Clothing Blog Posts, For Both Modern and Historic Garments

7/28/2019 Clothing Blog Posts, For Both Modern and Historic Garments

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Clothing Blog Posts, for both Modern and Historic GarmentsBy Jeffrey Hopper


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Table of Contents

A Scottish Interlude

The Tale of a Plunge, ordering a kilt

Published 12/5/12 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com....5

My kilt arrived, but I think I left my sporran at the Athenaeum

Published on 7/10/13 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com8

Harris Tweed and a tail of vents

Published 1/22/13 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com...................................................................12

The Long Ei ghteenth-Century and other Observations

Beau Nash Invites youbut not your sword, or I lost my sword in the 18th

century, but still

had time for tea Published on 6/14/13 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com..16

A Summer Surtout, c.1760s

Published 4/19/13 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com. .18

Monsieur Fauteil! Your arms in the way of my pannier!A tale of the male pannier, otherwise

known as the lost garment of the eighteenth-century

Published on 5/17/13 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com.22

One Two buckle my shoe, To this day some of us do.

Published 6/26/13 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com. .28

An Honest Garment: What Became of the Shepherds Maud or Plaid ?Published 9/14/13 on (www.silkdamask.blogspot.com....30

The Tableaux of Life Unfolds Before My MaskPublished 10/31/13 on (www.silkdamask.blogspot.com. .34

The Other Civil WarPublished 11/14/13 on (www.silkdamask.blogspot.com. .38

Soucis dhanneton, orSoucil de hanneton, or Floss Fringe, or Fly Fringe

Published 11/22/13 on (www.silkdamask.blogspot.com).42

Truth in Marketing, A Strange Bedfellow for HistoryPublished 12/16/13 on (www.silkdamask.blogspot.com. .46

Lord Claphams Justacorps and A Marlburian UniformPublished 2/20/2014 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com.49
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George III, Tartan ArcherPublished 4/1/2014 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com.55

Georgian Brilliance: Lacquer, Japanning and Vernis Martin,

or Get the Matte Out of Here!

Published on 5/22/2014 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com 59

Stilettoes, or Something Like ItPublished on 6/6/2014 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com...65

A Concealed Shoe on the Cusp of a New a CenturyPublished on 8/22/2014 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com68

Would you prefer to wear a Glof or a Handschuh?Published on 9/192014 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com....72

"Well, if ever I do go to court again.. Horace Walpole Opines on FashionPublished on 10/22/2014 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com.83

Scottish Needlework at the Wemyss School

Published on 11/5/2014 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com...86

Haute Couture and the Mtier dArts

Published on 11/17/2014 onwww.silkdamask.blogspot.com.89
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A Scottish Interlude


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The Tale of a Plunge

This is the tale of a plunge. Two weeks ago a friend in the building trades told me that one of the

local lumber companies was closing. Not so odd given todays economic climate, but it is or wasone of the last lumberyards in this area that was also a lumber mill. I used some of their true

2x4s in work on our circa 1914 house, no need to thicken to modern 2x4s, these were the real

thing with their furred edges. The same day I heard this I read that the Dalgliesh Tartan Mills,www.dcdalgliesh.co.uk,in Selkirk, Scotland had almost finished their last run in 2011. The

tartan mill was saved, at least for the time being, but the lumber mill was not.

This is a fashion blog about the old and new so herein hangs the tale. Learning of the loss of thelumber mill, I ordered 6 yards of tartan to be woven in a slight variation of the Ancient Campbell

tartan and a kilt will be made from this weaving. D.C. Dalgliesh Mills will receive the order

some time this autumn and if all goes well the run will be finished in early winter. Matthew

Newsome,www.NewHouseHighland.com,of North Carolina will tailor the kilt in the knife pleatstyle and it should be finished sometime in the spring. Im a Yank so the idea of a kilt is in itself

questionable and will be met with some derision, so be it. Ive thought about this for a while, but

it wasnt until the lumber mill closed that I realized how dependant we are all on use. We need touse materials such as lumber or cloth in order for them to existno demand, no goods, no

market. Im not sure how I am paying for this, but it will happen.

Ancient Campbell from D.C. Dalgliesh LTD

I chose a kilt because for the first time in years I need evening attire. Recently I became a

member of our local Athenaeum and there is a formal gathering during the Christmas season. Its

been awhile since I had a tux and even longer for a set of tails, but I thought why should I settlefor either of those when a kilt can be worn. I have enough Scottish ancestors to at least make the

pretense of this move, on top of which when asked, my wife and other women I know all saidthere was something about a man in a kiltwell leave it at that. However, its more than that. If

I need to dress for the evening, why am I still dressing as my great-great-grandfather would have

done? I understand the kilt has the same limitations, it duplicates a nearly two hundred year old

tradition, but it isnt as pervasive as the black evening attire of the past two hundred years in
http://www.dcdalgliesh.co.uk/http://www.dcdalgliesh.co.uk/http://www.newhousehighland.com/http://www.newhousehighland.com/http://www.newhousehighland.com/http://www.newhousehighland.com/http://www.dcdalgliesh.co.uk/


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American-European circles. I cannot image a man of 1890 wearing the evening attire of a man of

1690, yet somehow we are there.

John Singer Sargent Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax

by Giovanni Boldini circa 1890, private collection by Sir Godfrey Kneller, oil oncanvas, circa 1690-1695. NPG,

London

Fashion comes and goes, no news there, and the materials that make fashion possible are just as

fleeting. The other reason for the kilt was the tradition of weaving. The Black Watch and

Stewart tartans will live on in shirts, skirts, jackets, coats, dresses, and all manner of products

until we tire of pattern, but the lesser known tartans or plaids only live as long as people use them.

Most cloth and patterns may be timeless, but they are not perpetualno use, no need. All right,the Campbell tartan isnt going away, its other incarnation is Black Watch, but the desire to

commission a one-off was still strong. My tartan will be woven on a 27-inch loom producing awoven selvedge on both sides, with the result of no hem. (My preference is for a kilt that is

tailored to measure, not finished to measure.) The color choice will be a slight variation of the

present ancient Campbell, so in this instance it will be a special weave. Will this one commissionsave a weaving house, not possible, but the idea that consumers of fashion should be responsible

to the craft of the trade is possible.

A Dagliesh woven selvedge


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So there it isthe plunge, a special weave, a kilt and who knows what elsea floodgate may

have opened. In the end, its in honor of my paternal grandmother whose great-great grandfatherwas born a Campbell in Edinburgh. She had a lust for life, obtained a degree just as women got

the vote, didnt drink until it was illegal, didnt smoke until it was rationed, and received a

Christmas card for years from her bookie. How could I not wear a kilt in honor of that woman?Now go out there and commission someone to create something for you. It will give futuregenerations something to ponder.


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My kilt arrived, but I think I left my sporran at the Athenaeum.

As the cold air of the North Atlantic finally broke through the hot July air mass sitting over

coastal New Hampshire my new kilt arrived from the North Carolina kilt-maker, Mathew

Newsome,www.NewHouseHighland.com.

The kilt label

In a trade route nearly 400 years old, funds went to Scotland for cloth (D.C. Dalgliesh of Selkirk,

www.dcdalgliesh.co.uk), which was then shipped to the Carolinas for tailoring and then finally acompleted garment was sent to New England. A double dose of history, kilt and trade, delivered

on a summers day.

After many years of thinking about getting a kilt the day of reckoning had arrived. I opened the

package and pulled out the kilt. I am going to wax lyrical about this for a short while because its

just one of those moments in life when touch, smell and fit lift you from the everyday world. The

cloth is exceptional with a weight and drape that met every expectation, and reminded me of why

I prefer pure wool to blends. The hem is a selvage and the sunlight caught the nuanced reflection,visible to the owner, but not the world, a subtle reminders of tailoring to the cloth. Trying on the

kilt for the first time was a moment of sartorial bliss. It looksgrrreat, sits rrright, as it should be

but isnt always.
http://www.newhousehighland.com/http://www.newhousehighland.com/http://www.newhousehighland.com/http://www.dcdalgliesh.co.uk/http://www.dcdalgliesh.co.uk/http://www.dcdalgliesh.co.uk/http://www.newhousehighland.com/


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The Kilt with the flashes

For the first time since receiving it as a generous birthday present from my wife, I was able to usethe sporran from McRosties.www.mcrostie.co.uk(We both rode horses for years and for a

moment, the smell of this sporran made from bridle leather combined with the wool kilt reminded

me of crisp autumn canters and cold winter gallops, a memory, not bad poetry.) I wore my newkilt to the Athenaeum to show a friend and enjoyed a day of unexpected encounters.

