Something I should probably have done before beginning my embroidery (but never mind: it wasn’t exactly possible in the middle of a pandemic!) was visit the jacket in Bath Fashion Museum that is similar (but not identical) to the one in the Burrell Collection. I did so last weekend, though, when I went to Bath with Harriet and Serena as an excuse to dress up in 18th Century finery.
It was really useful to be able to compare the two, and I think I’ve managed to learn a lot that will come in useful next time (if there is a next time!).
The Good News!
I’ve managed to get the proportions of the pattern just right! It’s all to the same scale as the Bath jacket. My colours are right, the stitches are right, and in that respect all is well. My linen isn’t nearly so fine as the Bath jacket’s linen, but I was expecting that anyway: I knew the linen I had chosen was somewhat coarse, but fine, closely woven, opaque linen is really hard to come by nowadays… It’s also been really useful to see the Bath jacket because it retains more of its spangles, so once my spangles arrive, I’ll be able to space them out in a similar manner.
The blending of threads that I conjectured had been used to achieve blends of colour was correct, and many of the guesses I had made about rows of stitches (two yellow, two blue in the stripy leaf, for example) were also correct.
The Bad News…
Basically, while I’ve got the pattern the same size, mine is in bold… I’ve been doubling the threads over, because I was concerned that they were too thin, but in reality I’ve gone and made everything slightly thicker than it ought to be. The gold plaited braid stitch in particular is very fine. Likewise, the red thorns are much smaller on the real jacket. It looks like the red zig-zags on the bluebells go on top of the already embroidered white (or blue, in the case of the Bath jacket) so I can stop worrying about which way I should do those now!
While my efforts are by no means perfect, I’m not going to begin this whole process again because I’m using doubled over threads rather than the one strand I should have been using. I’ll continue, and then use what I’ve learned when/if I get around to creating something similar to the Devereux bodice held in the Kyoto Costume Institute!
Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took of the Bath jacket, for those who want a closer look:
A garment of which there are huge numbers of surviving examples, as well as painted depictions, is the late 16th century – early 17th century woman’s waistcoat or jacket. Such garments seem to be almost entirely English, and their survival is perhaps mainly thanks to their small size and intricate embroidery. It’s not very easy to cut them down and turn them into anything else!
English woman’s jacket in undyed linen embroidered with silver and gilt-silver yarns and spangles in daffodil scroll pattern, trimmed with metallic lace, c. 1610-1615 with later alterations, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Such garments were informal wear for noble women, while the gentry considered them formal wear. Decoration varied from simple wool embroidery on fustian to metallic threads on linen or silk, complete with hundreds of metal spangles.
Margaret Layton Jacket, 1610-1615 (altered 1620), V&A Museum
Possibly the most famous jacket is the Margaret Layton one, since not only does the jacket still exist, so does a portrait of it being worn! Such a survival is rare for something for so old, and it gives valuable insight into how such garments were worn.
“The waistcoat has long, tight sleeves, narrow shoulder wings, semi-circular cuffs and a small curved collar at the back neck, dating it to about 1610. Made of linen, it is hand sewn and lined with coral silk taffeta. Originally the jacket was fastened with pink silk ribbons. In the 1620s, an edging of spangled silver-gilt bobbin lace was added. Fragments remain of the original silk ribbons used for fastening. The waistcoat is embroidered in detached buttonhole, stem, plaited braid, chain, couching and dot stitches, with knots and speckling, with coloured silk threads, silver-gilt threads and spangles.”
V&A Museum
Margaret Layton Portrait, c. 1620, Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
The jacket had the lace added in the 1620s, but as fashion was changing, waistlines had risen. Rather than further alter the jacket drastically, Margaret Layton instead wore her petticoat higher up over the jacket, hiding its lower waistline.
For more pictures of the jacket, see its page on the V&A website. There are nearly 100 detailed pictures of the embroidery and construction!
Margaret Layton Jacket, 1610-1615 (altered 1620), V&A Museum, Detail
Another jacket held by the V&A with a huge number of images is this loose fitting one from c.1590-1630.
Loose fitting linen jacket c.1590-1630, V&A Museum
“This simple unlined jacket represents an informal style of clothing worn by women in the early 17th century. Unlike more fitted waistcoats, this loose, unshaped jacket may have been worn during pregnancy. A repeating pattern of curving scrolls covers the linen from which spring sweet peas, oak leaves, acorns, columbine, lilies, pansies, borage, hawthorn, strawberries and honeysuckle embroidered in coloured silks, silver and silver-gilt threads. The embroidery stitches include chain, stem, satin, dot and double-plait stitch, as well as knots and couching of the metal threads. Sleeves and sides are embroidered together with an insertion stitch in two shades of green instead of a conventionally sewn seam.
