinari of Bruges wearing a high but still truncated hennin with a veil hanging from the top and black lappets or (possibly) underhood, 1476–78.

.....and some mens hats

Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, wears an elaborately draped chaperon with a black-on-black figured silk short overgown with width at the shoulder, 1447–48

A chaperon worn in elaborate twists, 1433

...And some shoes or Poulaines

 Sometimes the point of the shoe ( the "poulaine") would need support from a whalebone or a string tied to the leg just below the knee to stop the point getting in the way when walking.The points were stuffed with mo ss or hemp.

Outdoors patterns or sandal-like clogs were usually worn underneath to keep the shoes from mud and wet.

Laws attempted to define by class how long shoes could be - the nobility were to be allowed two foot-lengths, merchants one, and peasants one half. Like other attempts to control fashion by legislation, these seem to have failed.
At the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, French Crusaders were forced to cut off the tips of their poulaines in order to be able to run away.

Mediaeval Poulaines recovered from the Thames

Poulaines worn in Burgundy ca. 1470

Worn with spurs from the Columbia Triptych

Part 4...Codpieces.....watch this space!

Part 2 of Corsets, Crinolines and Codpieces
Fashion is Born