English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop
HENRY THE FIRST - 1100-1135.
By Pauline Weston Thomas for Fashion-Era.com
English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop
HENRY THE FIRST - 1100-1135
This costume history information consists of Pages 21 to
28 of the chapter on 12th century dress in the era of Henry The First 1100-1135 and taken from English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop.
The 36 page section consists of a text copy of the book ENGLISH
COSTUME PAINTED & DESCRIBED BY DION CLAYTON CALTHROP. Visuals,
drawings and painted fashion plates in the book have a charm of their own and are
shown amid the text. The book covers both male and female dress history of
over 700 years spanning the era 1066-1830. This page is about dress in
the 35 year reign of King Henry The First 1100-1135.
For the Introduction to this book see this
introduction written by Dion Clayton Calthrop. I have adjusted
the images so they are mostly 400 pixels high and can be used for colouring
worksheets where pupils add some costume/society facts. My comments are in italics.
Reigned thirty-five years: 1100-1135.
Born 1068. Married to Matilda of Scotland, 1100; to Adela of Louvain,
1121.
THE MEN
The Father of Popular Literature, Gerald of Wales, says:
'It is
better to be dumb than not to be understood. New times require new
fashions, and so I have thrown utterly aside the old and dry methods of
some authors, and aimed at adopting the fashion of speech which is
actually in vogue to-day.'
Vainly, perhaps, I have endeavoured to follow this precept laid down by
Father Gerald, trying by slight pictures of the times to make the dry
bones live, to make the clothes stir up and puff themselves into
the shapes of men.
It is almost a necessity that one who would describe, paint, stage, or
understand the costume of this reign should know the state of England at
the time.
For there is in this reign a distinction without a difference in
clothes; the shapes are almost identical to the shapes and patterns of
the previous reigns, but everybody is a little better dressed.
The mantles worn by the few in the time of William the Red are worn now
by most of the nobility, fur-lined and very full.
One may see on the sides of the west door of Rochester Cathedral Henry
and his first wife, and notice that the mantle he wears is very full;
one may see that he wears a supertunic, which is gathered round his
waist. This tunic is the usual Norman tunic reaching to the knee, but
now it is worn over an under-tunic which reaches to the ground in heavy
folds.
One may notice that the King's hair is long and elegantly twisted into
pipes or ringlets, and that it hangs over his shoulders.
Right - The man's hair is curled in ringlets a fashion of the
time. The shirts shows under the tunic and over this is a long bordered cloak. The corner
design is from a
sanctuary door-knocker.
No longer is the priestly abuse of 'filthy goat' applicable, for
Henry's beard is neatly trimmed and cut round his face.
These two things are the only practical difference between the two
dates - the end of the eleventh century and the beginning of the twelfth.
The under-tunic was made as a perfectly plain gown with tight sleeves
ending at the wrist; it hung loose and full upon the figure. Over this
was worn the short tunic with wide sleeves ending at the elbow. Both
tunics would have broad borders of embroidered work or bands of coloured
material.
The supertunic would be brooched by one of those circular
Norman brooches which was an ornamental circle of open gold-work in
which stones and jewels were set. The brooch was fastened by a central
pin.
The extravagances of the previous reign were in some measure done away
with; even the very long hair was not fashionable in the latter half of
this reign, and the ultra-long sleeve was not so usual.
So we may give as a list of clothes for men in this reign:
A white linen shirt.
A long tunic, open at the neck, falling to the ground, with tight
sleeves to the wrist.
A short tunic reaching only to the knees, more open at the neck
than the long tunic, generally fastened by a brooch.
Tight, well-fitting drawers or loose trousers.
Bandages or garters crossed from the ankle to the knee to confine the
loose trousers or ornament the tights.
Boots of soft leather which had an ornamental band at the top.
Socks with an embroidered top.
Shoes of cloth and leather with an embroidered band down the centre and
round the top.
Shoes of skin tied with leather thongs.
Caps of skin or cloth of a very plain shape and without a brim.
Belts of leather or cloth or silk.
Semicircular cloaks fastened as previously described, and often lined
with fur.
The clothes of every colour, but with little or no pattern; the patterns
principally confined to irregular groups of dots.
And to think that in the year in which Henry died Nizami visited the
grave of Omar Al Khayyám in the Hira Cemetery at Nishapur!
The greatest change in the appearance of the women was in the
arrangement of the hair.
After a hundred years or more of headcloths and hidden hair suddenly
appears a head of hair. Until now a lady might have been bald for all
the notice she took of her hair; now she must needs borrow hair to add
to her own, so that her plaits shall be thick and long.
It is easy to see how this came about.
The
hair, for convenience, had always been plaited in two plaits and coiled
round the head, where it lay concealed by the wimple. One day some fine
lady decides to discard her close and uncomfortable head-covering. She
lets her plaits hang over her shoulders, and so appears in public.
