Art, Writing, and Learning: The Clerisy Quarter > Arts, Crafts, Music & Drama - The Artisans' Guilds
Crafts in the Plague Year
dubsartur:
As seen by trecento eyes ... (Morgan MS. G.54 Der Wälsche Gaste folio 6r http://www.themorgan.org/collection/Illuminating-Fashion/8 see also http://ica.themorgan.org/manuscript/page/9/76996)
and by the unfeeling crystal gaze of a camera during the first real snowfall of the winter.
Jubal:
Nicely done! :)
dubsartur:
My next project is drafting and making up a black fustian doublet from the same period. Last time I was able to work on this project was before the plague and two years of unemployment and some changes to my body. So while previously I was aiming for the typical male silhouette of the period:
I think I will have to aim for the masons and torturers of Christ we see in some 15th century art:
(One reason for that is that in the late 14th century, there were plenty of respectable garments for men which hung down to the mid-thigh or lower, so as you got more comfortable, and felt less need to impress the ladies with your shapely calves and bottom, you could invest in more expensive (= voluminous) clothing as well as better food and people do do the sweaty work for you and hide your belly under them. There seems to have been a trend for the 15th century onwards for these to be relegated to very formal garments like gowns or specialty garments like rainwear).
dubsartur:
I have now made two mockups from medium-weight unbleached cotton cloth (muslin, I forget the German name). The second seems to be headed in the right direction.
Doublets in this period are sort of hybrid garments. The upper half of the body fits fairly loosely and supports itself like the upper half of a suit coat / blazer / Sakko. The lower half fits like a corset and holds up your hose like a modern trousers belt. By the mid 15th century, when every man above a beggar is wearing a doublet, we sometimes see workers with the upper part pulled off and hanging below the waist like we knot a sweater. The skirt is still enough to hold it closed.
In the late 14th century, doublets were more for young, fashionable, warlike men. That might be one reason why the ideal silhouette was so extreme.
Jubal:
Hmm, interesting - I hadn't thought much about how much those sort of garments would fit and stay up.
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