While I’m finishing up accessories for my Napoleonic project, let’s talk about the 17th century! I’m interested in 1660s and 1670s baroque fashion, which broadly speaking consists…
Beauty was an asset, a weapon, and a curse for the ladies of the Restoration court.
The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine, 17th Century. Detail.
Beauty was an asset, a weapon, and a curse for the ladies of the Restoration court.
That IS a really specific topic, isn’t it? I’m not exactly sure why this topic took my fancy, but for the last 9 months it has been a bit of an obsession. I wanted a project that was b…
I've been wanting to make a new early 17th century gown for some time now, mostly because I have learned so much since I made my green w...
In the 1660s, embroidered jackets were a significant fashion statement for both men and women. These jackets were often richly adorned with intricate embroidery, showcasing the craftsmanship and artistry of the period. Women’s jackets, in particular, featured elaborate designs using techniques such as satin stitch, stem stitch, couching, and sometimes detached buttonhole stitching. The embroidery on these jackets was typically done in colored silks on a linen ground. One notable example is a jacket described as early 17th century in the Victoria & Albert Museum collection. This jacket features embroidery dated to 1590-1600 and is richly adorned with silver and silver-gilt thread, purl, strip, and spangles. The technique used on this jacket differs from other embroidered jackets of the time, as it showcases a unique style of embroidery that stands out for its materials and design. Inspiration to this historical fabric design: I have found from this VAM Collection and the 17th century Tudor dynasty waistcoats and jackets. The botanical features include honeysuckle, pansies, carnations, foxgloves, borage, strawberries, cornflowers, rosehips, thistles, columbine and vine leaves. There are also pea-pods which include small silver-gilt thread peas, around all of which there are small birds, bees and worms. The size of the design can be adjusted and the fabric can be embroidered afterwards. I have chosen special fabrics for this one. Please find them at Fabric Type list. This fabric is dedicated for Marie-Angelique de Fontanges, born 1661, died 1681, was a French court lady, mistress of King Louis XIV of France. The fashion hairstyle fontang was named after her.
And here comes the final part of the making of my new 17th century bodice. (Part 1 & 2) Once the outer fabric, lining and sleeves where set it was time to deal with the tabs. (Every stay maker…
She was considered as the leading Paris dressmaker and influential in couture business. She was the first major female fashion designer and a true pioneers of the modern fashion business. I’ve always been enchanted by the way ladies from 1800s used to dress: they were so classy and flawlessly elegant. The high wasted delicate dresses form the early 1800, known as the Empire style, made those dolls appear like a Greek graceful statue. The corset helped to enhance the silhouette (that could hardly
While I’m finishing up accessories for my Napoleonic project, let’s talk about the 17th century! I’m interested in 1660s and 1670s baroque fashion, which broadly speaking consists…
One of the challengers at this year’s Oscars was “The Favourite,” a film set in the early 18th-century court of British monarch Queen Anne.
