goose-green, red and blue, yellow being completely out of the fashion
since the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury by Mrs. Anne Turner, the
friend of the Countess of Somerset; and this because Mrs. Turner
elected to appear at the gallows in a yellow ruff.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF JAMES I. (1603-1625)
Here is seen the wide fardingale, or farthingale, the elaborate
under-skirt, and the long hanging sleeves of the gown. Also, the
very tall upstanding ruff or collar of lace.]
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of James I.; a ruff and hat; an
alternative dress}]
As for the fardingale, it was having its last fling. This absurd
garment had its uses once--so they say who write scandal of a Spanish
Princess, and served to conceal her state upon a certain time; but
when ladies forsook the fashion, they wore a loose, almost shapeless,
gown, open from the waist to the feet, and a plain, unstiffened jerkin
or jacket underneath.
Such a conglomeration is needed (if you remember we are looking over a
lady's wardrobe) to make a lady of the time: such stuffs as rash,
taffeta paropa, novats, shagge, filizetta, damask, mochado. Rash is
silk and stuff, taffeta is thin silk, mochado is mock velvet. There,
again, one may fall into an antiquarian trap; whereas mochado is a
manufacture of silk to imitate velvet, mokkadoe is a woollen cloth,
and so on; there is no end to it. Still, some may read and ask
themselves what is a rebatoe. It is the collar-like ruff worn at this
time. In this medley of things we shall see purles, falles, squares,
buskes, tires, fans, palisadoes (this is a wire to hold the hair next
to the first or duchess knot), puffs, ruffs, partlets, frislets,
fillets, pendulets, bracelets, busk-points, shoe-ties, shoe roses,
bongrace bonnets, and whalebone wheels--Eve!
All this, for what purpose? To turn out one of those extraordinary
creatures with a cart-wheel round the middle of their persons.
As the reign died, so did its fashions die also: padded breeches lost
some of their bombast, ruffs much of their starch, and fardingales
much of their circumference, and the lady became more Elizabethan in
appearance, wore a roll under her hair in front, and a small hood with
a jewelled frontlet on her forehead. It was the last of the Tudor
dress, and came, as the last flicker of a candle, before the new mode,
Fashion's next footstep.
CHARLES THE FIRST
Reigned twenty-four years: 1625-1649.
Born 1600. Married 1625, Henrietta of France.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Charles I.}]
This surely is the age of elegance, if one may trust such an elegant
and graceful mind as had Vandyck. In all the wonderful gallery of
portraits he has left, these silvery graceful people pose in garments
of ease.
The main thing that I must do is to show how, gradually, the stiff
Jacobean dress became unfrozen from its clutch upon the human form,
how whalebones in men's jackets melted away, breeches no longer
swelled themselves with rags and bran, collars fell down, and shirts
lounged through great open spaces in the sleeves.
It was the time of an immaculate carelessness; the hair was free, or
seemed free, to droop in languid tresses on men's shoulders, curl at
pretty will on men's foreheads. Shirts were left open at the neck,
breeches were loosed at the knee. Do I revile the time if I say that
the men had an air, a certain supercilious air, of being dukes
disguised as art students?
[Illustration: {Six styles of hair and beard}]
We know, all of us, the Vandyck beard, the Carolean moustache brushed
away from the lips; we know Lord Pembroke's tousled--carefully
tousled--hair; Kiligrew's elegant locks.
From the head to the neck is but a step--a sad step in this
reign--and here we find our friend the ruff utterly tamed;
'pickadillies, now out of request,' writes one, tamed into the falling
band, the Vandyck collar, which form of neck-dress has never left the
necks and shoulders of our modern youthful prodigies; indeed, at one
time, no youthful genius dare be without one. The variations of this
collar are too well known; of such lace as edged them and of the
manner of their tying, it would waste time to tell, except that in
some instances the strings are secured by a ring.
[Illustration: {A doublet}]
Such a change has come over the doublet as to make it hardly the same
garment; the little slashes have become two or three wide cuts, the
sleeves are wide and loose with, as a rule, one big opening on the
inside of the arm, with this opening embroidered round. The cuffs are
like little collars, turned back with point-lace edges. The actual cut
of the doublet has not altered a great deal, the ordinary run of
doublet has the pointed front, it is tied round the waist with a
little narrow sash; but there has arrived a new jacket, cut round,
left open from the middle of the breast, sometimes cut so short as to
show the shirt below bulged out over the breeches. Sometimes you will
see one of these new short jackets with a slit in the back, and under
this the man will be wearing the round trunks of his father's time.
