Until the mid 1550s in England the fashion remained for women to wear narrow-shouldered dresses with sleeves that widened to a trumpet form, a vestige of a medieval fashion.  Towards the end of the 16th century, however, with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, this fashion gave way to narrower, more form-fitting, sleeves and high, padded shoulders in the French and Spanish style.  The reign of Queen Elizabeth would be accentuated by the display of style that she herself embodied.  She would become the namesake and emblem of the Elizabethan era, her long reign as regent allowing for great cultural achievements as well as political change in England.

As a woman succeeding to the throne some eleven years after the reign of her father, Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth had to cultivate an image of power and stability that could overcome perceptions of weakness in a female monarch without heirs.  She soon established her persona as that of a virgin queen of almost mythic proportions, married to her subjects, and as her reign progressed would come to inhabit the role of regent supreme with great flare and pageantry.  As portraits depicting her throughout the later years of her reign show, her image was elaborately devised for public reception.  She was typically portrayed with her iconic red hair (often a wig), her slight body encapsulated by the extravagant lace collars and sleeves of her bodice and her frame further enhanced in its regality by the wide farthingales, or hooped skirts, that had risen from Spanish fashions.

The images of her became exemplary of the popular fashion of the time but with a level of glorification suited to a figure ordained by God, as she herself saw her role and responsibility as monarch.  Typical of dress worn by women of the period, the upper arms of the garment would billow out and narrow towards the wrist and often would be decorated with slashings that allowed the underdress, or chemise top, to show through the surface textile.   Women would wear form-fitting bodices that defined the waist and ended in a V-like shape, while lace accessories were often used to adorn the edge of the bodice at the chest and were also made as sleeve coverings.

The Spanish farthingale worn in England towards the end of the 1500’s had a conical shape and when paired with the corseted bodice would complete the image of a thin-waisted and composed woman, literally confined by the contraptions of her costume.  The hoops of the farthingale were typically made of wood, rope, or eventually whalebone, as the skirts became wider and heavier.  More than any other shape in the costume of the time, the wide, ribbed skirts were expressive of the nobility’s desire to be seen as formidable and simultaneously exquisite in their hierarchy.  Queen Elizabeth’s portraits remark on how effective costume such as this could be in furthering notions of power and prestige.

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*image– The Family of Henry VIII: An Allegory of the Tudor Succession, c1572, attributed to Lucas de Heere. *image–Elizabeth I: The Rainbow Portrait, c1600, by Isaac Oliver Visit the History Store for historical gifts and museum quality replicas representing the most significant historical eras. We offer Museum Reproductions, Replica Guns, Replica Swords

Tags: 16th century fashion, farthingale, Fashion History, Fashion in Tudor England, Fashion of Queen Elizabeth I, form fitting bodice, Henry VIII, History Store, hooped skirt, Queen Elizabeth I, Renaissance Fashion, Renaissance Swords, Replica flintlock pistols, Replica Ship Store, ribbed skirts, Spanish farthingale, Tudor lace collars, Tudor wigs, Virgin Queen

By the early 1500’s fashions in Western Europe had developed to the extent that extreme trends abounded both in clothing and in shoe styles.  The pointed-toe poulaines, with points sometimes reaching such lengths that the tips were tied to the wearer’s knees with a strap, were one such shoe form and the chopines, or platform shoe, was another.  The sole of the chopine was extremely exaggerated in height and would raise the wearer in status and stature with platforms made from wood or cork.

The origin of chopines is somewhat disputed, with notions that it originated as a European trend through Venice, which was geographically more exposed to eastern influences (and much of the embellished forms of European dress between the 14th and 16th centuries arose from this exposure) or that it stemmed from the Iberian peninsula, where cork was abundant.  Whichever may be the case, it is certain that Venetians adopted the chopine with much enthusiasm as can be seen in multiple art historical examples as well as surviving examples of the shoe.

Venetian women were known for their sophisticated and luxurious costume as Venice was a thriving center for a growing mercantile class that bridged the cultures of east and west through trade and commerce.  Interestingly, not only did Venetian woman of the patrician class display the commercial riches of the time period but so did the Venetian courtesan, who in many ways held a unique position in society.  Venetian courtesans established themselves in society as a class apart from other women but in a manner that often elevated them in their associations with the male elite: they were often educated and cultured and carried themselves in such a manner that would scarcely differentiate them from the nobility.