While descending the parking garage staircase, a woman saw me and reminisced about how yearsearlier she and a girl friend saw a very handsome man in a kilt at a gathering of the clans who

turned out to be a minister, which in their youthful innocence surprised them. Later I stepped

into a local Celtic shop to ask if they had a kilt hanger and I got into a conversation with a local

police officer, who spoke from experience, about the merits of a good hanger for such an

important purchase and the need to keep the pleats in good shape; just two of severalconversations that I had during my travels today sparked by the kilt.
http://www.mcrostie.co.uk/http://www.mcrostie.co.uk/http://www.mcrostie.co.uk/http://www.mcrostie.co.uk/


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The new kilt

To end it all, today was a very humid day and I needed to consult with a colleague on a project, so

I used the Athenaeum lavatory to change from the kilt and jacket into summer clothing We had

our meeting, parted and I stopped at the house to drop the kilt kit. When I opened the garment bag

on the bed to lay everything out, then put it all away, there was no sporran. While having one ofthose a mind-panic conversations that you have with yourself, as you attempt to justify to the

nonexistent passenger in the car why there is no longer a sporran in the house, I slowly drove

through the summer-time crowds who were crossing every street in town with willful abandon.The city parking garage placed the garageis full sign in the entrance just as I was ready to use

it. Then as I turned down the one-way street that I knew would hold the one parking unknown to

most people, a car was coming toward me in the wrong direction. I stopped and shook my headno, as I could not back into the tourist thronged sidewalks without hitting someone and in thesummer the town awards no points for hitting potential money spenders. The other car

maneuvered off the street and I saw, then took the parking spot. Once in the Athenaeum I ran to

the third floor to check the tables where we had been working, nothing was there, and then Iremembered the lavatory, and at that moment so did 4 other people. As I stood talking to another

member regretting not skipping the line, a man came out of the lavatory and asked the woman


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ahead of him if she had left her pocketbook, which in all fairness to him with its thin leather

strap, the sporran could be mistaken for a small shoulder bag--but its not.

The Sporran

I spoke up and said, No, thats my sporran.With a look of incredulity, he said, Your what?

I said, My sporran.Again he said, Your what?

Once more unto thebreach, Its my sporran. And with that I started to put it over my head and

arms letting it fall over my madras shorts, and he said, Oh, the pocketbook that you wear in front

of the kilt.Yep, thats it.

I had it back and could breathe again, when from across the room came the question, Which

tartan were you wearing this morning?

Ancient Campbell, and to myself, Im beginning to feel that way.

I have never had so much traction from a suit of clothing. I kind of like this.


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Harris Tweed and a tail of vents

Its odd but Ive been thinking about tweed for the last couple of years and suddenly it seems to

back in the style. There are many tweeds, but Harris Tweed through their long history and grasp

of market identity,www.harristweed.org,is the fabric that stands out in my mind. Its one ofthose fabrics with its own panache, irrespective of the fashion trends surrounding it.

My appreciation of Harris Tweed began in my early teens with a cap; one of those flat caps thatwere as ubiquitous to me then as base ball caps are now. I remember the salesman showed me

how to fold the cap in half and tuck the brim under the back of the cap so it could fit it in a jacket

pocket, then in one graceful motion how to release it, snap it in the air, and place it on my head.

Some lessons once learned are never forgotten and that day the adult air of insouciance waspriceless.

There is nothing charming about Harris Tweed, but it is a beautiful fabric all its own. It is rough,

stiff, and often colored like peat and heathera very organic fabric. The fabric reminds me ofthat moment when land meets water. Even the herringbone weave of the tweed nods to the sea

with its repetitive wavelike pattern. Tweed is rough country fabric not in tune with the current

soft synthetic apparel predominating the market. This is a personal bias, but to me, unlikemodern fabrics, tweed grows with you. Many Harris Tweed jackets outlast the original owner

and go to a used clothing store, just as they are coming into their own. That is the beauty and

failing of tweed, it tends to grow with you and does come into its own until it is time to move on.I firmly believe that tweed should be worn for ten years before it is ready to be really worn, if that

makes any sense.

Recently I bought a used Harris Tweed jacket that was from the 1970s, a new Harris Tweed scarf,

and a book on Harris Tweednothing like excess. Today I will write about the jacket, whichwas purchased because it was in the green family (there seems to be a dearth of green tweeds, at

least for the moment) and it has a double vent. Actually now might be a good time to look atvents which is the other reason I purchased this jacket.

Front view Back view with double vent
http://www.harristweed.org/http://www.harristweed.org/http://www.harristweed.org/http://www.harristweed.org/


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Mens jackets either have a single vent down the middle of the back, a double vent with a vent on

either side of the back, or no vents. When purchasing a jacket in the US, the styling breakdown isroughly, a single vent--primarily American, a double vent--primarily British, and no vents--

primarily European tailoring. This is a rough guide and there are variations within each of these

tailoring traditions. The important part in all of this for me is that for whatever reasons, a jacketwith a double vent lies flat on my backside and a single vent has the tendancy to pucker and flare.This was true when I was young and as thin as a rail and now with weight gain and age. Double

vents are increasingly hard to find in the US, at least when I sporadiacally go looking for a jacket.

There is alot of lore about the vents, but it all usually falls back on seats, saddles and horsebackriding. The conventional wisdom is that a single vent allows the jacket to fall to either side of the

saddle and the back of the horse. A double vent falls over the saddle and covers the back of it.

Im not a great horseman, but I have ridden with both types of venting and oddly enough they

both work. The venting styles are old enough that there are undoubtably more reasons than thesesuch as the military influence on clothing or original use--did a jacket worn for many hours every

day perform better with one cut over another.

With that in mind, a short diversion--a number of years ago I wore an 1870s riding coat and

breeches to a Victorian Christmas party. Everyone had to come in some sort of costume from the

period. I stumbled on a private fashion collection whose owner wanted people to wear and enjoy

the original garments, but that story is for another day. What I can say is that the jacket had asingle vent with swallow tails, and it was tailored so that while I could hold the reins correctly

for English style riding, I could not lift my arms much above the elbow without tearing the

garment. Additionaly, the seams and darts were constructed to make me sit bolt upright. The coatwas constructed to make the wearer move in a proscribed and very stilted manner; in essence the

male version of the the female stay. I spoke to a female friend that night who had borrowed a

dress with whale bone stays and we both agreed that the only comfortable way to sit was on the

front edge of a chair, slouching was inconceviable as was any grand gesture. The clothingcontroled us far more than we controlled it While I am sure the whalebones were more

uncomfortable, I will never forget how uncomfortable seams could make a garment. So did this

make the single vent perform better on horseback? Ill never know the answerto that, but I cantell you a single vent in this constricted jacket made it easier to lift the swallow tails of the jacket

and sit on the edge of the chairs. That simple garment made me realize that even if we wear the

same general shapes today, the initial tailoring behind them may have shifted so much over theyears that what we are left with may have little to do with the original construction and intent.


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This 1810s hunting coat, or shadbelly coat, or swallow tail coat is in the collection of the V & A

Museum. I do not have a photo of the 1870s coat I wore. However, it was similar to this in itssilhouette, please note the thin tubular sleeves. The major difference was that the 1870s version

was single breasted with a row of 4 or 5 buttons, a form of which is shown in the next illustration.(As a note, the use of a red hunting coat by a member of a hunt has its own etiquette, here theillustration of the coat is for form not color.)

These coats from 1900-30 are also in the V&A collection and help to show the look of a single

breasted jacket and how the sleeves apper to be fuller and shorter, yet they are all considered

hunting coats. AsI look at this photo if the middle coat was modified slightly with longer tails and a tighter fiting

torso then it would look more like the coat from the 1870s.

So back to the jacket, Im happy to have a Harris Tweed jacket back in the clothes closet. Like a

blazer it is a staple in some wardrobes, casual, but comfortable enough to go just about anywhere;

in fact its iconic enough to worn with aplomb by some individuals everywhere, and that after allis the essence of style.