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Charles I.; a type of jacket;
a type of breeches}]
The breeches are mostly in two classes--the long breeches the shape of
bellows, tied at the knee with a number of points or a bunch of
coloured ribbons; or the breeches cut the same width all the way
down, loose at the knee and there ornamented with a row of points
(ribbons tied in bows with tags on them).
A new method of ornamentation was this notion of coloured ribbons in
bunches, on the breeches, in front, at the sides, at the knees--almost
anywhere--and also upon the coats.
For some time the older fashioned short round cape or cloak prevailed,
but later, large silk cloaks used as wraps thrown across the shoulders
were used as well. The other cloaks had straps, like the modern golf
cape, by which the cloak might be allowed to fall from the shoulders.
A custom arrived of wearing boots more frequently, and there was the
tall, square-toed, high-heeled boot, fitting up the leg to just below
the knee, without a turnover; the stiff, thick leather, blacking boot
with broad, stiff tops, also not turned back; and there was also the
result of the extraordinary melting, crumpled dismissal of all
previous stiffness, whereby the old tall boot drooped down until it
turned over and fell into a wide cup, all creases and wrinkles, nearly
over the foot, while across the instep was a wide, shaped flap of
leather. This last falling boot-top was turned in all manner of
ways by those who cared to give thought to it.
[Illustration: {Sixteen types of boot and shoe}]
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF CHARLES I. (1625-1649)
He has wrapped his blue cloak over his arm, a usual method of
carrying the cloak. He is simply dressed, without bunches of ribbons
or points.]
The insides of the tops of these boots were lined with lace or silk,
and the dandy turned them down to give full show to the lining--this
turning of broad tops was such an inconvenience that he was forced to
use a straddled walk when he wore his boots thus.
Canes were carried with gold, silver, or bone heads, and were
ornamented further by bunches of ribbon.
Coming again to the head, we find ribbon also in use to tie up locks
of hair; delicate shades of ribbon belonging to some fair lady were
used to tie up locks to show delicate shades of love. Some men wore
two long love-locks on either side of the face, others wore two
elaborately-curled locks on one side only.
The hats, as the drawings will show, are broad in the brim and of an
average height in the crown, but a dandy, here and there, wore a hat
with next to no brim and a high crown. Most hats were feathered.
There is a washing tally in existence of this time belonging, I think,
to the Duke of Rutland, which is very interesting. It is made of
beech-wood covered with linen, and is divided into fifteen squares. In
the centre of each square there is a circle cut, and in the circle are
numbers. Over the number is a plate with a pin for pivot in the
centre, a handle to turn, and a hole to expose a number. Above each
circle are the names of the articles in this order:
Ruffs. Bandes. Cuffes. Handkercher. Cappes.
Shirtes. Halfshirts. Boote Hose. Topps. Sockes.
Sheetes. Pillowberes. Table Clothes. Napkins. Towells.
Topps are linen boot-frills, and halfshirts are stomachers.
There remains little to be said except that black was a favourite
dress for men, also light blue and cream-coloured satin. Bristol paste
diamonds were in great demand, and turquoise rings were very
fashionable.
For the rest, Vandyck's pictures are available to most people, or good
reproductions of them, and those, with a knowledge of how such dress
came into being, are all that can be needed.
THE WOMEN
There is one new thing you must be prepared to meet in this reign, and
that will best be described by quoting the title of a book written at
this time: 'A Wonder of Wonders, or a Metamorphosis of Fair Faces into
Foul Visages; an invective against black-spotted faces.'
By this you may see at once that every humour was let loose in the
shapes of stars, and moons, crowns, slashes, lozenges, and even a
coach and horses, cut in black silk, ready to be gummed to the faces
of the fair.
Knowing from other histories of such fads that the germ of the matter
lies in a royal indisposition, we look in vain for the conceited
history of the Princess and the Pimple, but no doubt some more earnest
enquirer after truth will hit upon the story--this toy tragedy of the
dressing-table.
