In a previous post we mentioned illuminated manuscripts as inspirations for fashion collections. If you like the theme, you will be happy to hear that the Morgan Library & Museum in New York currently offers the chance to explore fashion from the Middle Ages via an intriguing exhibition.
"Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands" is the online version of a 2011 event curated by Roger Wieck, exploring the evolution of courtly clothing.
The exhibition focuses mainly on France and Flanders, occasionally mentioning England, Germany, and Holland, and explores the period going from 1330 to 1515.
Few garments from the Middle Ages survive, so illuminated manuscripts and early illustrated books are mainly employed by the curator of the event as the main reference materials to explore how specific historical events such as the Hundred Years' War, the occupation of Paris by the English, and the arrival of the Italian Renaissance in northern Europe, influenced clothes and accessories.
There are 8 main sections in this event, each of them divided into further micro-sections, analysing one illustration in detail.
You can start from the section that takes your fancy, from "Wasp Waists and Stuffed Shirts" to "Peacocks of the Midcentury", or opt for a more traditional approach, starting chronologically from "The Fashion Revolution Begins".
This section has a focus on the set-in sleeve, that is sleeves with rounded tops gathered into armholes in the bodice. This new tailoring trick provided more freedom, revealed the shapes of the wearer's torso and arms and launched a new fashion - the cote hardy (for women they were very long and trailed on the floor, they were instead shorter for men).
Women's fashions were affected by these changes as tighter bodices and sleeves became popular with occasional peek-a-boo openings along the side of a surcot (an example of women's fashion from this time is the drawing illustrating Lucretia committing suicide in Jacobus de Cessolis' "The Game of Chess Moralized"; Lucretia's surcot has a tight bodice and sleeves, slender tippets also hung from the elbows). Around this time the chaperon (a hood with an attached cape and tail) became popular.
The second half of the 14th century was marked by tragic events such as the Black Plague and the Hundred Years' War. Fashion changed just a little bit with men's styles being dominated by the pourpoint, a close-fitting doublet with a short flaring skirt and a cinched waist, padded at the chest and shoulders, giving the wearer a distinctive hourglass silhouette.
The cote hardy for women retained its voluminous skirt, but got tighter at the bodice, bosom, and sleeves. To illustrate these fashions, the exhibition employs different characters as portrayed in manuscripts, among them Alexander the Great and Salome. It is also worthwhile taking some time to admire the accessories, including the pouleines (long pointed shoes), the belts worn low on the hips that complemented the look and chaussembles (hose equipped with leather soles), especially the most elegant models featuring open fretwork.
Religious texts from this time can be particularly intriguing when it comes to fashion: missals were often decorated along the borders with illustrations and drawings portraying characters in fashionable attires.
One point to remember when it comes to these publications is the fact that it was an unwritten rule for Medieval artists that Christ was never fashionable while his torturers and executioners seemed more obsessed with elegant clothing to reflect their depravity: "The Book of Hours" (1375) included in this exhibition, illuminated by the Master of the Bible of Jean de Sy, proves this point by showing tormentors in a cote hardy and knee-length skirts.
Talking about fashionably dressed characters we must mention the character of the Lover, the protagonist of the "Roman de la rose": in the French manuscript included in the exhibition he wears a characteristic garment of this period, the houpeland, an outer garment with a long, full body and large, flaring sleeves worn by both men and women that became popular at the time of King Charles VI.
These were tumultuous times marked by the madness of Charles VI and the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War, but fashion reached unbelievable heights of luxury in which the houpeland became very trendy. Accessories included fancy baldricks (sashes), capeline, or "bag hat" and belts - sometimes decorated with bells. Women also began to wear their hair in temples (hennin), a double-horned coif surmounted by veils or a tubular burlet.
There are quite of few examples of these trends on the Morgan Library site, from an astrological treatise from 1402, featuring the zodiacal sign of Virgo represented by a well-dressed maiden in a trailing pink houpeland lined and hemmed with ermine, featuring bombard sleeves, to books about hunting, with a very fashionable trainer dressed in a blue fur-lined, midcalf houpeland with gold embroidery and dagged bombard sleeves.
By 1422 northern France and Aquitaine were under English or Burgundian control, but in 1429, during the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), Joan of Arc delivered Orléans, and Charles VII was crowned king in Rheims Cathedral.
Along with the houpeland, simpler garments for both sexes became popular, like a men's short unwaisted gown unflatteringly belted at the hips with baggy sleeves. The women's version of this gown was structured like the traditional cote hardy with a large skirt and had an open or V neck and columnar or puffed sleeves. Headgear became more extravagant instead with wider temples and the burlet worn atop them got taller.
As the Hundred Years' War came to its final chapter and the English occupation of Paris ended, peace brought a new prosperity to fashion. While the houpeland continued to be fashionable with men and women in provincial areas, in France and Flanders it became appropriate only for formal occasions.