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The Long Eighteenth-Century


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Beau Nash Invites youbut not your sword, or I lost my sword in the 18th

century, but still had time for tea

Details define the man; a signet ring, an earring, a pocketknife, or a sword each speaks to a

different audience and at once can give clues to membership with a particular social group. Prior

to the nineteenth century, a sword worn at the side was the mark of a gentleman, much like ablazer or jacket is today. Even if a jacket is not normal wear for the individual, donning it

creates instant acceptance in certain social gatherings. Just as with a jacket today, so at the court

of Versailles, any man dressed cleanly and with the requisite sheathed sword worn at the side,whether owned, borrowed, or rented could enter the chateau. Not to worry, swords could be

rented at the chateau, which of course is how it should be done if it is required. As a student, and

before it returned to fashion, I remember meeting friends at the London Ritz for tea in the Palm

Court. A friend and I arrived without jackets and were informed we could not enter, however wewere referred to the coat check desk. We went and the attendant lent us the requisite jackets. (If

an establishment requires specific garments, it is incumbent upon them to provide something,

since the object of the requirement is to make everyone feel at ease by appearing to look the

same, not to insinuate that they are not.)

Costumes civils et militaires des Franais travers les sicles.

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=718168&imageID=812054&total=2

5&num=0&word=1729&s=1&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=

20&pos=12&e=w#_seemore
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=718168&imageID=812054&total=25&num=0&word=1729&s=1&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=12&e=w#_seemorehttp://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=718168&imageID=812054&total=25&num=0&word=1729&s=1&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=12&e=w#_seemorehttp://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=718168&imageID=812054&total=25&num=0&word=1729&s=1&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=12&e=w#_seemorehttp://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=718168&imageID=812054&total=25&num=0&word=1729&s=1&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=12&e=w#_seemorehttp://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=718168&imageID=812054&total=25&num=0&word=1729&s=1&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=12&e=w#_seemorehttp://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=718168&imageID=812054&total=25&num=0&word=1729&s=1&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=12&e=w#_seemorehttp://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=718168&imageID=812054&total=25&num=0&word=1729&s=1&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=12&e=w#_seemore


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Which leads to the point of this blogBeau Nash, the master of ceremonies at Bath in the

beginning of the eighteenth-century forbade the wearing of a sword for men at social gatherings

at the spa. The point of social gatherings was social exchange and while any man could rent orown a sword, he felt only the nobility and gentry knew how to move in a room with one. The new

comer, unused to the movement of the side sword was instantly recognized as an interloper, not

as a member. There are of course a thousand ways that members of a group spot an interloper,but by forbidding the sword Nash in effect established that an invitation was the criterion, not theaccoutrement. By leveling the field a bit civility stood a better chance of developing.

In time, particularly in civilian life, the sword would be required only at court functions, where itremained as a mark of chivalry. However, at the beginning of the eighteenth-century the

requirements of etiquette were in flux, but the idea of civility was not. Conceivably, the rented

sword at Versailles allowed any man, by blending into the crowd of hundreds or even thousands

of similarly dressed men, to visit and see the court with some degree of comfort. Conversely bybanishing the sword Nash provided a degree of comfort in smaller quarters and instigated a trend

that would in time become the established form of social dress. Although differing in approach

both options provided greater attendance, which is the object of most public gatherings.

V&A Museum, T.357-1980. Mans coat 1700-1720, (with cuff alteration from the 1750s)

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O13928/dress-coat-unknown/
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O13928/dress-coat-unknown/http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O13928/dress-coat-unknown/http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O13928/dress-coat-unknown/


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A Summer Surtout, c.1760s

Paris, Friday 11 July 1760, heading for that special enlightenment salon this evening, but its too

warm for a complete habit la franaise, why not try the demi-habit this summer and stay cool asthe champagne fizzes and the bon mots sizzle.

http://www.thierrydemaigret.com/html/fiche.jsp?id=1491206&np=17&lng=fr&npp=20&ordre=1

&aff=1&r=
http://www.thierrydemaigret.com/html/fiche.jsp?id=1491206&np=17&lng=fr&npp=20&ordre=1&aff=1&rhttp://www.thierrydemaigret.com/html/fiche.jsp?id=1491206&np=17&lng=fr&npp=20&ordre=1&aff=1&rhttp://www.thierrydemaigret.com/html/fiche.jsp?id=1491206&np=17&lng=fr&npp=20&ordre=1&aff=1&rhttp://www.thierrydemaigret.com/html/fiche.jsp?id=1491206&np=17&lng=fr&npp=20&ordre=1&aff=1&r


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This 1760s mans coat sold at the Hotel Drouot in Paris in 2010. The fabric is a lightweight

striped silk taffeta in shades of green and pastel pink; it has wide lapels and an attached vest.

(Some of the buttons for this garment are missing.) The two front sections of the vest are sewndirectly to the armholes of the coat, so there is no back to the vest, just the coat itself. According

to the auction catalog this is a rare example of a coat for the summer or the French Colonies. This

utilitarian combination allows for a degree of formality while alleviating a least one layer ofclothing. Oddly, this appears to be more akin to a formal banyan, if such a creature ever existed,than a day coat. Makes one wonder at the number of novel solutions for comfort and conformity

lost to time.

Here is an example of a banyan created from a blue dragon robe with a matching long sleeved

waistcoat, which also straddles the formality line.

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/textiles-costume/a-fine-and-rare-gentlemans-banyan-and-5178791-details.aspx
http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/textiles-costume/a-fine-and-rare-gentlemans-banyan-and-5178791-details.aspxhttp://www.christies.com/lotfinder/textiles-costume/a-fine-and-rare-gentlemans-banyan-and-5178791-details.aspxhttp://www.christies.com/lotfinder/textiles-costume/a-fine-and-rare-gentlemans-banyan-and-5178791-details.aspxhttp://www.christies.com/lotfinder/textiles-costume/a-fine-and-rare-gentlemans-banyan-and-5178791-details.aspxhttp://www.christies.com/lotfinder/textiles-costume/a-fine-and-rare-gentlemans-banyan-and-5178791-details.aspx


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Another example of a banyan, but more in keeping with the accepted idea of the style.

Banyan of brown woollen damask, front view: 18th century (1739-1741)

Museum of London


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http://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/141595/banyan-of-brown-woollen-damask-front-

view-18th-century

I would like to thank Alain Truong for the use of the photograph of the striped silk coat, as it was

the only copy that worked for me. His blog archive is:

http://elogedelart.canalblog.com/archives/2010/06/25/18424820.html
http://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/141595/banyan-of-brown-woollen-damask-front-view-18th-centuryhttp://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/141595/banyan-of-brown-woollen-damask-front-view-18th-centuryhttp://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/141595/banyan-of-brown-woollen-damask-front-view-18th-centuryhttp://elogedelart.canalblog.com/archives/2010/06/25/18424820.htmlhttp://elogedelart.canalblog.com/archives/2010/06/25/18424820.htmlhttp://elogedelart.canalblog.com/archives/2010/06/25/18424820.htmlhttp://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/141595/banyan-of-brown-woollen-damask-front-view-18th-centuryhttp://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/141595/banyan-of-brown-woollen-damask-front-view-18th-century


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Monsieur Fauteil! Your arms in the way of my pannier!A tale of the male

pannier, otherwise known as the lost garment of the eighteenth-century

In his book French Furniture Under Louix XIV,Roger de Flice provided several illustrations

of the shift from the earlier fauteuil [define briefly] with its combined front leg and arm support tothe separation of the front leg from the arm support [to accommodate] the pannier. He observed:

These panniers are a frame of Whalebone, or sometimes of wicker, covered with linen and

put by women under their skirt, and by men in their coat-skirts, to keep them stiff and standingout. The machine is considerably developed at each side of the wearer, bat (sic) very little at

front and back, so that a lady from her slender waist and huge panniers looks like a

washerwomans paddle. The poor woman bundled up with this were never able to find room in

an arm-chair; so they were perforce reduced to chairs, as their great-great-grandmothers had beenby their farthingales. A gallant upholsterer in an ingenious turn devised the remedy; he set back

the consoles of the arms, and the panniers could spread themselves at their own sweet will infront of the chairs.

