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16th century women’s informal and workaday headgear
Most of the familiar portraits of sixteenth century women show wealthy individuals, dressed in their best, wearing elaborate headdresses in a variety of styles. Sometimes some hair shows at the front, as with the French hood below, while with other headdresses, like the English gable hood also shown, the hair is completely out of sight.
The expectation that women of …
In our throw away age of fast fashion, it’s hard for us to comprehend just how expensive clothing was in Elizabethan England. In her book Tudor Fashion, Eleri Lynn tells us that Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1532-1588) spent more for one suit of clothes that William Shakespeare paid for a house in Stratford-on-Avon less than ten years later.
Image via Wikimedia Commons Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester Anglo-Netherlandish School, Unknown Artist NPG
This level …
The late Dame Hilary Mantel advised that those who a
spire to write historical fiction should aim to inhabit the era in which their writing is set.
“Live in that world,” she said, “and this magic day comes and it becomes solid and real. If you can get your five senses working for you, you are home and eventually your dreams will move to your chosen period as well.”
I’ve taken that advice on board and I now spend much more time in the sixteenth century than the twenty-first.
I …
Farthingale sleeves — a chance to examine some very rare survivors
In an episode of the BBC’s Antiques Road Show that first aired on 30 October 2022, an incredible cache of Elizabethan textiles was presented for assessment at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham. This very rare collection belonged to the Willoughby family of Wollaton Hall, which was built in 1588 by wealthy coal baron Sir Francis Willoughby.
The items included a wonderful 500-year-old bedspread and pillowcases, but they were eclipsed by the "extremely rare" ivory silk satin sleeve and sleeve support found in the same chest.
Missing Persons — Who were the Typical Tudors?
Tudor Tailor Conference, Nottingham, 22-25 October 2022
They say the best things are worth waiting for. Well, the conference to launch the Tudor Tailor’s new book “The Typical Tudor” was certainly worth the wait. After several false starts because of the pandemic, Tudor costume enthusiasts from all over the world gathered in Nottingham
on a rather wet weekend. What a treat was in store for us.
We were greeted with a glass at registration on Saturday afternoon and there was time …