After having looked at the three most iconic designs of the first of the "Star Wars" prequels, I've decided to move onwards and start looking into the designs of Amidala’s wardrobe in the second installment of the prequels: “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones”. The first of the designs that we will be breaking apart will be the “Travel” gown. She wears this dress during her journey back to Naboo, disguised as a young matron from the Thousand Moons system. It’s not one of the most remembered gowns, but it’s a very striking piece of design with very interesting influences. The dress consists of a mustard-colored overdress which is a stiff upside-down cone that reaches from her shoulders to her ankles. It is decorated with purple paisley designs with olive green leaves, and a feathery purple design running down the front, back, and sides. The bottom hem is decorated with a simple diamond design. On her shoulders, she wears a kind of full-shouldered pauldron of the same mustard color with an abstract floral design. The loose sleeves are of a lighter material, and are drawn at the wrist by a lower-arm band of the same design as the pauldrons. The main influence behind the design is pretty clear: it’s based on the Russian traditional gown. This poses a really big change in relation to the look and feel of the design, straying notably from the east-Asian influences of "The Phantom Menace" designs. And although they maintain some of the visuals of the first movie, this change of inspiration marks a pretty radical change in the look of the character. This change in the look gives a sense of discontinuity between the two movies that is not always good for the overall story. But in the case of this specific design, this change is actually logical. In the movie, she is supposed to be dressed as a young woman from another system, so it is only logical that her look would be so different from the established Naboo look. The main purpose of the dress is to disguise the former queen. Because of this, the dim color palette is more than fitting. The mustard colored dress matched with the golden veil and the brown-green sleeves help to maintain the desired low-key appearance. It’s not a gown that stands out in a crowd. It’s discreet and simple, but, because of the cut of the dress, conveys Amidala’s innate elegance and regal airs. Because of this, the fabric used is very important in the design. It mixes two different types to create the effect of a simple but regal gown: on one hand there is the fabric used in the overdress, the pauldron and the lower-arm band, which is a very heavy looking and rigid fabric in line with the image we have of regal gowns. On the other hand, there are the sleeves, the fabric that loops under her neck and the lace, which are very light and flowing, giving the design a more day to day feel to the dress. As I've mentioned, the historical influence on the design is very clear. Both the shape and weight of the dress take its main inspiration from the traditional gown for noble women of 16th-17th century Russia. Both dresses date from the mid 16th to 17th century Russia Both gowns share the same rigid and tube-like overdress that successfully disguises the feminine shape as well as the loose sleeves with the lower-arm band. The main difference resides in the fact that the Russian overdress is, generally, more decorated and luxurious (they usually sew pearls and stones into elaborate brocades) whilst Amidala's is fairly simple. This simplicity is actually due to a narrative necessity more than a whim of the design. The need for the gown to be a disguise is the reason why they change the heavy brocade for the more delicate and discreet floral pattern. For this very same reason, the design also swaps the highly decorated collar for a more simple full-shoulder pauldron. The Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna dressed as a 17th century royal woman for a ball at the Winter Palace. 1900s Another remarkable aspect of the dress is the color itself. Through episode II and III most of Amidala’s wardrobe is dark blue, purple, dark red and black, with the exceptional white. All these are colors usually identified with royalty. This design strays from this and goes with a green-yellow palette. This is done to underline the fact that this is not an “official” gown. She wears this dress because she doesn’t want to be recognized. It’s also because of this that the gown takes the “shapelessness” from the traditional Russian gown. Most of her dresses are pretty revealing, stressing the feminine shape of the character. By hiding that shape under the conic overdress she becomes almost a different person. This change in color, though, is not unique to this design. It's actually done a couple of times throughout both "The attack of the clones" and "Revenge of the Sith", and it's always associated with a less "official" situation. Last but not least, let's have a look at the headdress. The headpiece is made of a coppery metal with a tight skull cap with ridges running up into an intricate, fan-like crown. The Flower of Life emblem decorates the crest of the headpiece in a continuous pattern. Under this piece, there’s a length of mustard-colored fabric that loops under her face and wraps around her neck. This headdress is sometimes covered by a golden lace veil. And so, this design not only hides her very distinctive body shape, it also completely covers her hair. This is another big change, because throughout the movies she always wears her hear visible and in hairstyles that tend to call attention to it. The headdress without the laced veil The influence behind the headdress doesn't stray too much from the main influence for the gown: it is clearly influenced by the Russian kokoshnik. The kokoshnik is a traditional Russian headdress that has been used since the 16th century. 17th century kokoshnik As seen in this picture, the kokoshnik shares a similar constitution: a flowing fabric that looks around and under her face and a highly ornamented headpiece. This particular piece has no veil over it, but some of the later versions of this type of headdress do (as the versions shown in these 19th century paintings). The shape of the main headpiece is clearly also inspired by the shapes of this Russian headdress. The only difference is the material itself. For Amidala's design, they chose a metal feel to it. This accentuates the outlandish feel it wants to create. This piece wraps up the look of this amazing design. The only problem with it is that, if anything, it doesn't look alien enough. It's a very elegant and very beautiful design, but it's too grounded in reality to feel otherworldly. Its influences are too specific and focussed in Russian tradition. Unlike the dresses in "The phantom menace", that mixed a number of different influences, this one focusses only on one and ends up looking like a modern version of the Russian traditional gown instead. To see full scale: https://www.pinterest.com/alba0531/a-look-into-star-wars-padmes-dresses/ To read A look into Star Wars: Padme's Dresses. Part V click here.
