Fashion In The 16th Century

Words: 1721
Pages: 7

During the second half of the 16th century, Spain set the dominant tone in fashion. This influence persisted into the 1600s, but with certain modifications, notably in the abandonment of the stuffed and busked peascod doublets and in the widening of the sleeves. The ruffs, too, became smaller in france and england but continued to grow even larger in the netherlands.
The doublet in the early years of the century had a short skirt consisting of a number of overlapping tabs but from about 1600 these tabs were longer and curved down in front to a sharp point. To the left is French doublet from the early 1620s made of silk. This extraordinary doublet is one of only two surviving examples of its type from the 1620s. The only other known doublet of this kind is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Made of luxurious silk embellished with pinking and decorative slits, this doublet followed a fashion that existed barely five years. Pinking, or the intentional slashing of fabric, was a popular decorative technique used to reveal colorful linings, shirts, and chemises. It is possible that this garment was constructed from silk previously pinked for another
…show more content…
The petticoat breeches were a french fashion or rather had become french having introduced by a certain comte de salm known as the rhinegraves and were first worn in england two years before the restoration by william ravenscroft. They were then regarded as something of a curiosity but after 1660 they became for a time universal among men with any pretension to fashion. They were so wide that as samuel pepys tells us in an entry from his diary for 1661 it was possible to put both legs in one