Clothing the Low Countries

Researching & Re-creating Flemish and Netherlandish clothing from 1480-1620

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Noord Holland Again, or Partlet Magic

by | Nov 25, 2017 | Margaret's Completed Projects

Last year I got interested in a the regional costumes of Noord Holland, affectionately known as the “Cheese Girls”. I recreated that outfit and wrote about it here. Because I was under some time constraints, I cobbled that outfit together from pieces I’d made over the years. Now I’ve finally had a chance to revisit the look and make the outfit some dedicated accessories.

Margaret back to back with this Hendrick Avercamp sketch.

A Smocked Partlet

Smocking, or embroidery done over pleated fabric, has become quite popular amongst my re-enactment community. It seems like everyone wants a pleated apron or a smocked shirt, and I was given the opportunity to make a piece for a friend’s Laureling outfit. Unfortunately, this style tends to be more German than Dutch, and the few examples from the Low Countries are all from the early part of the 1500s. Since I rarely do anything earlier than 1560, I didn’t think I would have an opportunity to get in on this trend. Then it occurred to me that the black geometric embroidery seen on some of the Cheese Girl paintings might be smocking, so I had an excuse to make some for myself.

Pleatwork smocking seen in a 1520s Lucas von Leyden portrait, and a “Cheese Girl” from the Kaasmuseum in Alkaar, currently available online in this Flickr set.

Genoveva, from The German Renaissance of Genoveva, has written a good smocking tutorial, so I will just tell you about the mistakes I made so you don’t have make them yourself. First, definitely use a grid to mark out the draw threads for the pleats. A piece of needlepoint canvas is cheap and works well.

Needlework canvas used to create a guide for pleatwork.

Once the area to be pleated is marked, sew through each line of marks a little bit at a time. This turns out to be especially important if you are pleating a long distance. If you sew the first line from one side to other, and then the second, it’s just inevitable that the third line will somehow not match up to the other two. Which was pretty frustrating. The only way to keep it identical was to sew the first line for a few inches, and then the second, and so on, so that all four of my threads advanced together across the fabric.

Sewing the draw threads for pleatwork.

Next, pull the fabric into (hopefully) even folds.

Draw threads used to create even pleats. (Photo of an earlier project, as I forgot to take one this time.)

Then do some sort of embroidery over the pleats to hold them together. Add some hooks at the neck and call it a partlet.

Embroidered collar and completed pleatwork partlet.

Over Partlet

Once that was completed, I turned my attention to the over partlet. The black partlet is one of the most distinctive parts of the “Cheese Girl” look with very consistent elements. It is square in the front, and often closes with some sort of metal clasps. It has a collar. In the back it has a long point which extends to at least the waist line and sometimes slightly beyond it. It usually has some sort of round metallic decorative object at the end. Presumably that secures the point of the partlet to the wearer’s back. Most often, they appear to be lined with fur.

Black partlets seen in Avercamp paintings: left, middle, and right.

My version is made from a black wool remnant and lined with faux fur. I used faux because I have never worked with real fur and I wasn’t sure how to go about it. Also, even more crucially, the faux fur was already in my house. I sewed the seams of the fur lining by hand, and then turned up a fold all the way around the partlet and tack it down. The fold formed the visible “fur” piping. Then I laid the wool shell on top of it, folded all the edges under, and sewed it down so that the raw edges of the fur were covered. I also sewed down the back and the neck seams to keep the fur and the wool connected. The clasp and the button on the back are not the best, but they were what was available at my local fabric shop. The button is purely decorative. On the interior I sewed a large hook which attaches to a thread loop on the jacket. Naturally I forgot to take any construction pictures, but this is what I ended up with.

Wool and faux fur over-partlet.

The two partlets are the only things I’ve added to this outfit, but it’s made a big difference in the way it looks. That is particularly true of the black partlet. The white partlet, which I spent the majority of the time on, is not that visible under the black one. I also regret that I made as big of a ruffle at the top as I did. Half an inch did not seem like much when I was making it, but certainly feels like a lot while I’m wearing it.

Margaret wondering if they are taking the picture yet…

It’s a silly outfit, but one that’s a great deal of fun to wear. And while I love hats, well over half of the women I’ve seen dressed in this style just have their hair dressed in braids. Most likely that indicates a virginal status which I, a mother of three, cannot really claim, but I made a conscious decision to not worry about that. Going around an event bare headed is quite a novelty. I was pretty tickled with the whole thing and felt cute, as I imagine you can see in this selfie.

