Europe, 1500–1800

The 16th century witnessed further changes occurring in Europe. The limitations bounding medieval society were gradually being breached, and the concepts of the Renaissance were being accepted farther west, in France, Flanders, England, and Spain. People expected a higher standard of living, and there was an expanding middle class. Europe was also looking outward. From Portugal, Spain, and Italy especially, sailors were voyaging to explore both east and west. Their journeys brought the acquisition of riches, new materials, and precious metals. Costume, as always, reflected all this.

The chief centres of wealth were the pacesetters in fashion. Until about 1510 the style was generated from Italy. After this the Germans and Flemish set the pattern, but from about mid-century it was Spain that dominated the scene. Styles of the first two decades were a development and expansion of the Italian modes of the late 15th century. Young men wore white silk shirts, frilled and embroidered at the neck and wrists. Over this they wore an abbreviated tunic and close-fitting hose, which were often striped to delineate the masculine limbs. Older men covered the tunic and hose with a long gown, open down the centre front, the edges turned back to display the contrasting lining. Men’s hairstyles were long and flowing. Their hats, which were set at a jaunty angle, were made of black velvet and decorated with brooches and plumes. Ladies’ gowns had square necklines and were cut low enough to reveal the frilled chemise worn underneath. Sleeves were wide and full, and skirts were held or pinned up to display the undergown. From about 1520 to 1545 the fashionable shape was governed by the addition of padded puffs, decoratively slashed. This idea is thought to have been derived from the dress of Swiss and Bavarian mercenaries. Each garment was slashed to show the contrasting colour of the material of the one beneath.

Whereas the humanist concept of the Renaissance had led to figure display and elegance, the new modes were influenced by the Reformation of northern Europe, giving rise to darker colours, heavier materials, and bulky garments padded to conceal the figure. The masculine tunic—now called a doublet—had a knee-length, gored skirt that was open in front to display the now padded protruberant codpiece. Over this was worn a rich velvet gown with fur collar and padded sleeves. Shoes and boots had broad toes and, like all other garments, were decoratively slashed. Short hair styles, small beards, and flat velvet caps worn at an angle were fashionable.

The feminine figure was artificially controlled by a tight underbodice with metal or whalebone strips in the seams to give a small waist and slender torso. This was the precursor of the corset. In contrast, the skirt was shaped into a cone or inverted-V silhouette by being draped over a petticoat made from canvas and inset at intervals with circular hoops of wicker. This fashion had originated during the previous century in Spain, and by 1500 it had become high fashion there. The Spanish skirt, called a verdugado, was bell-shaped, however. About 1530 the cone-shaped hoop was introduced into France, where it was popularized by the queen and called a vertugade. The style soon appeared in England, where it was known as a farthingale.

The fashionable lady’s headdress was a hood made of dark velvet, with long flaps or folds hanging down the back and sides. The face was framed in front by a jeweled metal frame shaped like a pyramid (the English hood) or a horseshoe (the French hood). Under this was worn a decorative cap that almost concealed the hair.

The costume worn from mid-century until about 1620 was the richest ever seen in the history of European dress. It was made from beautiful fabrics heavily encrusted with embroidery, pearls, and jewels. Fine lawns and lace were employed, and all garments were extensively patterned. During these years Spain was enjoying the wealth yielded by the New World, and Spanish dress—which was elegant and tasteful, formal and restrictive, and doubtlessly uncomfortable to wear—was paramount. Paradoxically, when other nations adopted Spanish modes they mostly took them to excess, the Spaniards themselves remaining restrained in their dignified black garments.

The masculine doublet was fitted to the waist and buttoned centre front. Its skirt had now been replaced by trunk hose, which were loose mid-thigh-length breeches gathered into a tight waist and thigh bands; decoration was by embroidered strips called panes. Embroidered clocks decorated the now knitted silk stockings. Shoes had returned to the natural foot form. The dashing Spanish cape had replaced the cumbersome gown. These capes displayed great variety in size, shape, and method of wearing.

