Clothing Culture, 1350-1650

Description

First published 2004 by Ashgate Publishing. Addressing the subject of clothing in relation to such fundamental issues as national identity, social distinction, gender, the body, religion and politics, "Clothing Culture, 1350-1650" provides a springboard into one of the most fascinating yet least understood aspects of social and cultural history. Nowhere in medieval and early modern European society was its hierarchical and social divisions more obviously reflected than in the sphere of clothing. Indeed, one of the few constant themes of writers, chroniclers, diarists and commentators from Chaucer to Pepys was the subject of fashion and clothes. Whether it was lauding the magnificence of court, warning against the vanity of fashion, describing the latest modes, or decrying the habit of the lower orders to ape the dress of their social superiors, people throughout history have been fascinated by the symbolism, power and messages that clothes can project. Yet despite this contemporary interest, clothing as a subject of historical enquiry has been a largely neglected field of academic study. Whilst it has been discussed in relation to various disciplines, it has not in many cases found a place as a central topic of analysis in its own right. The essays presented in this volume form part of a growing recent trend to put fashion and clothing back into the centre ground of historical research. From Russia to Rome, Ireland to France, this volume contains a wealth of examples of the numerous ways clothing was shaped by, and helped to shape, medieval and early modern European society. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the study of clothing can illuminate other facets of life and why it deserves to be treated as a central, rather than peripheral, facet of European history. General Editor's Preface vii List of Illustrations viii List of Tables xi List of Contributors xii Acknowledgements xv List of Abbreviations xvi 1. Introduction / Catherine Richardson 1 Section One: Fabrics of Nation 2. The Cultural Significance of Costume Books in Sixteenth-Century Europe / Ulrike Ilg 29 3. A Question of Nation: Foreign Clothes on the English Subject / Roze Hentschell 49 4. Tomb Effigies and Archaic Dress in Sixteenth-Century Ireland / Elizabeth Wincott Hechett 63 5. The Formation of Russian Women's Costume at the Time before the Reforms of Peter the Great / Oksana Sekatcheva 77 Section Two: Marking Distinctions 6. Clothing Courtesans: Fabrics, Signals, and Experiences / Tessa Storey 95 7. Clothing the Naked in Late Medieval East Kent / Sheila Sweetinburgh 109 8. Dress, Nudity and Calvinist Culture in Sixteenth-Century France / Graeme Murdoch 123 9. Social Fabric in Thynne's "Debate Between Pride and Lowliness" / Claire Bartram 137 Section Three: Material Movements 10. Clothing Distributions and Social Relations c. 1350-1500 / Joanna Crawford 153 11. Fashion, Finance, Foreign Politics and the Wardrobe of Henry VIII / Maria Hayward 165 12. Reworked Material: Discourses of Clothing Culture in Early Sixteenth-Century Greenwich / Elisabeth Salter 179 Section Four: Discourse, Body, Gender 13. 'This one poore blacke gowne lined with white': The Clothing of the Sixteenth-Century English Book / Helen Smith 195 14. 'Havying nothing upon hym saving onely his sherte': Event, Narrative and Material Culture in Early Modern England / Catherine Richardson 209 15. Rips and Slits: The Torn Garment and the Medieval Self / Andrea Denny-Brown 223 16 Speaking to Reveal: The Body and Acts of 'Exposure' in Early Modern Popular Discourse / Elizabeth Hallam 239 Bibliography 263 Index 287