Although exquisitely worked, this jacket is crudely cut from a single layer of linen, indicating the work of a seamstress or embroiderer, someone without a tailor’s training. It has no cuffs, collar or lining, and the sleeves are cut in one piece. The jacket was later altered to fit a thinner person. The sleeves were taken off, the armholes re-shaped, the sides cut down, and the sleeves set in again.”
Unlike many other extant jackets, it is embroidered entirely in silk, without the use of metallic threads or spangles that are so visible on so many of the others. The fact that it survives while still being so loose fitting is also interesting, since it wouldn’t have been difficult to cut it down into on of the more fashionable jackets of the later 1630s.
One jacket that has been cut down and altered is this one.
Waistcoat, c.1610-1620, altered 1620s, V&A Museum
The neckline has been cut down, cutting into the embroidery, probably so that it could be worn as a masque costume. The sides have been taken in, and the armscyes made smaller by adding pieces to them. It doesn’t seem to be a particularly skilled job, but since masques tended to take place in the evening, in candle light, it is unlikely that anyone would have noticed!
A jacket that was also altered for a masque (though in a very different way!) is also held by the V&A.
Waistcoat, 1600-1620, altered 1620s, V&A Museum
“Four pieces forming a woman’s waistcoat made of bleached linen and embroidered with coloured silks, silver and silver-gilt filé and spangles. The pattern of the embroidery comprises a lattice of geometric strapwork in plaited braid stitch with threads. Worked inside the strapwork compartments are flowers, fruits and leaves in coloured silks in detached buttonhole stitch. The grapes are similarly worked, but raised for a three-dimensional effect.
The waistcoat was probably altered in the 1620s to wear as masque costume. The fronts were removed, shortened and new gores added, then sewn to new silk backs (not meant to be seen when worn) The waistcoat probably had a scattering of silver-gilt spangles. Many more, each topped with a glass bead, were added, filling the linen ground and almost obscuring the pattern of the embroidery…
…The British philosopher and writer Francis Bacon (1561-1626) wrote an essay, ‘Of Masques and Triumphs’, in 1594, advising on the colours and decorations most effective for masque costume. He recommended spangles, ‘as they are of no great cost, so they are of most glory. As for rich embroidery, it is lost, and not discerned.’”
V&A Museum
On that note, I think I’ll just present you with a collection of some of the other beautiful embroidered jackets still in existence!
Woman’s close-fitting long sleeved jacket, c.1610-1620 with “centre-front fastening and a round neck, embroidered with fine black wool in a pattern of barberries.” Museum of London
Waistcoat, c.1610-1620. “While a number of embroidered linen waistcoats survive in museum collections, this is an unusual example of one made of silk. Its embroidery pattern follows the characteristic design of this period, with scrolling stems. However the floral motifs are quite abstract, moving away from the naturalism typical in embroidery in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
The waistcoat has been altered twice, first to reduce the fullness below the waist. The second alteration was in increase the width across the back and around the armholes, either for the original wearer or for another larger person.” V&A Museum
Jacket, c. 1615-1620. “A range of beasts, real and fantastic, flowers, birds and insects adorn the jacket, each enclosed within leaf, fruit or flower-shaped compartments as part of the naturalistic design.