Women’s fashions became more constricted and elaborate as the boned bodice evolved into the first true corset. The farthingale became wider and, by the 1580s, was extended by a padded sausage known as a bum roll or barrel, which was tied around the waist under the skirt. Later the French introduced the wheel farthingale, which was drum-shaped with radiating spokes on top. The gown neckline became very décolleté, almost displaying the breasts. From the 1570s to the 1770s a stomacher—a stiff, V- or U-shaped panel heavily decorated with jewels and embroidery—was often worn over the centre front bodice of the gown.

A characteristic feature of dress of this time for both sexes was the ruff collar, introduced from Spain. Called a band (ruffs laundered and ready to wear were kept in band boxes), it was a strip of material tied around the neck. Another, ruched strip was sewn on to it. After 1565, with the introduction of starch, ruffs became larger and were often edged with embroidery and lace. The very large “cartwheel” ruffs were not worn in Spain, nor was the wheel farthingale. It was in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and England that the extremes of these fashions, which lasted until about 1620, were seen.

By the 1620s the Netherlands was emerging from Spanish control and extending its trade dramatically to become wealthy and influential. The garments worn by the well-to-do were still made from beautiful fabrics, but these now included fine wools as well as velvets and silks. The material that above all was characteristic of these years was lace, seen especially in the falling bands—large collars covering the shoulders, which had replaced the 16th-century ruffs—and their elegant matching cuffs.

The years between 1630 and perhaps 1680 (depending on location) have been aptly dubbed by some costume historians as the time of “long locks, lace, and leather.” Men grew their hair long and wore it, beautifully cared for, falling naturally onto the shoulders and down the back. Complementary to this coiffure was a large beaver, felt, or velvet hat, dramatically ornamented by coloured ostrich plumes. The leather refers to the fact that the fashionable footwear was a boot rather than a shoe. These boots were made of soft leather; they had heels with platform soles and immense bucket tops, over the edge of which frothed lace-edged boot hose. The doublet had become an elegant hip-length jacket, and the trunk hose were replaced by knee-length breeches tied with a ribbon sash at the knee. Women’s dresses had a full skirt that fell naturally from a raised waistline; the shoulders were covered by a band of lace. The hair was dressed high on the crown in a bun decorated with pearl ropes and with ringlets at the sides and brow.

The grand règne of Louis XIV of France lasted from 1643 to 1715. In this time the king established France as a great European power, and from about 1660 France became the unchallenged leader of European fashion, a position it held until 1939 and even later. The mode was set in Paris, and new styles were disseminated by mannequin dolls sent out to European capitals and by costume plates drawn by notable artists from Albrecht Dürer to Wenceslaus Hollar.

In men’s dress the mid-century years represented a transitional period when ribbon and lace ornamentation dominated the whole attire, which consisted of a white shirt, an open, waist-length jacket, and full breeches that resembled a skirt. These breeches were known as petticoat breeches or rhinegraves.

Between 1665 and 1670 came a quite different masculine style that presaged the three-piece suit of modern times. Initiated in France, this began as a knee-length coat called a justaucorps, an idea deriving from the Persian caftan. It had no collar and was worn open in front. The short sleeves ended in cuffs. By 1680 the sleeves were longer, and under the coat was worn a slightly shorter waistcoat together with close-fitting knee-breeches. At the neck the falling band had been succeeded by an elegant, lace-edged cravat.

Women’s styles changed less noticeably at this time. The gown neckline was lowered, and the waistline was also lowered. Skirts were fuller and longer but were draped up on each side and fastened with ribbon bows to display the petticoat underneath.

In the last decade of the century both sexes wore a high coiffure. In the case of the men it was a wig. The periwig or peruke had been fashionable since about 1670. It was made of naturally coloured hair—human where possible—and consisted of a great curtain of curls and ringlets cascading over shoulders and back, while above the brow the curls rose high on either side of the centre parting. With these full-bottomed wigs the hat, now a three-cornered tricorne, was usually carried under the arm. Ladies wore a tall headdress—the fontange—consisting of tiers of wired lace decorated by ribbons and lappets.