Noord Holland Selfie.

Clothing the Low Countries Goes to the Movies!

by | Sep 9, 2017 | misc

It’s not very often that English language movies are made about our favorite time and place, but this year’s Tulip Fever is a rare exception. (It’s set in 1636, so close enough.) Based on Deborah Moggach’s novel of the same name, the movie follows the tangled love lives of a young wife of Amsterdam and her maid against the backdrop of tulip mania, one of the world’s first speculative investment bubbles. I’m going to attempt to avoid discussing the plot as much as possible, except to say that it did have a fair bit more tulips in it than you might have expected of a romantic movie. I was mostly there for the costumes.

Costume designer Michael O’Connor really does deserve and A+ for his efforts. There’s very little that beats the pleasure of seeing a costume on the screen and knowing exactly which extant example served as its inspiration. The entire production is lovely, and I spent a great deal of the movie being charmed by the open weave baskets for carrying chickens, the carpets on the tables, the box style beds, and the scales used for weighing tulip bulbs.

For the majority of the movie, the main character, Sophia, wears outfits in this style. Slight variations on this look were in style from the 1610s though the early 1630s. By 1636, this might be a little out of fashion, but this is my favorite look so I’m happy they went with it. It consists of a skirt and a very long waisted stomacher worn under a very open black gown. And, of course, a giant ruff. The ruffs, when worn, are definitely the best part of the movie’s costumes. When Sophia does wear a hat, it is more modest than the Frans Hals painting, but it is made up of both an under and over cap, so I was pretty pleased.

When Sophia and her husband commission a portrait, she also has a new dress made. This dress is in the style that I normally associate with the 1630s, and there is a distinct break from the fashions of the previous decade. In general, it is characterized by the much higher waist, the lower neckline and the fuller sleeves. This is not a look that I am personally interested in reproducing, but it looks like they did a reasonable job.

Unfortunately, once the romance heats up, the costumes start to suffer. There are a great many of scenes that involve sneaking around in various states of undress. There are also a number of scenes in an ale house which serves as the tulip exchange. (I was skeptical, but it turns out that tulips were not allowed on the official exchange market and really were bought and sold in taverns.) The lower class costumes are okay, but not particularly special. There was a fair helping of what I’d call the standard historical movie sins: men in just shirts or vests over shirts, too much undressed hair, and not enough hats. Sophia generally did have her hair up, but while she owned hats and some fabulous ruffs, she often skipped them.

Still, the movie is very pretty and the upper class costumes are very well done. I was impressed. It’s definitely worth watching for the clothes. There’s just one thing that I can’t help but get nit-picky about: huiks. Huiks, the Dutch veil, are particularly near and dear to our hearts here at Clothing the Low Countries. Normally I’d have just been ecstatic to see them in a movie at all, no matter the quality. But this particular huik isn’t just in the background, it’s serves as a major plot device. Not once, but twice. And it makes a couple of mistakes.

These Wensceslaus Hollar prints give you a fairly good idea of what huiks looked like around the 1630s. The huik in the center is the descendant of the duck billed huik, and the one on the right is the final iteration of the pot lid version. The 1630s mini-lid is objectively silly, and the one in the movie was… more so. I cannot find a movie still to illustrate the problem, but it kind of reminded me of the old style bathing caps that you might see in a 1950s synchronized swimming film. The huik belongs to Sophia’s maid, and it probably would have been more appropriate for her to wear the simple veil or the duck billed version. The huik is also, inexplicably, lined in a bright blue, shiny material. Thankfully, the lining somehow never shows from the front while the huik is being worn, and visually it remains its proper all black. Finally, in the movie, the huik is so unique that it is used twice to identify someone. Which is pretty odd because most crowd scene paintings have half a dozen.

Tom Hollander and Alicia VIkander in Tulip Fever

Alicia Vikander in Tulip Fever and Portrait of Aletta Hanemans by Frans Hals, 1625

Christoph Waltz and Alicia Vikander in Tulip Fever and Portrait of Amalie zu Solms-Braunfels, 1631-32

Wenceslaus Hollar: Servant Maid of Cologne, Citizen of Holland, and Woman of Cologne of Good Quality

Detail, Carnival on Ice at the Kipdorppoort Moats in Antwerp by Denys van Alsloot, 1599

New Resource: a timeline of artists and the social classes they painted

by | May 1, 2017 | Artists

I woke up this morning to a question in the Medieval Low-Countries Reenactment group on Facebook:
“I’m looking for references for Netherlandish clothing, and keep running into walls and dead ends. Anyone familiar with the Netherlandish styles and how they compared to German Renaissance and other low lands cultures?”

