1400–1500 in fashion part 2

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Style gallery – Northern Europe 1450s–1470s

1 – c. 1455	2 – c. 1460	3 – c. 1460	4 – c. 1460
5 – 1467–71	6 – 1476–78	7 – ?1470s

1. 1450s fashion shows the hair pulled smoothly back from the face and confined in a caul or early hennin beneath a sheer veil. The gown has a wide V-neckline that shows the dark kirtle beneath and is worn with a wide red belt and a sheer partlet at the neck, Netherlands.
2. Emilia in the garden in this illustration from Boccaccio, Emilia wears the formal ermine-trimmed sideless surcoat that identifies royalty in illuminated manuscripts of this period, 1460.
3. Ladies in another illustration from Boccaccio wear tall steeple hennins with white veils. A long gown with a train has fur at the cuffs and neckline and is worn with a wide belt, c. 1460.
4. An attendant in the same illustration wears a red hood with a long liripipe. Her blue gown is "kirtled" or shortened by poufing it over a belt, c. 1460.
5. Woman wears a simple headdress of draped linen and a red gown trimmed with white fur. Note that the sleeve is only attached to the gown at the top, 1467–71.
6. Maria Portinari wears a truncated cone hennin with a veil draped over the back. The black loop on her forehead is thought to be part of the wire frame that balances the hennin. Her gown has a black collar trimmed in white fur and she wears an elaborate carcanet or necklace, Netherlands, 1478–78.
7. Elizabeth Woodville, Queen consort of Edward IV of England, wears a black gown with patterned collar and cuffs and a matching truncated English hennin beneath a sheer veil. ?1470s.^[20]

Style gallery – Northern Europe 1480s–1490s

1 – 1480	2 – 1480–85	3 – 1485–90	4 – c. 1490s
5 – 1490s	6 – 1496–98	7 – 1496–98	8 – c. 1499

1. Mary Magdalene is portrayed in contemporary dress of 1480. The low front opening now laces over the kirtle or an inserted panel or plackard, and the gown is draped up to reveal the richer fabric of the kirtle skirt.
2. Long gowns of the 1480s are carried looped up to allow walking, displaying the kirtle beneath.
3. In this allegory of True Love, the woman wears a pointed hennin with a sheer veil. Her gown is laced across her kirtle, Netherlands, 1485–90.
4. Anne de Beaujeu, Regent of France, in the ceremonial ermine-trimmed sideless surcoat and mantle of royalty, c. 1490s. The small cap worn with her coronet is a new French fashion of the last decade of the century.
5. Margaret of Austria wears a red velvet front-opening gown lined in ermine. Her hood has black velvet lappets and gold embroidery, 1490s.
6. Hypsipylé, first wife of Jason is depicted wearing an embroidered coif or cap decorated with small slashes, with her hair braided down her back underneath. She wears a square-necked gown with flared sleeves, French, 1496–98.
7. Another fashionable headdress of this period features a striped veil wrapped over an embroidered padded roll with a jewel, worn over a coif tied under the chin. The portion over the brow is probably a matching "forehead cloth" rather than part of the coif. The loose, square-necked gown of figured silk is worn over a black partlet, French, 1496–98.
8. "Juana the Mad" (Joanna of Castile) is depicted in the royal ermine-trimmed sideless surcoat and a symbolic mantle with heraldic decoration.

Style gallery – Italy 1400s–1460s

1 – 1423	2 – c. 1440	3 – c.1445	4 – c. 1450
5 – 1465–70	6 – c. 1468–70

1. Italian headdresses. The woman on the left wears a veil twisted into a turban. The woman on the right wears her hair in a long, thick braid encased in sheer fabric and twisted around her head. Her simple gown laces up the front with a single lace, 1423.
2. Woman at a casement wears a fur-lined red gown with a belt at the high waistline and full slashed sleeves over dark patterned undersleeves gathered to the elbow. Her headdress features a red chaperon, Florence, c. 1440.
3. Bianca Maria Visconti is depicted as the Virgin Mary with her son Galeazzo as the infant Jesus in this portrait c.1445. She is wearing a high-waisted gown of embroidered gold with tight-fitting sleeves, and her blonde hair is partially covered by a long black veil.
4. Italian sleeveless gown of mid-century has an obvious waist seam and a skirt pleated to the bodice. The figured underdress has a high front neckline and wide upper sleeves. Hair is lightly covered with a cap and veil twisted into a turban.
5. Battista Sforza, Duchess of Urbino wears her hair wrapped in ribbon, coiled at her ears, and covered with a ruched veil. Her black gown is high necked in front and lower at the back, typical of Italian fashion at this time, and is worn with floral sleeves, probably attached to an underdress, 1465–70.
6. Italian fresco shows women with their hair braided or twisted and wrapped around their heads, secured with ribbons laced through the coils, 1468–70.

