The Romance of Clothes
Costume and Fashion. Senlac to Bosworth, 1066-1485. By. Herbert Norris. (Dent. 31s. 6d.)
Mu. NORRIVS title- is a modest one, for his book is not only a pageant of fashion, it is also a history of a period. He shows us the effect of habit upon dress and the effect of dress upon manners. We can almost see the sturdy Anglo-Saxons moving energetically in their free, untrammelling clothes, and their sons aping the fashions of the Norman courtiers and walking with little short steps, in order to avoid entangling their legs in the new flowing draperies. We learn that gestures were less indications of character than expressions of dress ; for instance, wearers of flowing sleeves were obliged to hold their elbows to their sides if they would avoid the appearance of ships in full sail. The twelfth-century gallants, so fre- quently portrayed with hands upon elegant hips, were not really posing for effect ; they were relieving their shoulders
from the weight of heavy mantles.
Mr. Norris digresses delightfully and gives some very quaint examples of mediaeval modesty. Nightgowns were unknown, and though it was permissible for sherte and camise to do double duty by night and day, kings and queens (according to illuminated manuscripts) went to bed in nothing but their crowns, and the night attire of commoners was even more simple. There was, however, a certain reticence about the none too frequent bath, as the following fifteenth-century poem shows :-
" If your lorde will to the bath his body to wasche clene Hang sheets about the roof ; do thus as I mean. Every sheet full of flowers and herbs sweet and green, And look ye have sponges five or six thereon to sit or lean. Look there be a great sponge thereon your lord to sit, Thereon a sheet as he may bathe him there afit. Under his feet also a sponge if there be any to put, And always be sure of the door and see that he be shut."
Bare arms were taboo, and the ladies of the Middle Ages wore sleeves which might be tight or voluminous, according to the prevailing fashion, but which always extended to the wrist and often to the finger tips. But in spite of the amplitude of her gown the " modern " woman of those days contrived to be condemned for immodesty. " The more daring women of fashion wore their long robes open up the side seams to the hips. The back part was allowed to hang free, but the front was tied up in a knot, exposing the legs clothed in long braies of cloth."
Pleats came into fashion as early as 1130 and the waist line, marked by a girdle, was as variable as it is to-day. As longer and longer trains came into fashion, ladies with beautiful feet were advised to " hold up the robe in front, under pretence of stepping out briskly."
The word coxcomb was first used in the reign of Richard I., when the young dandies wore their cloaks pinned upon their heads, and arranged the shoulder piece to stand up like a cockscomb.
The author quotes many contemporary complaints of the effeminacy of the young gentlemen of the Middle Ages, some of whom wore stays. Beards and moustaches were very carefully tended ; the beards were often waxed into two points and at night were tied into little bags containing softening ointment.
When Henry V. was Prince of Wales he was chief amongst royal dandies and had a passion for dress and bright colours. We are told that when he visited his dying father " He was dressed in a gown of blew satin full of aiglet holes, at every hole the needle hanging by a silken thread by which it was worked." This pretty conceit was intended to express his intention of mending his ways with the needle of thriftiness The book, which is packed with anecdotes such as the above, is divided into six very long chapters, and each of these sections begins with a general synopsis of the history of the period with its arts, architecture, sculpture, and industry. One of the most delightful of all the chapters is devoted to heraldry, which had a marked effect on the dress of the period.
This very human history, with its numerous interesting illustrations by the author, should be of the greatest value, not only to " all lovers of archaeology and research " to whom it is
dedicated, but to the general reader and all producers of
mediaeval plays and pageants. It is entirely delightful.
B. E. T.
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