The tragedy of this masterpiece of erudition and design is its deteriorating condition. The dye that created the inky black colour of the silk embroidery thread was fixed with iron. Over the years, the iron oxidises (rusts) causing the silk thread to disintegrate. There are to date no modern conservation techniques to halt this disintegration.” V&A Museum
Waistcoat Panel with a triangular insertion or gore, inserted into the lower edge. It is embroidered in a repeating pattern of strawberries in shades of pink and red to represent stages of ripening. The silver-gilt thread is worked mainly in plaited braid stitch and the silks in detached button-hole stitch. C.1615, V&A Museum
Woman’s bodice or waistcoat (c.1615-1618) in linen embroidered with light blue, cream, light green, pink red and yellow silk, silver and silver-gilt threads and spangles worked predominately in corded detached buttonhole and plaited braid stitch with satin and sword edging and woven wheel stitch in a rinceau pattern of repeated flowers, including roses, borage and blue bells, foliage, butterflies and caterpillars within curling stems outlined with small red stitches. Burrell Collection
Jacket, c. 1616: “In this seventeenth-century jacket, floral and vegetal motifs are accounted for with scientific clarity but assembled along traditional continuous meanders. Like seventeenth-century still-life painting in its global reach and analytical approach, the jacket suggests both abundance and taxonomy.” MET Museum
“A bodice panel of ivory linen from a lady’s embroidered jacket, worked with curling gilt thread tendrils with pea pods, pansies, fruit, butterflies, dragonflies and caterpillars, English, circa 1620-30,” Christies
Waistcoat, c.1620-1625: “The blackwork embroidery is of exquisite quality and is worked in a continuous pattern throughout the body of the garment. The extremely fine speckling stitches create the shaded effect of a woodblock print. The waistcoat is unlined and embellished with an insertion of bobbin lace in black and white linen at the back of each sleeve, and a edging of bobbin lace in the same colours.” V&A Museum
Waistcoat, c.1630-1640. “The high waist and full sleeves set into the back of this jacket are characteristic of women’s dress of the 1630s. The pattern of ornate and complex floral shapes was probably inspired by Italian woven silks of the same decade featuring similar designs. Chain stitch, satin stitch, back stitch and speckling stitch have been used in the embroidery.” V&A Museum
Waistcoat, c. 1630-1640. “The style of embroidery is quite unusual: a striking design of meandering lines rather than the naturalistic floral patterns typically seen on earlier embellished waistcoats. This abstract design is probably imitating the ‘wave and flower’ patterns of Italian woven silks of the 1620s and 1630s. The sycamore motif used here may be symbolic of sorrowful love. Also unusual is the waistcoat’s modest fabric; a mix of cotton and linen, called fustian, which was often used for linings. The embroidery, however, is carried out in silver thread and embellished with silver bobbin lace and silver spangles.” V&A Museum
In the 16th Century, communication was relatively slow and fashions changed equally slowly. They tended toward very specific regional styles: you can see in the above map that the countries around Germany favour lots of pleats, while the Dutch and Flemish have large, dark hoods, and the English women have fitted gowns that are open down the front. Headwear in particular is different all across the map.
Upper class fashion aimed to imitate the monarch, and monarchs were often the ones who imported new fashions through their marriages, or increased the extremes of fashions through their wealth. Part of the reason for such distinct styles was the fact that the printing press had only relatively recently been invented. Through the 16th Century, a few books appeared detailing patterns for tailors, but these retained the regional styles, and were very much aimed at tailors – not the general public.
Embroidery books did exist from the 1520s onwards, with different patterns for different styles of embroidery and (later) lace. These could be used by ladies undertaking domestic sewing for pleasure as well as professional embroiderers. The fact that the patterns within these books were much plagiarised led to some commonality in the embroidery and laces across Europe, but not clothing as a whole. At this point there was no concept of a fashion magazine.
Books with clothing illustrated in them certainly existed, but they served more as a way of showing differences in regional dress. Lucas van de Heere’s book is an example of this. The one major exception to books illustrating the differences between regional dress is the book of Matthaeus Schwarz of Augsburg, which detailed each and every set of clothes he ever bought (now published as the First Book of Fashion).
While Schwarz’s book was certainly accurate, since its whole purpose was to detail his clothes as he bought them across 40 years, books of costume showing the clothes of different countries relied on letters and accounts of travellers. Such descriptions of clothes were often lacking, and so the books tended to be somewhat less accurate. Compare the painting of an English woman from 1567 with the woodcut of an English lady! The foreign interpretation is radically different to the reality.
The silhouette is relatively accurate, but there have certainly been some creative liberties taken. The headdress is not something I’ve seen anywhere in mid 16th century fashion, and the hoops of the farthingale showing would only be accurate for late 15th century Spain. The partlet and small neck ruff seem reasonably, but the neckline of the gown is bizarre. The wrist ruffs with the cuffs seem an odd combination, and the muff hanging from her girdle is ridiculously small. The slashing on her bodice seems very large, but not impossible: I have seen similar slashing on slightly later bodices. All in all, it’s an image that seems to have been created by someone who didn’t know what they were looking at or (more likely) didn’t have anything to look at!
One notable exception to the lack of fashion magazines was in Italy. Printed images were produced showing hairstyles, and while the intention was to show the hair styles of different places, women would use them as inspiration for dressing their own hair. This is something we know thanks to a few lines in a play by Ben Johnson:
Philautia:…What, have you changed your head-tire?
Phantaste: Yes, faith, the other was near the common, it had no extraordinary grace; besides, I had worn it almost a day, in good troth.
Philautia: I’ll be swon, this is most excellent for the device, and rare; ’tis after the Italian print we looked on t’other night.
Ben Jonson’s Cynthia’s Revels, first acted in 1600. Philautia addresses her friend Phantaste (Act 2, scene 1)