No doubt some kind of informal wear has been around for a very long time, but as people opted to be portrayed in their finest clothes, they are seldom seen until around 1600. Then the English ladies started a trend to be shown in their more relaxed clothes, a jacket or waistcoat, with or without a matching petticoat. The clothes weren’t exactly simple, bot portraits and extant examples show lavish embroideries, silk, silverwork and spangles, but comparing to the formal fashion, these clothes were much simpler. They could be worn on their own, or with a loose gown over, paired with what kind of cuffs and collars that was fashionable. Linen jacket embrodered with black wool, dated 1610-1620 and skirt in fustian dated 1621-1640. They are abundant in portraits the first two decades of the 17th century, and then their popularity seem to have waned in the 1630's. Perhaps because the more formal fashion became simpler, the waistcoats from the 1620’s are cut in a way that points toward the jacket-like bodices of the 1630’s. The waistcoats could be either form-fitting or loose, the latter probably maternal wear. The embroidered linen jackets, either monochromes or in colour, seems to have been an English fashion, but there are several knitted waistcoats preserved as well, and they have also been found in Scandinavia. Given the climate in Sweden I think I would prefer knitted silk to linen, so perhaps that is no surprise I wish that the portrait of Lady Elizabth Howard was larger, but her jacket and petticoat looks very much like the extant example above. Lady Elizabeth Howard, Countess of Banbury by Daniel Mytens, 1619 Lady Anne Porter dressed in a similar way. Linen jacket embrodered with black silk and metal thread, 1610-1620 Linen jacket embroidered with black silk, 1600-1625 Linen jacket embroidered with silk, 1620-1625 Unfortunately there are no colour photos of this pink silk jacket. Waistcoat in pink taffeta embroidered with blue silk and spangles, 1610-1620 The following two portraits may not depict embroidred clothes, but patterned fabric, but then they also portrays the transitional fashion of the 1620's with a waist that is rising from its natural place and a more relaxed fashion in general. Lady Anne Montagu by Daniel Mytens, 1626 Cecilia Nevill, by Robert Peake, ca. 1617 Linen jacket embroidered with silverwork, 1610-1615 This coif has the same mebroidery as the jacket above. Linen coif and forehard cloth embroiedered with silverwork, 1610-1615 Two late examples from the 1630's. Fustoan jacket embrodered with silverwork and spangles, 1630's Linen bodice embroidered with silverwork and spangles, 1625-1640 Linen jacket embroidered in silk and silver, 1590-1630 Silk jacket, embroidered with silk, 1600-1625 The Layton jacket in linen, embroidered with silk and silver, 1610-1615 Margaret Layton, wearing the jacket shown above, by Marcus Gheeraerts, ca. 1620 Linen jacket embroidered with silk, 1610-1620 Portrait of a lady, thought to be Elizabeth of Bohhemia, circle of William Larkin Traditionally called Dorothy Cary, later Viscountess Rochford by William Larkin, 1614-1618 Amy Seymour by a follower of Robert Peake, 1623 Linen jacket embroidered with silk and silver, 1600-1625 Unknown woman by Roman Way, ca. 1605 Portrait of a young woman, ca. 1610 Anne Hawtrey by a follower of Robert Peake Portrait of a lady by Marcus Gheeraerts the younger, 1615-1618 The Countess of Shirley by William Larkin Undated, but the hairstyle suggest 1620 or thereabout. Linen jacket striped with silver, 1605-1620 Knitted waistcoat, 1650-1700 Knitted silk waistcoat Knitted silk jacket, 17th century Knitted silk jacket, 1600-1620 Knitted in silk, last half of the 17th century Knitted waistcoat silk and silver-gilt wrapped silk, and lined with linen, 1630-1700 Jacket knitted in silk, 1600-1625 Another knitted silk jacket.
17th Century Fashion is a large subject to cover. From the key pieces of the century, to our own forte - the jewellery - join us to explore 1600s fashion.