(Roger de Flice,French Furniture Under Louis XIV, Heinemann, London 1922. P. 135)

Thirty years later Pierre Verlet wrote, [again making note of the key relationship betweencostume and specially designed furniture:

The shapes [of the chairs, furniture in general] remained heavy, ample, and monumental.They did lose some of their austerity, however, thanks to the rapid development of subtle

undulations: the pediments of wardrobes began to curve, the legs of chairs and tables ended ingoat's feet or sometimes volutes, the line of chair backs undulated more or less in an embrace,

while seats took on a slight barrel curve. Women's fashions alone would have forced menuisiersto revise their formulas, even if they hadn't wanted to: the fullness of the hooped skirts that came

into fashion in 1718 obliged menuisiers to alter the location of the arms of their chairs, setting

them back from the two front legs. X stretchers between the legs tended to disappear, givingchairs a less constrained, lighter appearance from about 172030. (Verlet 35)


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Paniers charnires, France, vers 1775-1780. Les Arts Dcoratifs / photo : Jean Tholance

http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/?id_article=2276&id_document=4052&page=portfolio

Furniture builders adapted the armchair form to accommodate panniers, usually described as a

womans undergarment constructed of wire or cane that widens the hips. However, Felice also

indicates panniers for men. While he does not name his source directly, he does acknowledge

several sources in the beginning of his book. Thirty years later, Verlet notes the shift in arm

placement, but only refers to womens hooped skirts, or panniers, as the reason. So why does

Felice reference male panniers? Did such an undergarment exist for men, or does pannier in this

instance refer to the result, but not the mode?

London 1711

According to a reader of Addison and Steeles Spectator, there are wires in the coat skirts offashionable London men of 1711. (The underlined section does not appear in the original, but ishere for ease and emphasis.)

Mr. SPECTATOR,I and several others of your Female Readers, have conformed our selves to your Rules, even to

our very Dress. There is not one of us but has reduced our outward Petticoat to its ancient Sizable

Circumference, tho' indeed we retain still a Quilted one underneath, which makes us not

altogether unconformable to the Fashion; but 'tis on Condition, Mr. SPECTATOR extends not hisCensure so far. But we find you Men secretly approve our Practice, by imitating our Pyramidical

Form. The Skirt of your fashionable Coats forms as large a Circumference as our

Petticoats; as these are set out with Whalebone, so are those with Wire, to encrease and sustainthe Bunch of Fold that hangs down on each Side; and the Hat, I perceive, is decreased in justproportion to our Headdresses. We make a regular Figure, but I defy your Mathematicks to give

Name to the Form you appear in. Your Architecture is mere Gothick, and betrays a worse Genius

than ours; therefore if you are partial to your own Sex, I shall be less than I am nowYour Humble Servant.

T.
http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/?id_article=2276&id_document=4052&page=portfoliohttp://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/?id_article=2276&id_document=4052&page=portfoliohttp://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/?id_article=2276&id_document=4052&page=portfolio


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The Spectator, No, 145 August 16, 1711. Steele

Paris 1720In or around 1720, Jacques Rigaud (1680-1754) left Marseilles and traveled to Paris, where he

created a series of engravings of the citys environs. Based on this success he then created a

series of engravings of the royal palaces of France and in 1730 he was invited to England to

create a series of engravings there. These series of engravings display a cross section of dress

within and across the social milieu during this period.(http://www.musee-promenade.fr/site/depot_des_fiches/rigaud/jacques_rigaud)

Vue de la Bastille de Paris, de la Porte St. Antoine dune partie du Fauxbourg by Jacques Rigaud

(Authors collection)

Rigauds Vue de la Bastille deParis, de la Porte St. Antoine dune partie du Fauxbourg of 1720shows the St. Antoine gatehouse, one of the entrances to Paris, which was located next to the

Bastille. (http://classes.bnf.fr/livre/grand/627.htm) While there are a number of men in coats, twofigures in the lower right of the engraving are of particular note. Seated with their backs to theviewer their coats display an odd shelf, which seems to resemble a posterior pannier. It appears

that some type of form holds the backs of the coat skirts in a rigid manner. How is this form

maintaining its shape under the weight of the fabric and the positioning of the bodies? Is this thepannier that Roger de Flice references? It may be contrived, but it seems an odd affectation in

an otherwise mundane view of travel and commerce. The following images are from the

engraving.
http://www.musee-promenade.fr/site/depot_des_fiches/rigaud/jacques_rigaudhttp://www.musee-promenade.fr/site/depot_des_fiches/rigaud/jacques_rigaudhttp://www.musee-promenade.fr/site/depot_des_fiches/rigaud/jacques_rigaudhttp://classes.bnf.fr/livre/grand/627.htmhttp://classes.bnf.fr/livre/grand/627.htmhttp://classes.bnf.fr/livre/grand/627.htmhttp://classes.bnf.fr/livre/grand/627.htmhttp://www.musee-promenade.fr/site/depot_des_fiches/rigaud/jacques_rigaud


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View of the two men


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Close-up view of the yellow jacket

Close-up view of the purple coat


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A view of other members of the party

To date, any examples that I have found of early 18th

century male coats note an inner layer ofbuckram or horsehair, but no other forms of manipulation. This engraving seems to indicate that

more than starched lining is being used to create a panniered appearance. So where have all the

wires and whalebone gone?

The history of the male pannier has been considerably shrouded, perhaps in part because so few

examples remain extant - coats were costly, constantly updated to the current styles. As I have

discovered, the fullest accounts appear in relation to furniture adaptations or in prints. It appearsthat this aspect of male attire occurred primarily in the first half of the eighteenth century,

paralleling that of women's fashions.

This is excerpted from a forthcoming article.


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One Two buckle my shoe,

To this day some of us do.

Outside of the long eighteenth-century, what man buckles his shoes? Those paste and steelbuckles so evocative of the Age of Reason, yet so antithetical to its tenets--a lace or piece of

string is after all much easier to find and use than a buckle and so much more scientifically

rational in its simplicity.

Buckle shoe, mens, leather / silver braid, with detachable buckle, copper / steel, maker unknown,England, [1761] / c. 1780 (Powerhouse Museum Collection)

This buckle shoe was probably made in 1761 for the coronation of George III, in the style

imitating the previous coronation of 1728.

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=239341&img=195786

Yet for all the simplicity, stylistically, the laced shoe leaves something to be desired. For themodern male foot the buckled loafer might be considered the equivalent of the eighteenth-century

shoe, but the loafer buckle is decorative, not functional. The shoe that still uses a functional

buckle without appearing strictly nursery bound is the monkstrap--a side buckle shoe with a name

that predates the Age of Reason. The conservative nature of mens clothing over the last threecenturies may be the only reason it still exists, in not one, but two forms the single and double

strap with buckle.
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=239341&img=195786http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=239341&img=195786http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=239341&img=195786


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A single buckle monkstrap shoe (authors shoes) The double version (authors shoes)

The utilitarian buckle allows the strap to be tightened in the summer with lighter socks and

loosened in the winter with heavier socks, much as I suppose must have happened in the

eighteenth-century with woolen or silk hose. I wonder if Addison or Steele ever wore shoes thatrequired two buckles? Hmmm


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An Honest Garment: What Became of the Shepherds Maud or Plaid ?

James Hogg by Sir John Watson Gordon 1830http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/simple-

search/G/3444/artist_name/Sir%20John%20Watson%20Gordon/record_id/2792

A shepherds maud or plaidand the shift from the age of reason to the modern.

Words are as odd as garments, just when you think you now them they throw a curve. I came

across the word maud the other day and thought I knew its derivation, wrong. A maud is a

shepherds plaid, which is Gaelic for blanket. Ild never seen the word before last week. It is
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/simple-search/G/3444/artist_name/Sir%20John%20Watson%20Gordon/record_id/2792http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/simple-search/G/3444/artist_name/Sir%20John%20Watson%20Gordon/record_id/2792http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/simple-search/G/3444/artist_name/Sir%20John%20Watson%20Gordon/record_id/2792http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/simple-search/G/3444/artist_name/Sir%20John%20Watson%20Gordon/record_id/2792http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/simple-search/G/3444/artist_name/Sir%20John%20Watson%20Gordon/record_id/2792


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Scots and derives from the word maldy, which is a coarsely woven grey colored cloth, common

to the region in the pre-industrial world. When I first saw the word, I thought it must have some

link to maudlin, but that word is linked to 16th

and 17th

century paintings of Mary Magdeline withher overwrought emotions. Still it is odd that the two words are so close with their overlapping

connections, common people, native emotions, and shepherds; yet seemingly they are not related.