For the dress we can do no better than look at the 'Ornatus Muliebris
Anglicanus,' that wonderfully careful compilation by Hollar of all the
dresses in every class of society.
It is interesting to see how the Jacobean costume lost, by degrees,
its formal stiffness, and first fardingale and then ruff vanished.
Early in the reign the high-dressed hair was abandoned, and to take
its place the hair was dressed so that it was gathered up by the ears,
left parted on the crown, and twisted at the back to hold a plume or
feather. Time went on, and hair-dressing again altered; the hair was
now taken in four parts: first the hair was drawn well back off the
forehead, then the two side divisions were curled neatly and dressed
to fall over the ears, the fourth group of hair was neatly twisted and
so made into a small knot holding the front hair in its place. Later
on came the fringe of small curls, as in the portrait of Queen
Henrietta at Windsor by Vandyck.
We see at first that while the ruff, or rather the rebatoe--that
starched lace high collar--remained, the fardingale having
disappeared, left, for the upper gown, an enormous quantity of waste
loose material that had previously been stretched over the fardingale
and parted in front to show the satin petticoat. From this there
sprung, firstly, a wide, loose gown, open all the way down and tied
about the middle with a narrow sash, the opening showing the boned
bodice of the under-dress with its pointed protruding stomacher, the
woman's fashion having retained the form of the man's jerkin. Below
this showed the satin petticoat with its centre strip or band of
embroidery, and the wide border of the same. In many cases the long
hanging sleeves were kept.
Then there came the fall of the rebatoe and the decline of the
protruding figure, and with this the notion of tying back the full
upper skirt to show more plainly the satin petticoat, which was now
losing the centre band of ornament and the border.
With this revolution in dress the disappearing ruff became at first
much lower and then finally vanished, and a lace collar, falling over
the shoulders, took its place. This gave rise to two distinct fashions
in collars, the one as I have described, the other a collar from the
neck, like a large edition of the man's collar of that time. This
collar came over the shoulders and in two points over the breast,
sometimes completely hiding the upper part of the dress.
The stiff-boned bodice gave place to one more easily cut, shorter,
with, in place of the long point, a series of long strips, each strip
ornamented round the hem.
At this time the sleeves, different from the old-fashioned tight
sleeves, were very full indeed, and the sleeve of the loose over-gown
was made wider in proportion, and was tied across the under-sleeve
above the elbow by a knot of ribbons, the whole ending in a deep cuff
of lace. Then the over-gown disappeared, the bodice became a short
jacket laced in front, openly, so as to show the sleeveless bodice of
the same material and colour as the petticoat; the sleeves were not
made so wide, and they were cut to come just below the elbow, leaving
the wrists and forearm bare.
In winter a lady often wore one of those loose Dutch jackets, round
and full, with sleeves just long enough to cover the under-sleeves,
the whole lined and edged with fur; or she might wear a short circular
fur-lined cape with a small turned-over collar. In summer the little
jacket was often discarded, and the dress was cut very simply but very
low in the bust, and they wore those voluminous silk wraps in common
with the men.
The little sashes were very much worn, and ornaments of knots of
ribbon or points (that is, a ribbon with a metal tag at either end)
were universal.
The change of fashion to short full sleeves gave rise to the turned
back cuff of the same material as the sleeve, and some costumes show
this short jacket with its short sleeves with cuffs, while under it
shows the dress with tight sleeves reaching to the wrists where were
linen or lace cuffs, a combination of two fashions.
Part of the lady's equipment now was a big feather fan, and a big fur
muff for winter; also the fashion of wearing long gloves to reach to
the elbow came in with the advent of short sleeves.
Naturally enough there was every variety of evolution from the old
fashion to the new, as the tight sleeves did not, of course, become
immediately wide and loose, but by some common movement, so curious in
the history of such revolutions, the sleeve grew and grew from puffs
at the elbow to wide cuffs, to wide shoulders, until the entire sleeve
became swollen out of all proportion, and the last little pieces of
tightness were removed.
The form of dress with cuffs to the jackets, lacing, sashes, bunches
of ribbon, and looped up skirts, lasted for a great number of years.
It was started by the death of the fardingale, and it lived into the
age of hoops.
