Wearing My Artists Hat...Part one.....Back to the future

Before I started making jewellery, I painted......I shall go back to it again...in the future!

Each month I hope to post a few of my paintings.
I live near the River Barrow in Ireland and most of this series of  paintings are on the Barrow or the Nore.

TIME and TIDE

An old working barge

Lock Gates

Salmon Cots

River Rushes

High and Dry

Boats under bridge

These were all acrylic on canvas

Corsets, Crinolines and Cod Pieces...Part three..Extremes of Fashion

Hennins and Footwear

The array of different hat shapes in this picture shows the extraordinary variety of head wear of the renaissance period.

  

from Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

The renaissance was well known for its extremes of fashion, perhaps the oddest woman’s headdress was known as the hennin,worn mainly in Northern Europe.

 The hennin was a cone of stiffened material sometimes metal, covered with sumptuous cloth. It was worn balanced on the head with a light veil hanging from the  point often woven in gold, this veil also sometimes framed the face.

 
Isabella of Bavaria wore a hennin 30 cms in length,covered with gold brocade and studied with precious stones, the veil covered her shoulders and back. In France the doorways in the Castle of Blois had to be enlarged to allow the court ladies to pass through without stooping.

                                       Different shapes of hennin

Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a young woman of the Burgundian gentry wearing a "beehive" or perhaps truncated cone hennin, 1460s. Part of the veil comes forward to cover the eyebrows.

Truncated hennin, Burgundy, ca. 1480

Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy in a divided hennin. Copy of original of 1445–50.

Christine de Pisan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of France. She and her ladies wear jewelled heart-shaped stuffed or hollow "bourrelets" on top of hair dressed in horns. Christine wears a divided hennin covered in white cloth.

Maria Portinari of Bruges wearing a high but still truncated hennin with a veil hanging from the top and black lappets or (possibly) underhood, 1476–78.

.....and some mens hats

Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, wears an elaborately draped chaperon with a black-on-black figured silk short overgown with width at the shoulder, 1447–48

A chaperon worn in elaborate twists, 1433

...And some shoes or Poulaines

 Sometimes the point of the shoe ( the "poulaine") would need support from a whalebone or a string tied to the leg just below the knee to stop the point getting in the way when walking.The points were stuffed with mo ss or hemp.

Outdoors patterns or sandal-like clogs were usually worn underneath to keep the shoes from mud and wet.

Laws attempted to define by class how long shoes could be - the nobility were to be allowed two foot-lengths, merchants one, and peasants one half. Like other attempts to control fashion by legislation, these seem to have failed.
At the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, French Crusaders were forced to cut off the tips of their poulaines in order to be able to run away.

Mediaeval Poulaines recovered from the Thames

Poulaines worn in Burgundy ca. 1470

Worn with spurs from the Columbia Triptych

Part 4...Codpieces.....watch this space!

Part 2 of Corsets, Crinolines and Codpieces
Fashion is Born



 

Corsets, Crinolines and Cod Pieces...Part two Fashion is born

Fashion is Born

Fashion as opposed to historical costume was born out of the Renaissance movement.C14/ C16

Before this time clothes had been very simple loose robes created very often from homespun cloth easily constructed out of a simple square or two of material, woven to the correct size.

With the Renaissance came the Cultural Revolution and some of the changes were shown in fashion, translating the new taste for beauty into luxurious clothing and with it changes in how clothes were manufactured.

With the interest in fashion also came the need to show the human shape, the loose robe was shortened for men, tightened and eventually cut, pieced, and sewn together in attempts to bring prominence to the male or female form. With this new development in tailoring fashion became an important part of everyday life of the aristocracy nobility and upper classes.

This innovative cutting is shown in this painting by Jan van Eyck circa 1390 -1533.

                           Portrait of Arnolfini and his wife

 

This shows the couple dressed in the finery expected of a wealthy burger and his wife. His surcoat is of velvet lined with fur ; this garment was first worn over amour during the crusades.

His fashionably shaped hat is probably made of fur. Beside him on the floor is a pair of patterns; wooden over shoes , which would have been slipped over his fine leather shoes to keep them clear of the mud. The patterns and his dress give the impression that he has just arrived home. His wife is dressed for indoors, the main feature of her interior look is her headdress, usually the hair and brow are covered as seen in this portrait.

                           Portrait of a young woman Rogier van der Weyden c1435

In the Arnolfini portrait the wife wears a headdress comprising of a linen veil over 'truffeaux' pads of false hair held in place with a guilded hairnet; part of her hair is exposed. Her green over mantle is trimmed with fur. She wears the high pleated style of the period with a full skirt and long train.In this particular style of dress the woman's stomach provided the central focus of her costume.She gathers up her gown in front of her to accentuate this area.

                           From  les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Barry c 1413

The man wears a dagged Houppelande. This long graceful gown was usually worn belted; it was popular for both sexes and used in it's manufacture a large amount of fabric. The women's dress is very similar to the wife's in the Arnolfini portrait above.

Part 3 of Corsets, Crinolines and Codpieces will feature headresses and shoes of the Renaissance period.

Part 1 of Corsets,Crinolines and Codpieces

Is it comfortable to be in fashion?

Corsets, Crinolines and Cod Pieces ...Part one

Is it comfortable to be in Fashion?

In the natural world many species alter their appearance by changing their skin colour or by arraying their fur or plumage in a different manner during the breeding season specifically to attract a mate. This is particularly noticeable where there is competition from others and is more often performed by males than females.

Male Peacock

Female Peahen

There seems to be a parallel in the human world in both sexes using fashion as a medium of attraction. As there is no breeding season humans are continually changing their appearance sometimes creating bizarre fashions and enduring discomfort and life threatening body shapers in order to fulfil this need.

Victorian Corset

Lacing a Dandy 1819

In the historical context it was most noticible in the aristocratic and weathly circles where perhaps finding a suitable mate was more difficult, and where the cost of this activity was more acceptable.
There also seemed to be a need to be recorded in your finery for posterity or perhaps for your image to reach a wider audience, to this end portraits were commissioned and painters were valued very highly if they could capture the likeness in a manner that pleased both the patron and the sitter.

Queen Elizabeth 1

Even after the discovery of photography having your portrait painted was much more desirable and more enduring , and perhaps, in some cases more flattering!

Look out for Part 2

My Waterlily Handbag ....Part fthree

 Making the leaves and flower petals


The leaves cut and quilted ready for stitching

The hand painted silk leaves ready to sew onto bag

Three layers of flower petals are all lined and overlocked and I have placed the leaves  ready to stitch to the backing fabric

I decided to interline and quilt the body of the bag as I wanted a soft luxurious feel to it, so I shall be busy for the next few days with that....look out for the final part of this series.

My Waterlily Handbag Part two

Collecting the materials together

Firstly I made a full size paper pattern of my bag and worked out the shapes of the leaves and flower, then made patterns for the leaves and flowers ( I use recycled shopping bags for this).

I then chose the materials I wanted to use 

Dark green cotton for the bag and patterned cotton for the lining

I am using hand painted silk for the leaves

 White silk for the flower

I ironed the silk for the flower onto light weight interfacing, and cut out the shapes.

I am not sure which of these I shall use for the stamens...perhaps both!

This is gold satin cord

or perhaps the more lemony silk cord ?