GARB OF OTHER DAYS

Shannon News, 27 November 1928, Page 1

GARB OF OTHER DAYS

COLOUR AND QUAINTNESS. _ If, by some transmutation of. epochs, a modern Londoner couhl project himself into the fourteenth-century city his eyes would be confronted with scenes whoBC quaintness indicates the peculiar and often childlike mentality of our ancestors. . . , The first sight to attract the wayfarer’s = attention would be the gaudily-coloured dresses of the men 1 and women, lending to the street a touch of brilliant colour reminiscent of -theOrient.'There he would' see men of- the better class wearing parti-coloured hose from the ankle to the waist, the violent contrast m tint of each leg producing a curious and bizarre effect. The combinations most favoured were black and white, and red'and black. At one time a contrast much affected by city officials was blue and mustard! The upper part of the body was covered by a short coat often trimmed with fur, with loosehanging sleeves, and many were the colours favoured for this garment. Besides such colours as green and .scarlet, we hear of medley (a mixture of tints), ray, giving a striped effect, and applebloom, the precise shade of which must be left to the imagination Around the waist was worn a girdle made of wool, leather, or linen thread, and garnished with “kitten,” copper, iron, steel, or in the case of the very wealthy, with gold or silver. The use of lead, pewter, or tin for this purpose was forbidden. In the absence of pockets the pouch or purse, often made of velvet, was suspended ..from the shoulder by a strap. * • * The foregoing articles of apparel, were covered by a gown made in an array of colours as extensive as wa3 the coat, and often with a hood to .match, which could be thrown back upon the shoulders. Caps, however, were a favourite form of headgear, and they ranged from beaver caps lined -with scarlet doth or green velvet for the nobility, caps half-red and half-green, caps of black, blue, rod, 1 and russet for ordinary folk, , down to the black, shaggy caps known as "hures” for the com mon people. . In the latter part of the fourteenth century many .• extravagant fashions were brought over from Eastern Europe in the train of .Bohemia, the Queen of Richard £l. These included ihoots r rthick. after,wards grew be tied to the knees, and' 1 also the extraordinary custom of cutting the cloth v into small pieces and laboriously sew 'ing them all together again. ‘Vision of Piers Plowman,' says that it would take seven men working for six weeks to sew all theses pieces together in sufficient quantity to make, .a suit. of clothes, and would cost twenty times the value of the original cloth. ! These fashions are referred to in a poem of the period as “Cuttede clothes and pyked sehoone.” The sleeves of the gowns and tho hem of the clothes eventually became so long that they often trailed the ground The rulers of the city, although' tht dignified position they occupied and their age prevented their vying With the young. ~ . . of the nobility ir extravagance of dress, were not with out aspirations toward the display o, a certain floweriness of garb which i) these days would be considered incon sistent with a proper gravity of dc meanour. Stow thus describes the '.appearance of a sheriff of London in ,th. fourteenth century: "His hair round ed by the, ears and, curled; a little beard forked; a gown, girt to him down to his 'feet, -of branched damask wrought with the likeness of flowers; a large purse on his right side, hanking from a belt from his left shoulder; i. plain hood about his neck covering hit shoulders and hanging back behind l.im. ' . . The flue ladies of the period affected equally gaudy clothing, wore a great deal of fur, and were particularly dis tinguished by their headgear, in reference to which and to other newly-ac-quired habits Stow remarks: "Also noble women, used high attire upon their heads, piked horns, with long trained gowns, and rode on side saddles after the example of the Queene, who first brought this fashion into this land, for before women were used to ride astride like men.” But the simple dress of the middle class women, with its delightful contrast of black and white, relieved by the merest touch of colour, must have exhibited a charm unsurpassed in any age, if we may judge by the description of the young wife of a carpenter, found in the pages of Chaucer.. She wore a girdle of silk, a snow-white apron full of many a gusset, a white embroidered smock with a black collar, and on her head a white cap with black ribands. From her girdle hung a leather purse studded with brass lenobs and decorated with green tassels, and her shoes were laced high up her legs. 1 As a foil to the bright colours of the people of position—nobles, gentry, civic observed the sober habit of the scholar, the physician, the professional - man, •onsisting of a plain black gown reaching from the neck to the feet, buttoned closely at the throat and fwrists. ? And for background was the great throng of workmen and poor, dressed in suits of homely russet, with which all the colours of the superior clashes mingled to> produce a bright and kaleidoscopic effect. —Charles Pendrill, in ‘London Life in the Fourteenth Century. ’