These ladies wore shoe-roses upon their shoes, and these bunches of
ribbon, very artificially made up, cost sometimes as much as from
three to thirty pounds a pair, these very expensive roses being
ornamented with jewels. From these we derive the saying, 'Roses worth
a family.'
In the country the women wore red, gray, and black cloth homespun, and
for riding they put on safeguards or outer petticoats. The
wide-brimmed beaver hat was in general wear, and a lady riding in the
country would wear such a hat or a hood and a cloak and soft top
boots.
Women's petticoats were called plackets as well as petticoats.
With the careless air that was then adopted by everybody, which was to
grow yet more carefully careless in the reign of Charles II., the hair
was a matter which must have undivided attention, and centuries of
tight dressing had not improved many heads, so that when the loose
love-locks and the dainty tendrils became the fashion, many good
ladies and gentlemen had recourse to the wigmaker. From this time
until but an hundred years ago, from the periwig bought for Sexton,
the fool of Henry VIII., down to the scratches and bobs of one's
grandfather's youth, the wigmaker lived and prospered. To-day, more
secretly yet more surely, does the maker of transformations live and
prosper, but in the days when to be wigless was to be undressed the
perruquier was a very great person.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF CHARLES I. (1625-1649)
Notice the broad collar and deep cuffs. The dress is simple but
rich. The bodice is laced with the same colour as the narrow sash.
The hair is arranged in a series of elaborate curls over the
forehead.]
This was the day, then, of satins, loosened hair, elbow sleeves, and
little forehead curls. The stiffness of the older times will pass
away, but it had left its clutch still on these ladies; how far it
vanished, how entirely it left costume, will be seen in the next royal
reign, when Nell Gwynne was favourite and Sir Peter Lely painted her.
ENGRAVINGS BY HOLLAR
These excellent drawings by Hollar need no explanation. They are
included in this book because of their great value as accurate
contemporary drawings of costume.
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
THE CROMWELLS
1649-1660.
THE MEN AND WOMEN
'I left my pure mistress for a space,
And to a snip-snap barber straight went I;
I cut my hair, and did my corps uncase
Of 'parel's pride that did offend the eye;
My high crowned hat, my little beard also,
My pecked band, my shoes were sharp at toe.
'Gone was my sword, my belt was laid aside,
And I transformed both in looks and speech;
My 'parel plain, my cloak was void of pride,
My little skirts, my metamorphosed breech,
My stockings black, my garters were tied shorter,
My gloves no scent; thus marched I to her porter.'
[Illustration: {A man of the time of the Cromwells; a type of jacket}]
It is a question, in this time of restraint, of formalism, where
anything could be made plain, cut in a cumbrous fashion, rendered
inelegant, it was done. The little jackets were denuded of all forms
of frippery, the breeches were cut straight, and the ornaments, if
any, were of the most severe order. Hats became broader in the brim,
boots wider in the tops, in fact, big boots seemed almost a sign of
heavy religious feeling. The nice hair, love-locks, ordered negligence
all vanished, and plain crops or straight hair, not over long, marked
these extraordinary people. It was a natural revolt against
extravagance, and in some more sensible minds it was not carried to
excess; points and bows were allowable, though of sombre colours.
Sashes still held good, but of larger size, ruffs at the wrists were
worn, but of plain linen. The bands or collars varied in size
according to the religious enthusiasm of the wearers, but all were
plain without lace edgings, and were tied with plain strings. Black,
dark brown, and dull gray were the common colours, relieved sometimes,
if the man was wearing a sleeveless coat, by the yellow and red-barred
sleeves of the under-jacket, or possibly by coloured sleeves sewn
into the coat under the shoulder-wings. Overcoats were cut as
simply as possible, though they did not skimp the material but made
them wide and loose.
[Illustration: A CROMWELLIAN MAN (1649-1660)
Notice the careful plainness of his dress, and his very wide-topped
boots.]