See more
on these lady's hair
Contempt of other ladies who have fine heads of hair for the thinness
of her plaits; competition in thick and long hair; anger of ladies whose
hair is not thick and
long; enormous demand for artificial hair; failure of the supply to meet
the ever-increasing demand; invention of silken cases filled with a
substitute for hair, these cases attached to the end of the plaits to
elongate them - in this manner do many fashions arrive and flourish, until
such time as the common people find means of copying them, and then my
lady wonders how she could ever have worn such a common affair.
The gowns of these ladies remained much the same, except that the loose
gown, without any show of the figure, was in great favour; this gown was
confined by a long girdle.
The girdle was a long rope of silk or wool, which was placed simply
round the waist and loosely knotted; or it was wound round above the
waist once, crossed behind, and then knotted in front, and the ends
allowed to hang down. The ends of the girdle had tassels and knots
depending from them.
The silk cases into which the hair was placed were often made of silk of
variegated colours, and these cases had metal ends or tassels.
The girdles sometimes were broad bands of silk diapered with gold
thread, of which manufacture specimens remain to us.
This costume history illustration below shows the pendant sleeve with an embroidered hem. The long plaits
of hair were held fast at the ends with metal, or silk tags. A white
chemise is visible at the neck and wrists.
The sleeves of the gowns had now altered in shape, and had acquired
a sort of pendulent cuff, which hung down about two hands' breadth from
the wrist. The border was, as usual, richly ornamented.
Then we have a new invention, the pelisse. It is a loose silk coat,
which is brooched at the waist, or buttoned into a silk loop. The
sleeves are long - that is, they gradually increase in size from the
underarm to the wrist, and sometimes are knotted at the ends, and so are
unlike the other gown sleeves, which grow suddenly long near to the
wrist.
This pelisse reaches to the knees, and is well open in front. The idea
was evidently brought back from the East after the knights arrived back
from the First Crusade, as it is in shape exactly like the coats worn by
Persian ladies.
We may conceive a nice picture of Countess Constance, the wife of Hugh
Lufus, Earl of Chester, as she appeared in her dairy fresh from
milking the cows, which were her pride. No doubt she did help to milk
them; and in her long under-gown, with her plaits once more confined in
the folds of her wimple, she made cheeses - such good cheeses that Anselm,
Archbishop of Canterbury, rejoiced in a present of some of them.
What a change it must have been to Matilda, free of the veil that she
hated, from the Black Nuns of Romsey, and the taunts and blows of her
aunt Christina, to become the wife of King Henry, and to disport herself
in fine garments and long plaited hair - Matilda the very royal, the
daughter of a King, the sister to three Kings, the wife of a King, the
mother of an Empress!
It is only in quite recent years that there have been quite distinct
dresses for children, fashions indeed which began with the ideas for the
improvement in hygiene. For many centuries children were dressed, with
slight modifications, after the manner of their parents, looking like
little men and women, until in the end they arrived at the grotesque
infants of Hogarth's day, powdered and patched, with little stiff
skirted suits and stiff brocade gowns, with little swords and little
fans and, no doubt, many pretty airs and graces.
One thing I have never seen until the early sixteenth century, and that
is girls wearing any of the massive head-gear of their parents; in all
other particulars they were the same.
HENRY THE FIRST
Reigned thirty-five years: 1100-1135.
Born 1068. Married to Matilda of Scotland, 1100; to Adela of Louvain,
1121.
This costume history information consists of Pages 21 to
28 of the chapter on 12th century dress in the era of Henry The First 1100-1135 and taken from English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop.
The 36 page section consists of a text copy of the book ENGLISH
COSTUME PAINTED & DESCRIBED BY DION CLAYTON CALTHROP. Visuals,
drawings and painted fashion plates in the book have a charm of their own and are
shown amid the text. The book covers both male and female dress history of
over 700 years spanning the era 1066-1830. This page is about dress in
the 35 year reign of King Henry The First 1100-1135.
For the Introduction to this book see this
introduction written by Dion Clayton Calthrop. I have adjusted
the images so they are mostly 400 pixels high and can be used for colouring
worksheets where pupils add some costume/society facts. My comments are in italics.
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The Father of Popular Literature, Gerald of Wales, says:
'It is
better to be dumb than not to be understood. New times require new
fashions, and so I have thrown utterly aside the old and dry methods of
some authors, and aimed at adopting the fashion of speech which is
actually in vogue to-day.'
The
hair, for convenience, had always been plaited in two plaits and coiled
round the head, where it lay concealed by the wimple. One day some fine
lady decides to discard her close and uncomfortable head-covering. She
lets her plaits hang over her shoulders, and so appears in public.
