Research suggestions for 16th-century English middle class clothing

[msmcknittington]

nuranar recently contacted me to ask me for research suggestions/inspiration for a friend of hers that is interested in starting to make historically accurate clothing for a middle class woman in Elizabethan England. I asked Ginger if she minded me asking my friends list, since so many of you do make 16th-century clothing for middle-class people in England and are way better at it and more well-informed than I am. And she said yes! So . . .

Dear LJ brain trust,

What books, websites and dress diaries/blogs do you recommend to a beginner who is interested in creating historically accurate clothing for middle class people in Elizabethan England? I believe I'm correct in thinking that nuranar's friend already has some sewing experience, perhaps considerable. If you do other eras or geographic areas, please feel free to weigh in with research strategies!

What I've recommended is under the cut. I've added and refined my earlier suggestions, nuranar!

Books

Arnold, Janet. Patterns of fashion. Costume & Fashion Press, 1987. Print.

Mikhaila, Ninya and Jane Malcolm-Davies. The Tudor Tailor. Costume & Fashion Press, 2006. Print.

Alcega, Juan de. Libro de geometría práctica y traça. -- Available partially on Google Books here. You can buy this one at AbeBooks UK. The price/shipping isn't too bad for a costuming book.

I know that Tudor Tailor is a controversial suggestion to some people, and I agree that the pattern diagrams are a little disappointing. But! The text introduction is great, and if you use the pattern shapes in conjunction with tailors' books like de Alcega's, then you can get clothes that fit with period pattern shapes. The bibliography and footnotes are also excellent. It is a great, reputable resource for someone who is new to 16th-century clothing. Beats the hell out of Winters & Savoy, OK?

I stayed away from recommending things like Moda a Firenze and Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd because they are SUPER expensive, and I feel that they shouldn't be purchased until you're at a point to make that investment. They're also hard to get through ILL, I've discovered. But if you've got a friend who has them and is willing to share . . .

Websites

Elizabethan Costume Page -- Especially these parts:

1. 16th Century Fabric Consumption by Susan Reed
2. A Tour of 16th Century Costume
3. Queen Elizabeth's Influence on Elizabethan Fashion
4. Smock Pattern Generator -- Though I should point out that this is optimized for machine sewing -- the underarm gussets shouldn't be split in half -- and the pattern in Tudor Tailor is easy to size up.
5. Pictures of Middle Class European Costume
6. Check out the links in the Costume Books & Manuscripts section

Extreme Costuming -- Especially the articles! Read the articles!

Mode Historique -- Especially the research section! And the links section! Sarah is savvy!

The Elizabethan Compendium

Karen Larsdatter's Medieval Material Culture Linkspages

Reconstructing History Blog

Renaissance Tailor -- Especially the selections from tailor's manuals

Semptress

Festive Attyre

Kimiko's Website -- Especially the costume myths section.

nuranar also thought of demode's website, which has lots of good links, though most of her 16th century clothes are Venetian courtesan, which might not be very useful for middle-class English clothing.

Places to look at pictures/portraits:

Wikimedia Commons on Elizabethan clothing: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Elizabethan_clothing -- With caution! Some stuff there is not Elizabethan; it's ren faire or Victorian interpretations of Elizabethan. But there are lots of portraits. Of especial interest are these two:

1. Joris Hoefnagel, Fete at Bermondsey, 1569
2. Lucas de Heere, London Gentlewomen and a Countrywoman by Lucas de Heere, c. 1570

Tudor & Elizabethan Portraits

Portraits of Queen Elizabeth and Tudor England: Images

I also suggest Googling for the names of Elizabethan artists as you come across them to find more images. The big miniature painter is Nicholas Hilliard, but the two mentioned above, Joris Hoefnagel and Lucas de Heere, are good choices too. But because they're both foreigners, you have to be sure you know that the subjects of their paintings are English and not some other country. Or, uh, plants. Hoefnagel did botanical illustrations, too. Wikipedia (noooo, not Wikipedia!) has a nice list of artists at the Tudor court to help find images. Unfortunately, most portraiture is of really, really rich people, so it might not be much help in putting together middle class clothing. But it can help with seamlines and stuff.