Style gallery – Italy and Spain 1470s–1490s

1 – 1470	2 – 1476–80	3 – 1470s	4 – c. 1490
5 – c. 1490	6 – c. 1490	7 – 1490–95	8 – 1490–96

1. Florentine woman wears sleeves of figured silk with the fashionable pomegranate motif, 1470.
2. Simonetta Vespucci wears her very long hair in a knot at the back with a tail wrapped in black cord or ribbons. A single braid is studded with pearls, and a long loose lock is looped over the braid. Her neckline is lower and squared, 1478–80.
3. Princess Salome and her attendants are pictured in Catalonian dress of the 1470s. This image is one of the earliest depictions of the verdugada or farthingale, a skirt stiffened with reeds set in casings, that would spread to Italy briefly in the 1480s and '90s,^[21] and to France and England in the sixteenth century. The flaring chemise sleeves of striped or embroidered fabric are uniquely Spanish at this time, but the small cap and wrapped braid of hair are common to both Spain and Italy.
4. 1490 portrait of a lady features the sheer pointed partlet worn over the gown that was popular in Italy at this time. This woman wears a small cap with a brim on the back of her head; it ties under her chin.
5. Neroocio de' Landi's "Lady" wears a V-necked, high-waisted gown with hanging sleeves over a floral silk gamurra with a square neckline. Her cap is of the same floral silk. Siena, c. 1490.
6. Two Venetian ladies with blonde frizzy hair and caps. The very high waist is typical of Venice. Note the chopines or platform shoes to the left. As with other similar pictures, historians argue as to whether these are patrician ladies or courtesans.
7. Isabella of Castille in her crown wears an overgown with long hanging sleeves over pieced and jewelled undersleeves and a gold brocade kirtle. Her companion (probably her daughter Juana or Joanna) wears undersleeves fastened up the back over full chemise sleeves. Her red gown is open from the waist down in back and has very long hanging sleeves, one of which is looped up over her right shoulder. Her hair is braided and wrapped with a knot or tassel at the end. Spain, 1490–95.
8. Da Vinci's La Belle Ferronière wears her long hair smoothed over her ears and pulled back into a braid. Her sleeves are tied to her gown, and the chemise beneath is pulled out in puffs between the ribbon ties. The puffs and the lower waist would be important fashion trends in the next decades.

Men's fashion

Italian fashion of the 1470s features short gowns worn over doublets, and hats of many shapes.

Hats in a variety of styles are also worn by this group of French noblemen in high-collared gowns lined with fur, c. 1470.

Late in the century, a new style of loose gown with revers and collar appeared. Italy, 1495

Shirt, doublet, and hose

The basic costume of men in this period consisted of a shirt, doublet, and hose, with some sort of overgown (gown worn over clothing).

Linen shirts were worn next to the skin. Toward the end of the period, shirts (French chemise, Italian camicia, Spanish camisa) began to be full through the body and sleeves with wide, low necklines; the sleeves were pulled through the slashings or piecing of the doublet sleeves to make puffs, especially at the elbow and the back of the arm. As the cut of doublets revealed more fabric, wealthy men's shirts were often decorated with embroidery or applied braid.

Over the shirt was worn a doublet. From around the mid-century very tight-fitting doublets, belted or tailored to be tight at the waist, giving in effect a short skirt below, were fashionable, at least for the young. Sleeves were generally full, even puffy, and when worn with a large chaperon, the look was extremely stylish, but very top-heavy. Very tight hose, and long pointed shoes or thigh-boots gave a long attenuated appearance below the waist, and a chunky, solid one above. The doublet was often elaborately pleated, especially at the back, the pleats being achieved by various means. In Italy both shirt and doublet were often high, tight and collarless at the front of the neck; sometimes they are shown higher at the front than the back.

Men of all classes wore short braies or breeches, a loose undergarment, usually made of linen, which was held up by a belt. Hose or chausses made out of wool were used to cover the legs, and were generally brightly colored. Early hose sometimes had leather soles and were worn without shoes or boots. Hose were generally tied to the breech belt, or to the breeches themselves, or to a doublet.

As doublets became shorter, hose reached to the waist rather than the hips, and were sewn together into a single garment with a pouch or flap to cover the front opening; this evolved into the codpiece.

The hose exposed by short tops were, especially in Italy late in the century, often strikingly patterned, parti-coloured (different colours for each leg, or vertically divided), or embroidered. Hose were cut on the cross-grain or bias for stretch.^[15]

Gowns and outerwear

The Houppelande, in Italy called the cioppa, is the characteristic overgarment of the wealthy in the first half of the 15th century.^[22] It was essentially a gown with fullness falling from the shoulders in organ pleats^[23] and very full sleeves often reaching to the floor with, at the start of the century, a high collar. The houppelande could be lined in fur, and the hem and sleeves might be dagged or cut into scallops. It was initially often worn belted, but later mostly hanging straight. The length of the garment shortened from around the ankle to above the knee over this period. The floor-length sleeves were later wrist-length but very full, forming a bag or sack sleeve, or were worn off the arm, hanging ornamentally behind.

A sideless overgown or tabard, called a giornea in Italy and a journade in France,^[24] was popular. It was usually pleated and was worn hanging loose or belted. Young men wore them short and older men wore them calf- or ankle-length.

The middle of the century in Burgundy saw what seems to have been the earliest occurrence of the male fashion for dressing all in black, which was to reappear so strongly in the "Spanish" style of the mid-16th–17th century and again in the 19th–20th centuries. This was apparently begun by Duke Philip the Good.^[25]

In Venice, the patrician class, after the age of joining the Great Council, wore their long red robes as a uniform virtually unchanged throughout the century. In contrast, the young men and the famous courtesans of the city dressed very extravagantly.

In the last decades of the century, a new style of gown appeared; this was of various lengths, generally worn unbelted, and featured wide turned back revers and collar.^[26]

Short or long cloaks or mantles were worn overall for ceremonial occasions and in bad weather; these typically fastened on one shoulder.