Featured Garment: Männertracht aus Braunschweig (23v)

It's back!  Well...occasionally, anyways.  Lately, I've been in a mood for German Renaissance--not Landsknect, but 1560s to 1580s; i.e for pluderhose.

Yes, pluderhose. Yet again.  I'm really not sure where my minor obsession with them came from--the challenge of drafting and understanding the blasted things, the drapey-fittedness...just liking to say the word.  This week's example is from one of the 16th Century German clothing books, Kostüme der Männer und Frauen in Augsburg und Nürnberg, Deutschland, Europa, Orient und Afrika.

Honestly, this Featured Garment is fairly typical--I don't see much that is truly unusual about it, beyond the beauty of the draping.  It has a lovely simplistic elegance in the design (well, with the exception of those shoes...).  On to the discussion:

From Bayerische StaatsBibliothek

 Doublet?  Check.  Jerkin?  Check  Fancy Pants?  In spades.

Doublet:
Unfortunately, we can't see much of the doublet--just sleeves and a touch peaking out of the slashing.  Obviously it's red.  But, looking closer we can see (partly from comparing to similar doublets in this time and place) the there is no sign of a peascod or semi-peascod belly to the doublet--the waist of the jerkin doesn't curve down at all; sleeves are fairly close. There are two rows of gold trim on the cuffs; likely, this is couched cord or braid.  I also think the cuffs probably close with buttons or hook and eyes.  It is probably safe to assume that the jerkin more or less follows the same shape, albeit with a slightly higher collar and longer skirts.  A fairly simple set of ruffs are visible--given their apparent lack of structure, they may be integral to the shirt worn underneath the doublet; again, the Sture shirt is made in this style.  Satin is the most likely candidate for the fabric.

Erik Sture Doublet. Pp. 61 PoF

Given the fairly simple shape, the period, and location, I would use one of the Sture suits for recreating this (and most of the other garments).  My choice for this garment would be the Erik Sture doublet.  Honestly, there is no particular reason, since all three Sture doublets have similar, simple, construction (save that Erik's has a completely straight front).  I do feel that the skirt--the peplums--would need to be cut a bit narrower.  As I said above, I believe that a silk satin would be the most appropriate fabric for recreating; linen canvas, heavily fulled wool, and something for lining (linen is probably the most common), as well as gold silk buttonhole thread (to braid those gold lines of trim).


Jerkin:
As for the jerkin, I suspect it is made in velvet.  It follows the form of the doublet underneath--with a mostly straight front and hem, and modest skirts.  The sleeves come halfway down the upper arm, and are fairly close fitting; I would not be surprised in the slightest if they had some slashing on the shoulders. As near as I can tell, there are only a few vertical slashes--maybe four on the front.

There are a couple of features that I find quite interesting, one of which is obvious.  The neck of the jerkin fastens with four gold buttons--obviously that is the obvious one.  The other is the hem of the skirts...they are scalloped! However, there is a distinct possibility this is artistic license; I have not noticed any examples of figured hem outside of woodcuts (such as in Sainct-Didier's 1573 French Single Rapier treatise).  A white belt, and a pair of gold chains necklaces are being worn with it.

Now, when it comes to making it, there are a couple of options--one could certainly use the same draft as the doublet (cut slightly larger).  Or you could use an extant jerkin pattern from slightly earlier--I don't believe it matters.  The sleeves should be made a bit longer to come down to the upper arm.  I think the most appropriate fabric would be velvet--otherwise, a nice, heavy wool.  Obviously the draft would need to be modified somewhat, by adding the slashes on upper arm, front (up to even with the armscye), and possibly back.  Note that the slashes go through all the layers in the garment; OR only the velvet is slashed, and there is an underlining in the same satin or colour as the doublet.