Oh well, a maud is a shepherds garment that was worn throughout the lowlands of Scotland andneighboring Northumberland in England. The pattern most associated with the maud, is theshepherds check, also known as the Border tartan, the Falkirk tartan, and/or the Northumberland

tartan. So many names for a simple check, but as far as I am concerned a pattern this good, and it

is, deserves as many claimants as it can handle. For such a small pattern, no pun intended, itsclaim to originality is ancient, pieces of this pattern were found with coins dated 260 CE in a jar

in the Falkirk area of the Antonine Wall in Scotland. The cloth now resides in the National

Museum of Scotland, in case anyone wants to visit it. Certainly pattern weaving of this type is

not unique, the Thorsberg cape fragments, circa the 5th

century CE are another example of achecked pattern. Now, to throw one more word into this mix, the pattern was also used, circa

260, CE to create a scutulata, or a checkered garment. Ill come back to this word later.

Weaving Pattern for shepherds check

http://www.fabricsunravelled.co.za/Pages/shepherdcheck.aspx

The shepherds check is primarily woven in black and white. The conventional wisdom on this

color choice is the ease of collecting wool from white sheep and black sheep without further color

enhancement. Of course black and white are relative color terms in this case, due to the organic

nature of the material, but the outcome is a cloth that is readily recognizable. The shepherdscheck was woven into a long plaid or blanket. These could be as large as 58 inches by twenty

feet and provided the shepherd with protection from the elements and a means of transporting lostlambs back to the fold. A pocket of fabric created a place to hold the lamb against the body. At

the bottom of this post is a list of links that far better explain than I do how this works. Used for

hundreds of years this traditional garment faded from use by the 1960s.
http://www.fabricsunravelled.co.za/Pages/shepherdcheck.aspxhttp://www.fabricsunravelled.co.za/Pages/shepherdcheck.aspxhttp://www.fabricsunravelled.co.za/Pages/shepherdcheck.aspx


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So why is it modern if its gone? Look at James Hoggs portrait at the head of this blog with a

shepherds plaid wrapped around him. Hogg (1770-1835) an author best remembered for The

Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, worked as a shepherd in his youth. Forhis portrait, Hogg is wrapped in the honest daily apparel of the shepherd, not the worsted wool

of the established merchant or the silk of the urban sophisticate. By the end of the 18th

century,

the English style in mens clothing was established, but it was the use of traditional fabrics, wooltwills or tweed in stripes, plaids or checks that solidified this position. By establishing the use ofutilitarian or honest materials for mens clothing the market eventually accepted khaki and

denim. The odd thing for menswear is that while the cloth is accepted for use the garment is not.

Shepherds check and its variation houndstooth is used for garments from chefs trousers totraditional suiting, but the shepherds plaid like all mens shawls in the westernworld is gone.

Its understandable given the nature of the modern world that mauds or plaids are gone, but it is

sad to see a garment that protected shepherds and their lambs for hundreds of years become

redundant and fade from memory. Urban fashion designers where are you?

200 year old shepherds plaid from the Heriot-Watt University Textile Collection

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heriot-Watt-University-Textile-Collection/221156908005684

Oh, about scutulata, its latin and means checkered garment. The use of checkered garments

predominated in the northern regions of the roman world (remember Thorsberg). Its purely

conjecture, but Scoti the Latin name for the northern tribes (first the Irish, then the Scots) is anodd word in the Latin with no apparent root, could it be a corruption of the name for the

checkered cloth. Im sure its a silly thought with no merit, but I for one wouldnt mind that a

people were remembered for their woven designs, not the land they inhabited.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heriot-Watt-University-Textile-Collection/221156908005684https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heriot-Watt-University-Textile-Collection/221156908005684https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heriot-Watt-University-Textile-Collection/221156908005684


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Thorsberger prachtmantel (splendid cloak) (The work is in German, but the images are

informative, as is the text for that matter, viel Glck!)http://www.grubenhaus.com/Anleitungen/Projekt%20Prachtmantel.pdf

Rather than decant their work please visit the following blogs and sites to learn more about the

shepherds plaid.

Bloggers:

http://katedaviesdesigns.com/tag/shepherds-plaid/

http://www.fabricsunravelled.co.za/Pages/shepherdcheck.aspx

http://theclothshed.blogspot.com/2012/04/shepherds-plaid.html

Merchants:

http://newhousehighland.com/plaid1.php

http://www.northumberlandtartan.co.uk/
http://www.grubenhaus.com/Anleitungen/Projekt%20Prachtmantel.pdfhttp://www.grubenhaus.com/Anleitungen/Projekt%20Prachtmantel.pdfhttp://katedaviesdesigns.com/tag/shepherds-plaid/http://katedaviesdesigns.com/tag/shepherds-plaid/http://www.fabricsunravelled.co.za/Pages/shepherdcheck.aspxhttp://www.fabricsunravelled.co.za/Pages/shepherdcheck.aspxhttp://theclothshed.blogspot.com/2012/04/shepherds-plaid.htmlhttp://theclothshed.blogspot.com/2012/04/shepherds-plaid.htmlhttp://newhousehighland.com/plaid1.phphttp://newhousehighland.com/plaid1.phphttp://www.northumberlandtartan.co.uk/http://www.northumberlandtartan.co.uk/http://www.northumberlandtartan.co.uk/http://newhousehighland.com/plaid1.phphttp://theclothshed.blogspot.com/2012/04/shepherds-plaid.htmlhttp://www.fabricsunravelled.co.za/Pages/shepherdcheck.aspxhttp://katedaviesdesigns.com/tag/shepherds-plaid/http://www.grubenhaus.com/Anleitungen/Projekt%20Prachtmantel.pdf


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The Tableaux of Life Unfolds Before My Mask

An 18th

century English fan mask

http://www.timetravel-britain.com/gallery/fans.shtml

Hmm, the mask and all its uses remind me that the number of costumed festivals has dwindled to

Halloween and the pre-Lenten festivities. Even by the eighteenth-century the sets and costumesthat Inigo Jones created for the masques of Charles I were gone, although that being said, one of

the last great masques occurred in the middle Georgian period and left us with the songRuleBritannia. The mask certainly remains in use to the present day, but it would seem that the 18

th

century used it most effectively for both the masquerade and evening festivities at the pleasuregardens of Europe. If life is a theatrical experience, then anonymity has its uses.
http://www.timetravel-britain.com/gallery/fans.shtmlhttp://www.timetravel-britain.com/gallery/fans.shtmlhttp://www.timetravel-britain.com/gallery/fans.shtml


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Carlo Scalzi, circa 1735 By Charles-Joseph Flipart (1721-1797)

http://www.thewadsworth.org/european-2/?nggpage=2

It has been remarked that during the Georgian period members of society understood the

theatrical nature of their lives. Certainly in an age delineated by patronage all members of society

needed to understand their role and how it must be acted. Today we all network to enhance ourpositions, but at some level we believe that our talents will carry the day, at least some of us

believe this. However, in a world controlled by patronage the rules are more sharply defined, or

at least the consequences of ones actions are more sharply defined. You may well ask, Whatdoes this have to do with fashion? It has to do with expectations. We need to reflect that what is
http://www.thewadsworth.org/european-2/?nggpage=2http://www.thewadsworth.org/european-2/?nggpage=2http://www.thewadsworth.org/european-2/?nggpage=2


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odd to us was not as odd to the Georgians, particularly if we view some of the fashions not only

as trends but as costume, meant to create a an impression regardless of the opinion. An actor,

whether professional or amateur, uses costumes to establish or disregard convention. The imageat the top of the blog is that of the 18

thcentury castrato Carlo Scalzi, and while it is over-the-top

as everyday wear, it is in fact merely an extension of prevailing fashions of the 1730s with flared

coat skirts. The mask on the table while flamboyant would hardly have been out of place at amasked event at Vauxhall or Versailles.