[Illustration: {Three men of the time of the Cromwells; a type of
sleeve; two types of breeches and boot; a type of collar}]
The women dressed their hair more plainly, the less serious retained
the little bunches of side curls, but the others smoothed their hair
away under linen caps or black hoods tied under their chins. Another
thing the women did was to cut from their bodices all the little
strips but the one in the middle of the back, and this they left, like
a tail, behind. Some, of course, dressed as before with the
difference in colour and in ornament that made for severity. It had an
effect on the country insomuch as the country people ceased to be
extravagant in the materials for garments and in many like ways, and
so lay by good fortunes for their families--these families coming
later into the gay court of Charles II. had all the more to lavish on
the follies of his fashions.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of the Cromwells; a type of coat}]
The Puritan is as well-known a figure as any in history; an
intelligent child could draw you a picture or describe you a Puritan
as well as he could describe the Noah of Noah's Ark. He has become
part of the stock for an Academy humourist, a thousand anecdote
pictures have been painted of him; very often his nose is red,
generally he has a book in his hand, laughing maids bring him jacks of
ale, jeering Cavaliers swagger past him: his black cloak, board shoes,
wide Geneva bands are as much part of our national picture as
Punch or Harlequin.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF THE CROMWELLS (1649-1660)
This is not one of the most Puritanical dresses, but shows how the
richness of the reign of Charles I. was toned down. She carries a
muff in her hand, wears a good wide collar and cuffs, and neat roses
on her shoes.]
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of the Cromwells; a type of
jacket; two types of head-dress for women}]
The Puritaness is also known. She is generally represented as a sly
bird in sombre clothes; her town garments, full skirts, black hood,
deep linen collar are shown to hide a merry-eyed lady, her country
clothes, apron, striped petticoat, bunched up skirt, linen cap, her
little flaunt of curls show her still mischievous. The pair of them,
in reality religious fanatics, prepared a harvest that they little
dreamt of--a harvest of extravagant clothes and extravagant manners,
when the country broke loose from its false bondage of texts,
scriptural shirts, and religious petticoats, and launched into a
bondage, equally false, of low cut dresses and enormous periwigs.
In the next reign you will see an entirely new era of clothes--the
doublet and jerkin, the trunks and ruffs have their last eccentric
fling, they become caricatures of themselves, they do all the foolish
things garments can do, and then, all of a sudden, they vanish--never
to be taken up again. Hair, long-neglected, is to have its full sway,
wigs are the note for two centuries, so utterly different did the man
become in the short space of thirty-five years, that the buck of the
Restoration and the beau of the Jacobean order would stare helplessly
at each other, wondering each to himself what manner of fool this was
standing before him.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF THE CROMWELLS (1649-1660)
This shows the modification of the dress of the time of Charles I.
Not an extreme change, but an endeavour towards simplicity.]
CHARLES THE SECOND
Reigned twenty-five years: 1660-1685.
Born 1630. Married, 1662, Katherine of Portugal.
THE MEN AND WOMEN
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Charles II.}]
England, apparently with a sigh of relief, lays aside her hair shirt,
and proves that she has been wearing a silk vest under it.
Ribbon-makers and wig-makers, lace-makers, tailors, and shoemakers,
pour out thankful offerings at the altar of Fashion. One kind of folly
has replaced another; it is only the same goddess in different
clothes. The lamp that winked and flickered before the stern black
figure in Geneva bands and prim curls is put to shame by the flare of
a thousand candles shining on the painted face, the exposed bosom, the
flaunting love-locks of this Carolean deity.
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Charles II.}]
We have burst out into periwigs, monstrous, bushy; we have donned
petticoat breeches ruffled like a pigeon; we have cut our coats till
they are mere apologies, serving to show off our fine shirts; and we
have done the like with our coat-sleeves, leaving a little cuff
glittering with buttons, and above that we have cut a great slit, all
to show the marvel of our linen.
Those of us who still wear the long wide breeches adorn them with
heavy frills of deep lace, and sew bunches of ribbons along the seams.
We tie our cravats in long, stiff bows or knot them tight, and allow
the wide lace ends to float gracefully.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF CHARLES II. (1660-1685)
This shows the dress during the first half of the reign. The feature
of groups of ribboning is shown, with the short sleeve, the full
shirt, and the petticoat.]
Our hats, broad-brimmed and stiff, are loaded with feathers; our
little cloaks are barred with silk and lace and gold cord; our shoes
are square-toed and high-heeled, and are tied with a long-ended
bow of ribbon.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Charles II.; a type of sleeve;
the back of a coat}]