Pluderhose:
Aaah....the pluderhose. These would be made of the same black velvet as the jerkin--it doesn't seem to be uncommon to have jerkin and hose matching, with a different doublet.  Instead of gold cord trimming like you see on the doublet, the vertically running, parallel rows of couched cord are made of something (likely a silk) a few shades lighter than the black of the velvet.  They are a fairly modest pair, without the extra puffs at the waist like you see on some other pluderhose; in addition, they are knee length (fastening just above the knee).  Georg's (lets call this bloke Georg, for better reason than it was the first Germanic name to pop in my head) pluderhose appear to have 5 panes per leg--you can see three of them; I believe so based on other pairs I've seen.  These are quite long, long enough for their drape to cover the knee--if unfastened, I believe they would fall to somewhere around the widest part of the calf.  The extra large silk lining is even longer, and would likely come to just above the ankle. Unlike some extant examples, and based on the drape, I do not believe that the silk was underlined to help it stand out; you can also see that the top is pleated in sections between the panes, rather than being gathered evenly with cartridge pleats.  That said, the cuff may be cartridge pleated to the cuff band.
The codpiece on this example is kinda funky (I blame the artist in this case), and only has two poofs (rather than four or six).

Svante Sture Pluderhose.  page 49 PoF

Now, for the pluderhose, I would specifically base my draft on the Svante Sture pair.  The decision is made by the simplicity (relatively) of the pair in the image--they don't have any of the waist puffs seen in some other images and in the Erik and Nils pairs.  Fabric should match that of the jerkin; however, you would also need a sturdy, tightly woven fabric for the base (or a soft leather).  A fine silk would also be needed for the lining--this should be something tightly woven but soft, which drapes well; you see something like paper taffetta.  You also see examples (Erik's) where the silk is fully lined with linen for stiffness--I do /not/ recommend it for this pair, but if you only have a lightweight silk, you could support it with flatlining.


Hose/Shoes/Hat:
Nothing special about the hose/nether-stocks--just finely knitted silk or wool, in what appears to be a dark grey.  The shoes--the cow-mouth shoes or kuhmaulshues--are a bit more interesting.  They are extremely low examples--barely coming up the side at all, although they are fitted over the heel (which is what helps them stay on).  The toes are what is odd; rather than the usual square, or square with an extreme flare, they are lobed.  I'm wondering if the lobe--other than being stylistic--serves kinda like the thong on flip-flops (abominable though they are).

pp. 31.  Patterns of Fashion 3

The hat is likely formed of a heavy wool felt, which is either left plain, or finished with a pile in silk thread to form a velvety surface.  There are several examples of this form in PoF (pp.32).


Sleeved Cape or Jacket:
Or, more correctly known (as far as I can tell) as a shaub.  I'm not finding a whole lot of information out there on the net on this type of garment, and I really don't know why.  Anyways, the shaub is a fairly short, sleeved jacket with a full back.  As you can see, it is a top layer, worn over the doublet and jerkin.

The front is a simple body block, but the back is either cut extra full, or pleated into the shoulder seams/collar.  There are sleeves, which I believe (based on the trim, and how it's hanging) are open on the front seam, and can button at the wrist--otherwise you wouldn't be able to see the doublet when the shaub was being worn...and that would be pointless.  Shoulder wings are in place, and seem to have a slightly ruffled effect.  In addition, there is a high collar, with slashed piping at the top and at the collar seam.  I have no idea what the purpose of the trim at hip level in the front is--my first thought was, of course, pockets....but I didn't think that that type existed this early.  The only fastening is a large, decorative, hook and eye.

Not in scale.

I would use a heavy, tightly fulled wool for this particular garment; preferably one which drapes okay.  I had to do a test to see if it would even work, but I used the 1605 loose gown pattern in PoF as a base.  The back is much wider than the front, and gets gathered into the collar and cartridge pleated onto the front shoulder; it would also get stay tapes to keep the pleats in place.  The pattern for this garment likely looks something like the sketch above.  The sleeve is open down the front, slightly forwards of the shoulder seam. It seems that the body flares out at around 35-40% to give you your fullness at the bottom
.

Not the best, I know.  I eyeballed the scale for the front (which turned out too wide across the chest), and it turns out that muslin is too stiff for this scale.




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Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion 3. (Macmillan, c. 1985) ISBN: 0-89676-083-9

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