Vauxhall Gardens, London by Canaletto 1751https://reader009.{domain}/reader009/html5/0404/5ac4c7278039a/5ac4c73c13bd0.jpg

As Halloween approaches a new book on ftes,Magnificent Entertainments, Temporary

Architecture for Georgian Festivals, by Melanie Doderer-Winkler, is due in the stores and

perhaps I shall see a copy under the tree at Christmas.
http://rbkclocalstudies.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/canaletto-view-of-interior-1751.jpghttp://rbkclocalstudies.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/canaletto-view-of-interior-1751.jpghttp://rbkclocalstudies.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/canaletto-view-of-interior-1751.jpg


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The Other Civil War

Cuirassier, Netherlands or Savoy 1620-45 (authors photo)http://higgins.lostpapyr.us/artifacts/2878

This past weekend, after many years of talking about it, we went with friends to the Higgins

Armory Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts. It has been open for 83 years in a buildingdesigned to house the collection, but financial demands have forced the board to close the

museum at the end of 2013. However, the collection will be transferred to the Worcester Art

Museum where a library will be converted into new gallery space to house the collection and the

library will move to new quarters. So at least the collection will remain in the New England. As achild I had knights and a castle, so this was a delightful afternoon. I knew that armor was used for

centuries, but it was the section of mid-sixteenth century armor the struck a cord.
http://higgins.lostpapyr.us/artifacts/2878http://higgins.lostpapyr.us/artifacts/2878http://higgins.lostpapyr.us/artifacts/2878


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Pikeman circa 1630 (authors photo)http://higgins.lostpapyr.us/artifacts/360.a-e

The distance between the 1640s and the 1740s is in certain ways immeasurable (the divine right

of kings and the modern political era is one example), but thinking specifically about the years

1646 and 1746 took me aback for a moment. As fate would have it, in 1646 Charles I was stilltrying, albeit unsuccessfully, to contain the revolutionary forces that would eventually unseat andbehead him and in 1746 George II was in pursuit of Charles Stuart better known as Bonnie Prince

Charlie, the great grandson of Charles I, in order to maintain his crown and the Hanoverian line.

In those one hundred years troops in woolen redcoats replaced regiments in armor, and the battles

that consumed nations now consumed fields. I find it somewhat ironic that the redcoat that beganwith the Parliamentarian forces of the Civil War (1640s) would in time signify the Kings own

troops (1740s), but history is full of such details.
http://higgins.lostpapyr.us/artifacts/360.a-ehttp://higgins.lostpapyr.us/artifacts/360.a-ehttp://higgins.lostpapyr.us/artifacts/360.a-e


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From the Museum of Londons Collecton file:

This uniform was worn by the British Army officer, Richard St George. He was a Colonel in the 20th Regiment of

Foot between 1737 and 1740 and later commanded the 8th Dragoons until 1755. Dragoons were trained to ride on

horseback but to fight on foot as infantrymen. St George may have served at the Battle of Dettingen during the War

of the Austrian Succession.http://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/Online/object.aspx?objectID=object-

85982&start=194&rows=1

As I looked at the armor and the martial paintings that accompanied it, I wondered, in addition to

all the other factors that influence how we perceive and dress ourselves, if the defeat of theStuarts was one of those watershed moments that go unnoticed. Was this the end of the fantasy of

the feudal order and all of its accoutrements? The sword, a significant and evolved feudal

emblem as any, was still used by some, but not required outside of the Court, a sure measure ofits decline. Certainly by the 1750 the attitude in mens clothing began the slide toward dominant

and increasingly conservative uniform--the suit. While the fabric of mens clothing during the

second half of the long eighteenth century might still be more decorative than any modernconcoction, the flair began to subside particularly with the growth of the middle-class. Was the

defeat of the Stuart pretensions the last nail in the coffin of the medieval and renaissance

ostentatious male display? It is hard to say, but the distance between 1646 and 1746 was never so

apparent to me as it was on that Saturday afternoon.

This all leads to the last thought of this exercise and that is, a question that often is asked of

museums, or rather the employees of museums...What was the point of the exhibit and did it

reach its intended audience? I cant think that anyone really sat down and created an exhibit totrigger my experience with 17th century armor. That to me is the telling bit; education or the

sharing of information is informed as much by the knowledge of the audience as it is by the

knowledge of the institution and that the unintended outcome, although seemingly valueless tothe perceived outcome, is of importance, at least the mind engaged with it. Would I have made
http://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/Online/object.aspx?objectID=object-85982&start=194&rows=1http://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/Online/object.aspx?objectID=object-85982&start=194&rows=1http://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/Online/object.aspx?objectID=object-85982&start=194&rows=1http://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/Online/object.aspx?objectID=object-85982&start=194&rows=1http://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/Online/object.aspx?objectID=object-85982&start=194&rows=1http://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/Online/object.aspx?objectID=object-85982&start=194&rows=1


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the connection without the exhibit, perhaps, but as I am not surrounded by either the 17th

or 18th

centuries, I think it would have taken longer, if at all. After all, information without connection is

simply a list of facts.

Now a simple repast,

Helmutt the dog in modern armor created at the Met in 1942 and based on a 16 thcentury example at the Higgins

Armory Museum. Even your best friend could go out in style. (Authors photo)


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Soucis dhanneton, or Soucil de hanneton, or Floss Fringe, or Fly Fringe

William Hogarth, A Fishing Party, 1730-31

http://prints.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/image/816681/artist-hogarth-william-a-fishing-party

It would be so much easier if the names of things came with a history, fly fringe is the problem

of the moment. A simple piece of passementerie, easily made and applied either as a bon mot or

as a string or cluster of fringe, the name seems to refer to fishing and hand-tied lures, but is it?There is no doubt as to its existence in the 18th

century, but the name shifts over time. The earliestreferences, using the term fly-fringe that have surfaced so far are from the beginnings of the

20th

Century. On page 399 of The Ladys Realm, volume 14 1903 there is a description of an 18th

century gown that uses the term fly-fringe to describe the trim. The Century Dictionary, NYC,1906, page 2295 defines it as, A trimming for womens dress worn toward the close of the

eighteenth century. It was made of floss-silk, the spreading and projecting tassels of which were

suppose to resemble flies. According to the crafting site of Colonial Williamsburg the term for
http://prints.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/image/816681/artist-hogarth-william-a-fishing-partyhttp://prints.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/image/816681/artist-hogarth-william-a-fishing-partyhttp://prints.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/image/816681/artist-hogarth-william-a-fishing-party


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this type of decoration in the 18th

century was floss fringe.

http://www.cvent.com/events/millinery-through-time/custom-19-

4d9531e095d844c391bc08c69ac3da91.aspx The Two Nerdy History Girls in their blog ofJanuary 13, 2013 mention the use of the term French fringe during the eighteenth-century.

http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/2013/01/making-18th-c-floss-fringe-for-gown.html

On to France..The French use the termsoucil de hannetonto for this style of fringe, whichtranslates as the eyebrow of the cockchafer, or May beetle. In the fourth edition of the

Dictionnaire de L'Acadmie franaise (1762) one of the definitions of soucis dhanneton is, Les

Frangers appellent Soucis d'hanneton,Des franges qui portent de petites houppes. Thistranslates roughly as, The fringes known as Soucis dhanneton are small tassels. Houppes can

be tassels, or tufts or puffs take your pick. Regardless of the nomenclature, by 1762 the phrase

was used for a specific type of trim. (Please note the shift in French usage from 1762s soucis

d to the 20th

centurys soucil de, is not a typographical error.) The European May Beetle is notthe American May Beetle; they are two distinct families. The European was invasive and very

common in the spring, thus a visually well known insect. So what does one look like.

Hanneton (fr) or Cockchafer (eng) or May Beetle or Bughttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cockchafer.JPG

Looking beyond the bug, which has a certain charm, imagine the two antennae, which are thelarge orange fan-like projections as a silk strands joined together with a knot in the middlefly
http://www.cvent.com/events/millinery-through-time/custom-19-4d9531e095d844c391bc08c69ac3da91.aspxhttp://www.cvent.com/events/millinery-through-time/custom-19-4d9531e095d844c391bc08c69ac3da91.aspxhttp://www.cvent.com/events/millinery-through-time/custom-19-4d9531e095d844c391bc08c69ac3da91.aspxhttp://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/2013/01/making-18th-c-floss-fringe-for-gown.htmlhttp://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/2013/01/making-18th-c-floss-fringe-for-gown.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cockchafer.JPGhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cockchafer.JPGhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cockchafer.JPGhttp://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/2013/01/making-18th-c-floss-fringe-for-gown.htmlhttp://www.cvent.com/events/millinery-through-time/custom-19-4d9531e095d844c391bc08c69ac3da91.aspxhttp://www.cvent.com/events/millinery-through-time/custom-19-4d9531e095d844c391bc08c69ac3da91.aspx


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fringe or soucil de hanneton. I really like idiomatic descriptions and this is a great one

beetlebrow for silk trim.