Anybody else have any suggestions? I'm sure I'm forgetting lots of things I should have in there! I am trying to stay away from modern sewing pattern suggestions, since those aren't actually as helpful as texts/websites if you're trying to do research yourself.

Comments

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

Yay, Sarah! <3 I do find your website inspiring and useful! It is, way back in the crusty ages of the internet, what made me want to learn about this stuff. And it continues awesome. :D

I have heard people say that TT isn't a good resource, because you can do all the same things with PoF and some brains. I . . . disagree. Pretty strongly. I think TT is a lot broader in scope and talks about things in the text intro that PoF doesn't. But I totally hear you about not doing original research and copying things. That can be difficult and frustrating, especially if you are doing original research and not copying.

[sarahbellem.livejournal.com]

TT can be summed up as "really really really good theatrical how-to with an excellent bibliography", as far as I'm concerned. There's too much in the book that is actually 100% made up by Ninya, and while it's based on her research, it's all really her conjecture at the end of the day*. I took a class on 16th c. headwear and at one point I had the uncomfortable task of asking where the teacher got her info from on one particular style of headgear that I happen to know A LOT about (guess which one), and hadn't run across anything in my research that looked remotely like what she had made. And her response was "Oh, I got it out of the Tudor Tailor." I somehow managed not to *facepalm* right there.

So, while there's stuff in TT that *is* what's in PoF, there's also stuff in there that was developed by Ninya over the course of her career to streamline difficult and fussy bits of costumes, and/or redacting based on really super minimal amounts of info and which she will readily admit she basically invented. It's something that, if you're starting out on Eliz/Tudor costuming and you think you're really going to get into it, you want to comb it for the footnotes and bibliographical info because there's a lot of useful stuff that isn't in a diagram. But the stuff that is diagrammed is only going to get you so far. It is what it is.

*Caveat: This is basically what we all do, at the end of the day, obviously. We take the tiny piece of info we have and we try to make sense of it as best we can. But I think there's a big distinction between doing the legwork yourself and trying to formulate a working hypothesis on your own, versus just copying it out of a book because it's in print and somehow that makes it Research^TM. And lest anyone think I'm picking on Ninya, I'm not. I've had people come up to me and announce with great enthusiasm that they made X thing EXACTLY LIKE MINE. It's actually pretty creepy.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

I do agree that TT as far as the pattern drafts go could be a lot better, which is why I recommend using the pattern drafts to get a shape with known, standardized measurements and then adding seam lines/goes/whatever using tailor's manuals and PoF for period layouts. What really gets me about the pattern section is all the cotton muslin/calico that's used. Oof. As you say, its real value lays in the stuff that's not in a diagram. And the pictures in the front. I, uh, look at the pictures a lot.

As for French hoods -- :( That class would be one of the bad ways to use TT. It shouldn't be a bible. PoF shouldn't be a bible, either.

And copying your clothes is creepy. Even your clothes are really awesome. (I might be jealous of your white silk jacket with black trim. Maybe sad that I didn't think of making one before you did.)

[sarahbellem.livejournal.com]

Heh. It's wool, not silk. And it currently needs the right sleeve reattached after I wore it to Kentwell a few weeks ago and ripped it out after a hardcore butter churning incident. ;)

That's right. I wore my cream Elizabethan jacket TO KENTWELL. Observe!

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

I swear that at one point in my life, I actually retained what I read. But I guess that means I can make myself a white silk jacket -- after all it wouldn't be exactly like yours. :| _{Just kidding, Sarah!}

You wore it with jeans, you maniac! Obviously you should have held back with the butter churning -- you didn't know your own strength.