Men more often wore the gown, full or knee length or belted at the waist. Little by little this garment evolved and assumed a flattering V-shaped silhouette; women's gowns also featured wide V necks with contrasting collars and partlets (plackards worn at the midriff). The chaperon remained popular, but headgear atop the temples continued to evolve, growing ever more extravagant.
A perfect representation of these trends is featured in the "Epistolary and Apocalypse of Charles the Bold", illuminated by Loyset Liédet and his workshop: in the book the Whore of Babylon wears a scarlet and gold damasked dress, with a complex headdress consisting in towering temples with thick rolls on top (this type of headdress had actually started going out of fashion and was considered rather decadent for those years).
In the 1460s and '70s fashion reached a Gothic climax. The look for both men and women was tall, long and lean, so a new standard of beauty arrived on the scene. Men's gowns became shorter, worn to the crotch, often with a thin belt around a narrow waist, something that contrasted with the padded shoulders, while a fluid dynamic movement was created by the pleats that flared down over the buttocks and up over the back and chest. Pouleines were revived and the chaperon went out of fashion in favour of a tall, loaf-shaped version.
Women's gowns continued with their wide V necks, high wasp waist, and long trains. For headgear, temples went out of fashion and were replaced by the turret, a cone-shaped coif, usually worn with transparent veils. The turret was affixed to the head via the templet, a cloth or metal base with a small hoop to which the turret was anchored.
It is easy to find these styles in Boccaccio's works, such as "Of Noble Men and Women", in which it is possible to read about a fight between Poverty, dressed like a poor pilgrim in ragged clothes, and Fortune, dressed to the nines and wearing an extravagantly tall turret anchored to her head with a black frontlet.
Calendars and prayer books could be considered as excellent sources for depictions of contemporary clothes. In books of prayers clothes and accessories were often employed in symbolical ways to hint for example at depravity or sin. For instance, Pride, was portrayed as a young man riding a lion while admiring himself in a mirror. in an illustration featured in the exhibition he wears an embroidered green gown with slit sleeves and, under that, a red velvet doublet. His accessories include a headband (with feather), necklace, and studded belt (you get the impression he wouldn't look out of place on a Gucci runway...).
During the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance fashion started changing, France was exposed to Italian art, culture, and fashion, but the Late Gothic style still dominated the arts and the style of northern Europe. Fashions of this period reflected these conflicts. Long loose open gowns came into style and, by the 1490s, these gowns became especially voluminous and bulky. Round-toed shoes replaced the pointy pouleines. The men's outer coat, often of luxurious cloth, called a sayon, reflected the Italian fashion, and a new type of hat, the carmignolle, with a low crown and a divided brim held up by laces, became popular. Women's gowns of this period also became fuller, and bombard sleeves were revived, but the turret disappeared while its frontlet remained and was attached to a new small-crowned coif.
Prayer books from this period could be almost used as photographic albums: a baptismal rite in a liturgical service book used by a bishop was illustrated by a baptism scene with people dressed in contemporary fashions with the godfather in gray and, behind him, the father in brown, both wear hats with a low crown and a divided, upturned brim, while women wear gowns with a square neckline. Historiated borders in prayer books also featured characters dressed in the fashion of the time: in one of them there's even a young man with very fashionable stockings divided into lower and upper hose (here the upper part was striped).
After the coronation of François I in 1515, a fundamental change came about in French art and culture. The king was a connoisseur who imported major Italian artists and artworks to France and Italian fashion flourished under him. Men started favouring short gowns with wide shoulders and low-brimmed hats, often decorated with slanted ostrich feathers, while shoes were square-toed. Women also adopted Italian styles, opting for gowns with square necklines that showed the linen smocks underneath. Sleeves also displayed the smock: these were now often worn loosely tied to the bodice or split into two parts and slit along the underside. In a 1525 edition of the "Roman de la rose" owned by King François I, most characters depicted are dressed in the new Italianate style.
The Morgan Library sites closes the exhibition with a brief focus on replicas made from these illustrations and with a glossary that is extremely useful for students and researchers.
There are connections between the Middle Ages and contemporary fashion: in previous posts we have indeed seen collections that hinted at Medieval fashion, while researchers attempted philological studies into Medieval textiles. Besides, we have often seen the hennin reappearing at times on the runway or even the turret, complete with transparent veils, while there have recently been attempts at combining videogame inspirations with moods from the Middle Ages.
Who knows, maybe the biggest inspiration from the Middle Ages is still to come: fashion went into a bit of a crisis during difficult times such as the Hundred Years' War and the Black Plague, but then it flourished again. We are still in the grips of a global pandemic that has radically changed the way we present and make fashion, but, hopefully, we will see the end of these Dark Times and we will fill our eyes with beauty and extravagance once again.
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