Through the conversation we established the original poster didn’t yet have a handle on his preferred timeframe, but did understand the social class he was looking at – “merchant class”. So as step one in helping him I was inspired to complete an idea I’ve had for a while – a table of artists I refer to when considering Flemish, Netherlandish and Brabantish styles of clothing in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Et voila! It is now live and available under the Styles menu.

Artists are sorted by time they were producing works, so if you recognise one artist, then artists clustered around that will likely be good sources for you. Clicking on one of the artists linked will take you to a wikimedia commons page showing some of their works for a quick glance through they style. I built it to have filters, which sadly haven’t come through in the embed process. Otherwise I hope this is useful.

2016: our year in review

by | Dec 31, 2016 | Projects

Two costumers, 7 questions…

1. Favourite outfit of the year:

Margaret

My favorite outfit this year is definitely the one I made for Twelfth  Night, 2016. It’s my most ambitious project to date. The Hendrick Avercamp painting it is based on is one that I have been staring at for years, and I spent a long time deciding on every detail. I’m fairly pleased with the results.  I intend to write a proper article about this outfit and have it to you in time for Twelfth Night 2017.margaret_avercamp_outfit

Karinne

My favourite outfit isn’t a new one, per se, rather it’s a gown that I amended to be more convenient to wear, and then added a more appropriate hood to complete the look. Cutting the train off my gaudete gown made it easier to pack for travelling to events, and easier to wear at the event. Surprisingly it also made me “feel” right – like a well-to-do townswoman in her late 30s, so that was a plus. This ensemble will definitely be getting a few more outings in 2017

Gaudete_gown_at_Tocal1

2. Most satisfying thing to make:

Margaret

Exploring the Noord Holland “Cheese Girl” look was surprisingly satisfying.   I had looked at it for a number of years, but dismissed it as being almost too silly, with its short skirts and crazy (even by my standard) headdress.   But it turned out to be comfortable and fun to wear.

Margaret in Noord Holland market dress at the Antwerpan market.Karinne

A new hat set for my husband. I started by making him a new bonnet after we thought his pervious one was lost, but it was too large for his head 🙁 I could fit my hand under the hat to give him a head rub… This was a week before an outdoor winter event, and he hates to not have a hat for those events (something to do with his shaved head getting cold). I thought I’d have to start over again, with a smaller size which would be un-fun. HOWEVER, on perusing my favourite image source book, I discovered that men of the 1480s and 1490s often wore a double hat ensemble. Thus my problem, and Geoff’s, was solved. He loves the combo, which is also satisfying from a makers perspective.

1490s_mens_hats

Also, I have just realised that I never wrote up this make and inspiration… I think my articles might be a little behind.

3. I wish I’d made/finished…

Margaret

There is another batch of portraits living in my head that I had intended to use as inspiration for Twelfth Night 2017.   (In my SCA Kingdom this event takes place in a hotel and functions more like a convention, so it is the most suitable event for fancy outfits). Unfortunately, my husband’s work schedule changed and I won’t be able to attend the event.   So this outfit never got past the buying supplies stage.   Hopefully I can have it done for next year.

Karinne

A furry hat for my husband. I found these AMAZING images of men in the late 1400s with white furry hats, and as I have some fake white-grey fur in my stash that was inherited from a friend… 🙂

4. Favorite SCA event of the year:

Margaret

The best SCA event this year was “Golden Beltane”, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the backyard party that started it all.   It was a ten day event, which means there was plenty of time for all sorts of activities.   People built clay ovens on site and cooked feasts.   They held themed events like a Roman picnic, a 16th Century sewing circle, and a  Flemish market.  They read plays, held yard sales, and coaxed some of our founding members out of retirement to honor them.   They even marched to protest the modern world, which apparently was a feature of the original party.   I was only able to be there on the weekends, so one of the best parts for me was that I got two weekend events but only had to set the tent up once!

Karinne

POLIT UNIVERSITY!!! 2.5 days full of all the classes! Despite freezing at the feast (4C overnight) it was well worth it for all the knowledge, the gathering of people enthusiastic about Arts & Sciences, the food and the atmosphere. Definitely planning to go again this year.