Pieces from 18th

century dresses, the white pieces have sourcil de hannneton applied

discriminately to the edges.http://www.thierrydemaigret.com/html/fiche.jsp?id=2465905&np=1&lng=fr&npp=10000&ordre

=1&aff=1&r=

The French still use this term to describe this trim, but English speakers do not. Whether or not

we retain foreign words or phrases seems to have no logic. The May Beetle was as well known in

the UK as in France, so why not keep the name? It may be that the finished product resembledthe hand tied flies used in fishing as much as they did to a beetles brow to the British. Certainly

to an American who had no experience with the European beetle there would have been no

connection to tie the image and a word togethera fly would do as well, or even better than a

beetle to describe the fringe.
http://www.thierrydemaigret.com/html/fiche.jsp?id=2465905&np=1&lng=fr&npp=10000&ordre=1&aff=1&rhttp://www.thierrydemaigret.com/html/fiche.jsp?id=2465905&np=1&lng=fr&npp=10000&ordre=1&aff=1&rhttp://www.thierrydemaigret.com/html/fiche.jsp?id=2465905&np=1&lng=fr&npp=10000&ordre=1&aff=1&rhttp://www.thierrydemaigret.com/html/fiche.jsp?id=2465905&np=1&lng=fr&npp=10000&ordre=1&aff=1&r


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Fringe Crochethttp://www.olddairysaddlery.co.uk/horse_fly_masks.php

Unfortunately this is all conjecture, at the moment there seems to be no direct connections

between the use of the term fly-fringe and the 18th

century. Compounding this is that the term

fly-fringe most directly relates to the fringed band or crocheted bonnet that horses wear to keepflies away from their faces and is known as fly fringe. Take your pick horses or fishing, both

were pursuits open to women in the 18th

century and may have ultimately provided the term fly-

fringe. Certainly by the beginning of the last century the notion that the trim resembled flies was

solid enough that it required no further definition when used in The Ladies Realm article. Thatbeing said the 18

thcentury term most resembling the technique is soucil de hanneton, but I dont

see that one overtaking fly fringe in the near future.
http://www.olddairysaddlery.co.uk/horse_fly_masks.phphttp://www.olddairysaddlery.co.uk/horse_fly_masks.phphttp://www.olddairysaddlery.co.uk/horse_fly_masks.php


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Truth in Marketing, A Strange Bedfellow for History

http://www.posterplus.com/product.asp?pfid=PSP01308&page=results.asp

On a cold grey December day that mirrors one I remember from long ago, oddly not far from the

site of this scene, I found myself looking at a 1930s poster created for the LNER by Doris

Zinkeisen (1898-1991). I enjoy posters and when this image fell into my lap the other day thetheatricality of the piece captured me. It reads far more like a cartoon for a stage set or a

historical romance film than a poster for a major rail line. The hat on the red-coated gentleman is

reminiscent of John Hurt and Tim Roths characters in the 1995 version of Rob Roy; its strange

how the mind works. Well it seems that Zinkeisen was not only an artist but also a set andcostume designer. Then I looked at the text below and to the right of the image, which describes

the scene as the secret signing of the article of Union between England and Scotland. (I haveabsolutely no comment on the current referendum) Having read Scottish history shortly after thisevent occurred it struck me that I had never heard of it, and for good reason, it didnt happen.

As Dr. John Young, Sr. lecturer at the University of Strathclyde, recounts in an online article

from 2009, the tale seems to have been invented in the late nineteenth-century and has survivedinto the twenty-first. As the article points out, some parliamentarians may have taken refuge from

a displeased Scottish mob in the cellar during negotiations, but no treaty was signed there. The


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full article is an interesting read and can be viewed here:

http://www.strath.ac.uk/press/newsreleases/2009/headline_235561_en.html

http://silkdamask.blogspot.com/2013/12/william-hogarths-sisters-and-old-frock.html

Nice piece of theatrical puff, a good poster, an interesting image and the kind of thing that drivessome people daft. But it happens all the time, or at least so this week. Kimberly recently posted a

piece about the business card William Hogarths created for his sisters clothing business. Theirshop was located near the gatehouse of Little Britain and it caught my eye. (Its area of London

that intrigues me.) I found a description of the area in London Past Present: Its History,

Associations, and Traditions by Henry Benjamin Wheatley in 1891, who updated an earlierversion of the book by Peter Cunningham in 1849. On page 406 of the book the Hogarth business

card is mentioned, but at the same time dismissed as, probably an Ireland forgery. The name
http://www.strath.ac.uk/press/newsreleases/2009/headline_235561_en.htmlhttp://www.strath.ac.uk/press/newsreleases/2009/headline_235561_en.htmlhttp://silkdamask.blogspot.com/2013/12/william-hogarths-sisters-and-old-frock.htmlhttp://silkdamask.blogspot.com/2013/12/william-hogarths-sisters-and-old-frock.htmlhttp://silkdamask.blogspot.com/2013/12/william-hogarths-sisters-and-old-frock.htmlhttp://www.strath.ac.uk/press/newsreleases/2009/headline_235561_en.html


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Ireland refers to Samuel Ireland, who was a prominent collector of Hogarth in the 18th

century.

For those interested, there is a book based upon this collection, The Graphic Illustrations of

Hogarth published in London in 1794. Back on track, at the present time, the card is consideredreal, but sometime in the 19

thcentury at least one person thought it wasnt. (I cannot find a

reference to this in Cunninghams Handbookof London (1849 or 1850), so it may be Wheatleys

opinion in 1891?)

Both pieces were produced for travelers, the first to entice and the second to inform.

Romanticizing the past can capture an audience and may lead to a genuine enquiry. We can not

know everything about the past so we need to remember to objective lest the relish becomes thejoint. Opinions and stories shift throughout history or the understanding of history and there are

moments when a new twist influences our perception of the truth, transforms a fact and sends us

down a different path. No treaty was signed in the cellar, but did parliamentarians seek refuge

from angry mobs in 1706. Similarly, was there concern in the 19th

century that an 18th

centurycollector was manufacturing Hogarths work and passing it off as original, or was it an expert

establishing his turf? Another day, another quest

Peter Cunningham, Handbook For London, John Murray, London 1849, enlarged 1850.

Henry Benjamin Wheatey, London Past Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions,

Cambridge University Press, (1891), reprint 2011


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Lord Claphams Justacorpsand A Marlburian Uniform

Lord and Lady Clapham, London, circa 1700

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O41545/lord-clapham-doll-unknown/
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O41545/lord-clapham-doll-unknown/http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O41545/lord-clapham-doll-unknown/http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O41545/lord-clapham-doll-unknown/


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Looking for an example of a Marlburian uniform I came across this happy looking couple from

circa 1700. Known as Lord and Lady Clapham, they reside in the collection of the V&A and are,

I am sure, well known inhabitants of South Kensington. Never met them until now, but happy tomake their acquaintance. Dolls normally leave me cold, whereas dioramas captivate me, odd

since both essentially represent life in miniature, but thats the mind for you. However, this

couple enchanted me lock, stock and barrel. The description from the V&A notes that thesebelonged to the Cockerell family who were related to Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) through hisgrandniece who married into the Cockerell family of Clapham (south London). The dolls were

named the Lord and Lady after the familys resident town. Dolls of this age are rare enough,

as is the clothing for either a doll or a person, so this is a rare artifact indeed.

Lord Claphams

justacorps immediately

caught my eye. Theflare of the wee mans

coat is dramatic. In part

this may be due to theflattening of the fabric

over time and the

exaggerated pressed

bell-shape that results,but also due to the

circumference, which

displays the stylisticdifference between the

beginning and end of the

18th

century. This early

18th

century justacorpshas a lush fullness that

is the antithesis of the

shadbelly silhouette ofthe 1790s. Men must

have moved differently

in this part of thecentury, or rather

clothing moved

differently on them.

