It seems as
if particularly in England the 17th century existed of the English Civil
war and nothing happened in the second half. Wrong! The Restoration period
must not be forgotten, when after the gloomy times of the Protectorate
King Charles was asked back by Parliament and indeed by the people of
England themselves. With greatest pomp and grandeur did he return in 1660,
to be crowned King of all England in 1661. How times changed after this...
Nor must one forget the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when James II, brother
to Charles II who had died in 1685, fled to France and William, prince
of Orange, husband to Mary who was a daughter of James II, accepted the
offered throne and the couple reigned until Mary's death in 1694 as William
& Mary, afterwards until 1702 he reigned as William III. In this year
Queen Anne came onto the throne, sister of Mary and therefore niece to
Charles II, and in her time one sees the rise and glory of the Duke of
Marlborough and the War of the Spanish Succession.
So many fashion changes
took place in the period from 1660 to 1715, that it is impossible to cover
the whole period in just 4 lessons. Therefore this course concentrated
on the first ten years of the reign of Charles II, the 1660s and the return
to courtly splendour and magnificence of costumes. This is not a history
course therefore I won't talk about the Plague that ravished England and
particularly London in 1665 so horrendously nor the Great Fire of London
in 1666, but only mention some of the most important events in passing.
Before we come to
the clothing of the period I would like to talk about some general and
very important considerations. The clothing of the late 17th century is
an area of great diversity about which it is misleading to try and make
up simple rules, instead, it must always be kept in mind and though certain
features are the most common ones there are always exceptions to the any
rule one tries to establish. Therefore it must be kept in mind what one
strives to achieve: in a setting that is eager to portray a certain character
at a given date and place in time that is as authentically as possible,
it should be chosen what is most common to show a picture of life in the
past which comes closest to the truth. For example, in the early to late
1660s there is few evidence in paintings, engravings, drawings and surviving
costumes of split upper petticoats, by no means though are there none.
In about 50 paintings that were examined 2 showed split skirts. The rule
to be established is thus to show mainly closed skirts in a given group
of costumed people with a petticoat underneath, and perhaps one person
with a split skirt. If one wanted to portray the 1640s, for example, it
should be chosen to wear mainly split overskirts. As a rule of thumb chose
what you have evidence for and from this chose what evidence is the prevalent
one.
As the 17th century
observer Randle Holme wrote in 1688 in his Academy of Armory in
provincial Cheshire, just on the topic of sleeve designs for women's gowns:
"there
is as much variety of fashions as days in the Year."
Thus what needs to
be known is who had what clothing in their chests or on their backs, what
was t made of, how was it put together and what combinations was it worn
in and when. It is impossible to prove a negative, though while it is
highly unlikely that a housewife in the restoration period in England
would wear a mini skirt it cannot be proved that she did not. Despite
the fact that it can be safely assumed that no one did because there is
absolutely no evidence for it, it can never be said for 100% certain that
it never happened. This must be kept in mind in any research as well as
any re-creation of clothing. The advice that is always given to every
researcher and re-creator is therefore to make, own and wear what can
be shown, what can be proven in the affirmative, where the evidence exists
for certain regarding what was owned, worn, by whom, when, and how it
was constructed.
To achieve a correct
and believable appearance, first select what role you are trying to represent,
use the correct materials, dyed if dying is appropriate with the correct
dyestuffs, cut to an appropriate pattern and assembled in an appropriate
way e.g. hand stitched where visible, then wear these garments in an appropriate
combination. If you stick to data that is historically proven for the
type or at least class of character you are portraying then you are safe.
All of this sounds very simple, but confusion often starts with the question
which sources to use, or what are primary, secondary, tertiary sources.
To add to the confusion, even a primary source can be misleading if it
is a bad source. Instead of reinventing the wheel please take a look at
the following page which is a superb explanation of the different sources
and by Cynthia Virtue: Source
of Confusion: A graphic attempt to explain useful sources versus less
useful ones, for garments.
Many people make
the mistake to take out a general book on historical costume which shows
drawings by the author. These drawings are usually taken from actual paintings
and engravings, but redrawn. Sometimes not even that, the author shows
his or her own idea. One of the most striking examples is the 19th century
book by A. Racinet Historical Encyclopaedia of Costumes, produced
between 1876 and 1888, which shows all the historical and regional costumes
with a hint of 19th century fashion in it. An example of an author who
is biased and caught in his or her own time. While the benefit of such
books, when well done, is good and gives a nice overview, the first stopping
point should always be either a book on historical costumes with pictures
of paintings and photos of extant garments, or, even better, picture books
of famous artists of the period who depict people from all walks of life.
Studying the 1660s
one is blessed with an abundance of paintings showing people not only
in allegorical settings or artificial elegant postures for portraiture,
but in everyday life. The Golden Age of Dutch painting offers the costume
historian an abundance of information. Dutch paintings can be safely used
for Restoration fashion of 1660-c. 1667, because Holland had become the
hub of economic (and therefore fashionable) power in Europe in the 1650s
and continued to be so until the end of the 1660s. After 1667 Charles
II and apparently Louis XIV decided on advocating a different fashion
for men, that of long coat and waistcoat. This will be explored in further
detail in Lesson 3.
If you cannot go
to a museum that has extant garments from the period on display, there
are some webpages on the Internet showing photos from such museums. Furthermore
extant garments are shown in several books (see bibliography).
The second best option are art books and websites with high quality art
images. Search on the web, and in particularly in Carol Geerten-Jackson's
wonderful CGFA
Virtual Art Museum (University of Bayreuth mirror site) for the following
artists (the most important artists of the Restoration period in dark
red):
- Ferdinand Bol
1616-1668
- Nicholas Bonnart
1637-1718
- Henri Bonnart
1642-1711
- Robert Bonnart
1652-1729
- Jean Baptiste
Bonnart 1654-1726
- Abraham Bosse
1602-1676
- Gerard Dou 1613-1675
- Frans Hals 1581/85-1666
- Pieter
de Hooch 1629-1684
- Thomas de Keyser
1596/97-1667
- Sir Godfrey Kneller
1649-1723
- Nicholas de Largillière
1656-1746
- Marcellus Laroon
1653-1702
- Sir
Peter Lely 1618-1680
- Charles le Brun
1619-1696
- Nicolas
Maes 1634-1693
- Gabriel
Metsu 1629-1667
- Pierre Mignard
1612-1695
- Frans
van Mieris 1635-1681
- Robert Nanteuil
1623?-1678
- Jan
Steen 1626-1679
- David
Teniers the younger 1610-1690
- Gerard
Terborch 1617-1681
- Jan
Vermeer 1632–1675
- Antoine Watteau
1684-1721
Recommended
Books
Barbara Rose. The Golden Age of Dutch Painting. London: Pall Mall,
1969.
Albert Blankert,
John Michael Montias, Gilles Aillaud. Vermeer. New York: Rizzoli,
1988.
Fraser, Antonia. Charles II: His Life and Times. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
1979. New Edition 1993.
The best book I can recommend on the period in general and Charles II
in particular. It is full with photos of extant objects as well as numerous
paintings and drawings. A very enjoyable read as well. |
Part 1 