5. That moment when you felt like you weren’t in the modern world:

Margaret

To be honest, I’m too modern of a girl for this to happen.   So I’m just going to use this question as an excuse to talk about my experience going to the Renaissance Faire in Southern California.   Somehow, I found myself as a guest member of the court, in the company of a couple of lovely ladies that I had previously only met through the Facebook Elizabethan Costume group.   Which makes yet another good thing that group has given me.  I was playing a daughter of the famous Flemish miniaturist Simon Bening, which forced me to do more persona research than I have in the SCA.   And while I certainly didn’t forget that I was in the modern world, actively pretending to be someone from the past does make you relate to your clothes and to other people differently.

Karinne

My friend Eilis’ Laurelling at Rowany Festival. A tent full of people, after dark, and she is carried in on a shield by 4 men of her household. Eilis was being Laurelled for her Norse clothing research and skills, and this was a fitting ceremony for one of my oldest friends. It had been choreographed really, really well. The atmosphere was spot on. There may have been some tears as well, since she was so deserving of the accolade and honour.

6. This year I am most proud of:

Margaret

Getting to be part of this blog.   I finally have a place to put all the information that’s been rattling around in my head for years.   So my thanks again to Karinne for inviting me aboard, and for taking care of the technical parts of the website.

Karinne

My apprentices, all three of them. Eoife has made excellent 14th century gear, pretty much all by hand, so she could participate at St Ives medieval faire. She has kept her historic food blog going whilst finishing her Honours thesis and been published on the Sydney historic houses trust blog as well. Ana has continued to pursue her passions in German clothing (tackling a very good rendition of the Lengberg bra), and commencing work on a thoroughly researched and theorise skin-out Saxon gown outfit, as well as continuing to enthuse and educate Lochac in Ancient Greek clothing. I had many people talk to me at Rowany Festival on how much they had enjoyed Ana’s display at Laurel Prize and in the costumers forum. Finally, Safiya completely surprised me with a 16th century Persian ensemble she made for Rowanye Festival with no input from me at all – well fitted and well researched. Go Safi!

7. Goals for next year:

Margaret

The “things I want to make” list is, as always, a mile long.   One of the first things I want to do is to finish my own duck bill huik.  Then there are a couple of must have items on my list: a narrower ruff, a set of wrist cuffs, and a loose gown that truly commits to the all-black aesthetic.   Finally, there is a particular style of hat brim and a particular kind of shoulder roll that I’m still trying to master.   If I manage more than half of that, I’ll consider it a good year.

Karinne

Men’s clothing. More articles on this blog, finally getting the ideas and knowledge in my head written up in a format to share with the costuming community. Maybe a late 1400s craftswoman’s outfit. Generally more comfortable clothing rather than flashy clothing. Maybe those cork-soled mules I’ve been ruminating upon for a while.

10 new-to-me hovetcleet portraits

by | Dec 29, 2016 | Research

This is not the post you were looking for promised, but last night my husband REALLY wanted to see Rogue One, and I REALLY wanted to support his initiative to do something fun. So that ate up the time I was planning to spend on the post on what was happening in the Low Countries in the late 15th and early 16th century. Instead, I present to you one of the costumer’s favourite pastimes: Looking at old pictures!!

Like many costumers I’ve spent A LOT of time looking at images in books, and on websites, and with the advent of pinterest, hours and hours and hours and hours re-pinning items that come across my feed (This pinterest board is my catch-all dumping ground for 15th & 16th century probably Low Countries clothing images). But still I can find pictures that I’ve never seen before, and perhaps change one of my theories, or remind me of an idea I had once upon a time but sort of forgot. One source for these images for me in the last year has been the History of Fashion tumblr, which is where all of these images are pulled from.

So, in lieu of the social and political situation post (which would take more time that is available to me on New Year’s Eve) I present: 10 new-to-me images of hovetcleets from the Low Countries and surrounds. I hope you enjoy these images as much as I did (especially nos. 2, 4, 7 & 10)

(not sure about some of the terminology in this article? Check out our 16th century Dutch Clothing Terms page!)

read more…

Overview of 16th Century Dutch Women’s Clothing

by | Dec 29, 2016 | Styles of the Low Countries

On the 4th day of new content the Clothing the Low Countries Ladies brought to you: Margaret’s class notes on Dutch women’s clothing through the 16th century. (25MB PDF file)A slide showing a portrait of a 16th century woman and 3 dot points

Margaret ran this class a month ago at Collegium Occidentalis, the annual fall A&S event for the West Kingdom of the SCA. It provides an overview of style changes by decade for well-to-do women of Holland (and occasionally Flanders and Brabant).