Perhaps it can belikened to the shimmy of a womans fringe tiered dress from the 1920s, which encapsulates a

style, a period, and a way of moving through space. I look at this coat and the term swagger

comes to mind, the self-possessed not the pompous definition of the word. It illuminates that

moment of confidence that propelled the 18th

century out of the turbulence and political quagmireof the 17

thcentury and into the enlightenment, inquiry and reason that become the hallmarks of

the 18th

century. To my eye there is a raw exuberance in this periods clothing, which disappears

with the studied elegance of it

Lord Clapham, the wee man and his clothing

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O41545/lord-clapham-doll-unknown/


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fin de sicle cousin.

Conceptually, they are

of the same family, butthe stylistic refinement

of the later leaves me a

bit cold. It is a personalconceit and I canunderstand the

fascination with the end

of the 18th

century, butperhaps I am too much

of a Whig at heart to

surrender to the

opposition.

As this started with a

quest for an example ofa Marlburian justacorps

I need to be mindful of

the military aspect of

this period with thetriumph of Marlborough

and the allied armies.

England entered theWar of Spanish

Succession (1701-1714)

as a realm fearful of

French and SpanishContinental domination,

but finished it as a

united kingdom ofEngland and Scotland

triumphant on the

European battlefield.This engraving by Jean

Dubosc, created after a

painting by Louis

Leguerre, of the battleof Taniers (currently Malplaquet) (1709) shows how voluminous justacorps could be. The

pleating of the coat skirts displays a kilt-like density.

Waistcoathttp://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O41545/lord-clapham-doll-unknown/


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This color version done later is easier to read than the black and white original, at least for my

purposes and close-ups follow.

Battle of Taniers, after Dubosc, Robert Wilsonhttps://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:227234/
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:227234/https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:227234/https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:227234/


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Close-u views


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While only a vestige of the full scale rendition, Lord Claphams justacorps and vest with their

tight but closable tubular torsos and voluminous skirts are indicative of the of the stiffened coatskirt that waxes and wanes for the next fifty years. Was the use by men of coat skirt stiffeners a

martial fashion response to this triumphant military decade? Was the reintroduction of side

padding by women at this time a nod to martial influenced fashion? Questions for another time I

think.

Lord Claphams justacorps interior viewhttp://whenasinsilks.tumblr.com/post/41535653727/doll-named-lord-clapham-doll-

made-of-wood
http://whenasinsilks.tumblr.com/post/41535653727/doll-named-lord-clapham-doll-made-of-woodhttp://whenasinsilks.tumblr.com/post/41535653727/doll-named-lord-clapham-doll-made-of-woodhttp://whenasinsilks.tumblr.com/post/41535653727/doll-named-lord-clapham-doll-made-of-woodhttp://whenasinsilks.tumblr.com/post/41535653727/doll-named-lord-clapham-doll-made-of-woodhttp://whenasinsilks.tumblr.com/post/41535653727/doll-named-lord-clapham-doll-made-of-wood


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George III, Tartan Archer

Royal Company of Archers Coat

http://www.nms.ac.uk/collections/details.php?item_id=263295&terms=archers%20tartan&key=description&offset=0

&pos=0&tot=3

If it isnt obvious by now, I am intrigued with Scottish History, but I hope to use that interest as a

springboard for more expansive thoughts. History is about particulars, but equally it is about the

expansion of the general from the particular. A case in point is an object in the collection of the

National Museum of Scotland. While searching for information on the early Jacobite rebellions I

came across an archers coat. It is a tartan coat of the Royal Company of Archers and accordingto the museum archives if is from circa 1750. At first glance that would be as wrong as anything I

know. The style of the coat is at least 75 years older than that, and in fact I have seen this same

coat on the Internet dated as being from 1715, which still seems only slightly less jarring. So whatis it, 1715 or 1750 and how long were the archers and their tailors living in the hills? The search

was on for information about this coat, which led to the family portrait illustrated here.
http://www.nms.ac.uk/collections/details.php?item_id=263295&terms=archers%20tartan&key=description&offset=0&pos=0&tot=3http://www.nms.ac.uk/collections/details.php?item_id=263295&terms=archers%20tartan&key=description&offset=0&pos=0&tot=3http://www.nms.ac.uk/collections/details.php?item_id=263295&terms=archers%20tartan&key=description&offset=0&pos=0&tot=3http://www.nms.ac.uk/collections/details.php?item_id=263295&terms=archers%20tartan&key=description&offset=0&pos=0&tot=3http://www.nms.ac.uk/collections/details.php?item_id=263295&terms=archers%20tartan&key=description&offset=0&pos=0&tot=3


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The Children of Frederick, Prince of Wales, by Barthlemy Du Pan

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/403400/the-children-of-frederick-prince-of-wales

The painting appeared in several online articles, but I couldnt find an attribution. Finally one

posting attributed it to Du Pan, who it developed was Barthlemy Du Pan and the subjects were

the children of Frederick, Prince of Wales. The figure in the tartan archery uniform is the futureGeorge III. His outfit is that of the Royal Company of Archers, who are the ceremonial

bodyguards of the sovereign in Scotland. Formed as a society of archers in the 1670s they

obtained a charter from Queen Anne in 1704 and letters patent as a royal company in 1713. Theuniform of the company was created at or about this time and is a plainer version of the

uniform worn by the young George. This uniform was the standard though his time and then

lapsed until 1789 when a more contemporary version was created. Preparing for the visit ofGeorge IV in 1822, a uniform was created using black watch tartan for the trews and short jacket.

This is a synopsis of information that comes from an article concerning the Archers on the web by

Peter Eslea MacDonald and is well worth a full read. The author goes into detail about the tartan

and the history of the company. He says it much better than I.

http://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/Tartans_of_the_Royal_Company_of_Archers.pdf

What intrigues me is that without the supporting evidence of the Archers use of historical

costume, as a uniform, the dating would look wrong. The fact that the uniform was unchangedfor decades and was stylistically dated when conceived around 1713 creates an anachronism that

can confuse the modern eye. MacDonald creates a visual timeline that places this particular

anachronism within a forty-year span. How often does this happen without our awareness? Wereitems of clothing created for a specific purpose that were recognized at the time as being

anachronistic? In an age that saw itself as public theatre are we at a risk of dating too specifically
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/403400/the-children-of-frederick-prince-of-waleshttp://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/403400/the-children-of-frederick-prince-of-waleshttp://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/Tartans_of_the_Royal_Company_of_Archers.pdfhttp://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/Tartans_of_the_Royal_Company_of_Archers.pdfhttp://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/Tartans_of_the_Royal_Company_of_Archers.pdfhttp://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/403400/the-children-of-frederick-prince-of-wales


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or rather too knowingly. Im not looking to overturn the cart, rather are there groups or events

which create their own timeframe outside of the normal flow for a specific reason, that goes as of

yet undocumented?

Prince George in Archer's Attire

Along those lines and back to the painting for a moment, I was somewhat troubled that the future

George III, a Hanoverian, was posing in a tartan archers outfit so close to the aftermath of the

Battle of Culloden. By 1747Prince George in Archers Attire the use of tartan was proscribed for most uses

and in common parlance it was outright banned, so why record that image? After all, if time is

everything in history, George is out of cycle. In its day it was a popular print, but I was able to

find the painting in the Royal Collection. Luckily for me the curator answered my naggingthought and I think it is worth quoting the section in full,

The inclusion of tartan (worn by Prince George) in a painting executed within months ofthe Battle of Culloden excited comment even at the time. In fact this is the uniform of the

Royal Company of Archers, which had been fixed as early as 1713 and included the Stuarttartan; like all British regimental tartan this escaped the ban on Scottish national dresswhich followed the Rebellion of 1745. Indeed it is probably that this painting is a part of


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the process of assimilating Scottish identity as something manly and romantic, rather than

threatening and rebellious.

Odd isnt it that an archaically styled uniform of a vanquished group was seen by the victor to

offer the promise of reconciliation? This is why I often prefer history to fiction. Here is the image

of the future George III, the farmer king, in a stylistically archaic tartan uniform 70 odd yearsbefore his more sartorially recognized son, George IV, wore tartan so famously in 1822. GeorgeIV and Sir Walter Scott, the marshaling force behind the 1822 visit, have been criticized for their

unbridled creativity and reinvention of costume. Maybe they did, but they were hardly new on the

block

George IV, by Sir David Wilkie

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/401206/george-iv-1762-1


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