Venetian noblewomen and their courtesan counterparts were often indistinguishable from one another in their costume, as evidenced by the well-known Carpaccio painting that identifies two Venetian women but leaves to the viewer to dispute whether they are women of the aristocratic class or courtesans. The discarded chopines in the painting may symbolize the ‘availability’ of the depicted women but in terms of their dress and their use of chopines, a definitive association cannot be made. What further remains a curiosity is the aspect and function of the chopines. They were a highly attenuated idea of a shoe and could not have been very comfortable, as often Venetian women would have to prop

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themselves up against their servants to be able to walk. That the liberated courtesan would want to compromise her freedom of movement wearing chopines of 8 or 10 or even 20 inches hight (as seen in an example from the Museo Correr dei Veneziani) also seems odd. However, in history it is often the case that form, function and desirability of costume are at variance and we can only appreciate the oddities of caprice.

*image: Vittore Carpaccio, Portrait of Two Venetian Women, c. 1490
*image: Twenty-inch Chopines, 16th century, Venetian, Museo Correr dei Veneziani

Tags: 14th Century, 15th century, 16th century, Carpaccio painting two venetian women, chopines, cork shoes, History of Renaissance Shoes, Italian Renaissance, platform shoes, pointed-toe poulaines, Renaissance Europe, Renaissance Fashion, Renaissance History, Renaissance Shoes, Venetian courtesans, venetian noblewomen, Venice Renaissance, wood shoes

By the first half of the sixteenth century, political reorganization in Europe had diminished the number of courts throughout Western Europe but the interest in luxury display in clothing did not abate.  Though centers of power had shifted and consolidated throughout the region, the nobility still maintained a strong sense of its distinction in the manifestation of costume and a period of regional or ‘national’ costumes developed.

The Italians, who were leading Europe into the Renaissance with their humanist philosophies and their literary and artistic focus on ideals of beauty and harmony, continued to have influence on fashion through materials and ornamentation but were being replaced as a dominant center for fashion and costume.  It was the Spaniards who would grow to exert the most influence on European fashions in the 1500s, partly due to their role in the importation of goods from newly discovered lands and partly due to political unity within Spain’s territories which allowed it to develop its economy and trade. In 1516 Charles V had united the Hapsburg and Aragon-Castile territories and during this same era Spain was consolidating its power throughout Iberia by allying itself with the Portuguese crown and expelling the Moors from Andalusia.

The fashion dominant in Spain, and subsequently exported to other European courts, was one of rigid formality with a preference for very dark garments that reflected the gravity of Spanish national identity.  The lines of the costumes were no longer soft and free-falling as the houppelande (free-flowing gown either tied at the waist or left loose-fitting) of the previous century but rather straighter and stiffened in form.  The women’s bodice came into fashion for the upper body and the farthingale, a stiff, rounded underskirt that created an exaggerated form, dominated the fashion of the dress, both of which served to accentuate the slimness of the woman’s torso.

Despite the predilection for black material, the fashion for men’s and women’s costume was opulent as ever as sumptuary laws (laws meant to limit displays of luxury) instituted during the period reflect.  Though the concept was austerity in form and initial interpretation, the reality was that the materials used, including the ornamental embroidery or the lavish jewelry, still emphasized wealth and luxury among the nobility.

*image_ Anne of Austria by Sanchez Coello, c. 1571
*image- Catherine of Austria, Queen of Portugal, by Antonio Moro c. 1552

Tags: 1516, 16th century fashion, Anne of Austria, Aragon, austerity in renaissance europe, bodice, Castille, Catherine of Austria, Charles V, European Fashion in 1500's, Expulsion of Moors, farthingale, Fashion in the 1500s, Hapsburg, houppelande, humanism in the Renaissance, Italian Renaissance, national identity in the renaissance, renaissance costumes, Renaissance Fashion, renaissance nobility, Spanish Fashion in 1500s, Spanish Renaissance