It’s a great place to start if you’re curious about the variety of clothing worn in this century, or if you want to see how it changed, or if you want to peruse the styles for inspiration

 

Patterns for a Franco-flemish formal black hood

by | Dec 28, 2016 | Patterns

Once upon a time, in a post a fair way away I promised some measurements for the formal black Franco-flemish hood* that I constructed. This one to be precise:

3 views of the hood

A Franco-Flemish hood, as worn for my Laurel ceremony

And lo, here they are:

diagram of

Measurements for the layers of the hood

These measurements are for the following three items:

The 4 elements of the franco-flemish hood

The layers of the hood

A description of how I assemble this hood can be found towards the end of this post.

*Called a French Hood in the historical costuming community, for reasons that I think are anglo-centric and historically incorrect. They appear in the Low Countries’ courts at the same time as they appear in the French ones, and the Burgundian court was lauded as the leaders in court etiquette and fashion at the time.

New resource: Women’s head coverings 1460-1530

by | Dec 27, 2016 | Patterns, Styles of the Low Countries, Tutorials

Announcing: 31 pages of analysis and examples of women’s headwear between 1460 and 1530. (18MB, PDF file, click link to download)

This is the handout from a class I taught at Rowany Festival in 2014. It covers eight types of headwear with images of each, an explanation of who wore them in what circumstances, and where I’ve made a version, how I did so.

Keep in mind two things:

  1. My interpretation of the construction of the hovetcleet and the formal black hood has changed since this class. You can find these updated ideas in these posts: hovetcleet||black hood
  2. Most images are not labelled with an artist and title. The work to caption every image is what has held this up from being published for 3 years. So, caveat emptor, if you want to know where an image is from I encourage you to do a google image search, if you get stuck then contact me and I will try to help. I will try to have a fully captioned PDF up at some stage, but I have no idea when.

As part of this work I pulled all my art books off the shelf and counted the types of headwear I could see in each image of each book. This gave me a graph of changes in fashion and particular styles over time and anchors the paper – by realising what style is most prevalent in which 5 year period we can be more deliberate in ensuring our Low Countries wardrobes have the appropriate headwear.

Chart of frequency of 15th and 16th century headwear in France and the Low Countries

6 days of content

by | Dec 26, 2016 | Announcements

On the first day of content the Clothing the Low Countries ladies gave to me…

An update on where they’ve been and an overview of the series

Where we have been

Hi! Well, the last 4 months have been a bit quiet here at Clothing the Low Countries, we hope you didn’t miss us too much. The end of 2016 caught us both by surprise in our own special way.

Karinne got married, whilst simultaneously dealing with a few stressful months at work. Which meant that any down time was spent recovering and recuperating, rather than writing blog posts. Also, all her sewing mojo was tied up in sewing her wedding dress.

3 people standing in a garden

The wedding ceremony

Lessons learnt while sewing the dress:

  1. Modern sewing is easy after years of making renaissance gown
  2. French seams are the bomb!
  3. Ironing a bias wave into a sheer fabric sucks
  4. Knowing how to handsew when you have to is calming

Margaret’s children started a new school, which has meant some re-adjustments to the family routine. She was also indulging (if that’s the right word) in her other geek hobby: US politics. So, understandably was QUITE distracted over the last few months.

6 Days of Content Series!

Anyway, we’ve both had enough recovery time from those pursuits (we think), so expect content to start appearing again.

Here’s the plan.

26 December – this post

27 December – Karinne’s hat class PDF from a few years back that she’s been meaning to post up for a very long time

28 December – An article containing the measurements from the two a formal black hoods that Karinne has made in the last 2 (3?) years, so you can try to recreate the look

29 December – A PDF from Margaret’s most recent class: A survey of style change in women’s clothing in Holland during the 16th century

30 December – Karinne’s gleanings on what was happening in the Low Countries in the late 15th and early 16th century. This article is the beginning of some work on cultural changes leading to clothing changes which Karinne has been working on for a while

31 December – our costuming and SCA year in review. Two ladies, 7 questions. What did we love, what was challenging!

Then on 1 January (pending celebratory hangovers) we’ll let you know about some new ideas we’ve got for the site, and give it a bit of a facelift. This is mostly to address some coding issue that the site has, with a benefit of being able to ticker with some design settings that could be better.

Hope you enjoy the content as much as we enjoy bringing it to you!

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