Until the early 1770s, French control of fashion was complete. It was in France where the trades and professions vital to fashion were established: dressmaking, tailoring, wig making, haberdashery, millinery. Textiles for these crafts were varied and luxurious. They were beautiful but, unlike their 16th-century counterparts, were painted, embroidered, or printed with dainty rather than large-motif designs and were decorated not with jewels but with lace ruffles, ruching, and ribbon bows. Silks, satins, taffetas, and velvets were preferred until the last three decades of the 18th century when—as a consequence of the infamous “triangular trade” of manufactured goods, slaves, and raw cotton carried on by Europeans, Africans, and Americans—fine cottons became readily available.

The Enlightenment caused fundamental changes in society during the 18th century. Men, for hundreds of years the peacocks of fashion, gradually ceded their position; men’s garments became less ornamental and changeable while women’s dress became the vehicle for fashionable display. As capitalism and ideas of democracy burgeoned, so did the middle classes, which were increasing in numbers and influence. These developments lead to a wave of egalitarianism in dress and a gradual end to the idea that richness and high fashion were the prerogative of the aristocracy.

Thus, during the 18th century men continued to dress elegantly, but changes in their costume style were gradual and limited. The habit à la française, the French term for the suit consisting of coat, waistcoat, and knee breeches, had become accepted wear. There was a trend away from brightly coloured satins and velvets toward darker, more sombre cloth materials. The cut of the habit also became subdued; there was less decoration, and the style fitted the figure more closely. Wigs were worn through the 1780s, in many and varied styles, but became smaller and less elaborate as time passed; powder was used for much of this time. The tricorne hat remained the style of this century.

A rigid corset continued to slenderize the waist and a framework petticoat to define the shape of the skirt. In the early decades this was a hoop skirt, circular in section and very full. A popular style of gown worn over this was the sack (sacque), which had been derived from the informal house dress of the early years of the century. In France this style was often called the robe volante. From a low, wide neckline the gown flared out freely over the hoop petticoat. By 1720–25 the fullness was concentrated at the back in two deep box pleats sewn to the neckband, while the gown was waisted at the front. This was the robe à la française.

Toward mid-century the hoop framework gradually changed shape to become oval. Then known as a panier (“basket”), it consisted of a basket form on each hip tied in at the waist by tapes. Soon the frame became so wide that women found it difficult to negotiate a doorway or a sedan chair, so a collapsible folding panier was devised, made only of whalebone hoops connected together by tapes. The years 1750–75 saw the most elaborate and outrageously decorated panier gowns, a riot of ruffles, flounces, and ribbon bows. It was also the time of ridiculously high, overdecorated, and powdered wigs. Cosmetics of all forms, many containing white lead, mercury, and other injurious chemicals, were copiously used, a reintroduction of the 16th-century practice.

By the 1770s a reaction to this excess was beginning in England, where simpler gowns with a framework petticoat were worn, and the fullness of the skirt was drawn to the back. A sash encircled a high waistline, and a soft fichu, or light scarf, was draped around the neck. These gentler yet elegantly feminine styles gradually spread throughout Europe and were finally accepted in France, although a 1783 portrait of Marie-Antoinette in such a gown angered the public, who claimed that her use of muslin—a fabric not produced in France—undermined the French textile industry.

For centuries children had been dressed as miniature adults, but in the 1770s there was a marked divergence from this established custom. Children, especially boys, began to be dressed in more comfortable garments suited to their age. Girls’ dresses were rather like the easier styles of their mothers at this time, but boys were dressed in a shirt and ankle-length trousers, the waistband of which was buttoned to the shirt. This costume, in which the wearing of trousers as fashionable dress antedated its introduction for adults by a generation, was oddly entitled a skeleton suit.