English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop
WILLIAM THE SECOND - 1087-1100
By Pauline Weston Thomas for Fashion-Era.com
English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop
WILLIAM THE SECOND - 1087-1100
This costume history information consists of Pages 10 to
20 of the chapter on 11th century dress in the era of William The Second 1087-1100 and taken from English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop.
The 36 page section consists of a text copy of the book ENGLISH
COSTUME PAINTED & DESCRIBED BY DION CLAYTON CALTHROP. Visuals,
drawings and painted fashion plates in the book have a charm of their own and are
shown amid the text. The book covers both male and female dress history of
over 700 years spanning the era 1066-1830. This page is about dress in
the 13 year reign of King William The Second 1087 -1100.
.
For the Introduction to this book see this
introduction written by Dion Clayton Calthrop. I have adjusted
the images so they are mostly 400 pixels high and can be used for colouring
worksheets where pupils add some costume/society facts. My comments are in italics.
Right - This costume plate illustrates the caped fighter wearing wide drawers with an embroidered
border hem. Beneath this are long woollen Long John style pantaloon like drawers
cross bound with leather thongs.
THE MEN
About this time there came to England a Norman, who settled near by
the Abbey of Battle - Baldwin the Tailor by name, whom one might call the
father of English tailoring.
Baldwin the Tailor sat contentedly cross-legged on his bench and plied
his needle and thread, and snipped, and cut, and sewed, watching the
birds pick worms and insects from the turf of the battleground.
England is getting a little more settled.
The reign opens picturesquely enough with William Rufus hastening to
England with his father's ring, and ends with the tragedy of the New
Forest and a blood-stained tunic.
Clothes begin to play an important part. Rich fur-lined cloaks and gowns
trail on the ground, and sweep the daisies so lately pressed by mailed
feet and sopped with blood where the Saxons fell.
Times have changed since Baldwin was at the coronation at Westminster on
Christmas Day twenty years ago. Flemish weavers and farmers arrive from
overseas, and are established by William II in the North to teach the
people pacific arts, causing in time a stream of Flemish merchandise to
flow into the country, chiefly of rich fabrics and fine cloths.
The men adopt longer tunics, made after the same pattern as
before - split up either side and loose in the sleeve - but in many cases
the skirts reach to the ground in heavy folds, and the sleeves hang over
the hands by quite a yard.
The necks of these tunics are ornamented as before, with coloured bands
or stiff embroidery.
The shoes are the same as in the previous reign - that is, of the shape of
the foot, except in rare cases of dandyism, when the shoes were made
with long, narrow toes, and these, being stuffed with moss or wool, were
so stiffened and curled up at the ends that they presented what was
supposed to be a delightfully extravagant appearance.
The hair, beard, and moustaches were worn long and carefully combed -
in
fact, the length of the beard caused the priests to rail at them under
such terms as 'filthy goats.' But they had hardly the right to
censorship, since they themselves had to be severely reprimanded by
their Bishops for their extravagance in dress.
Many gentlemen, and especially the Welsh, wore long loose trousers as
far as the ankle, leaving these garments free from any cross gartering.
These were secured about the waist by a girdle of stuff or leather.
The ultra-fashionable dress was an elongation of every part of the
simple dress of the previous reign. Given these few details, it is easy
for anyone who wishes to go further to do so, in which case he must keep
to the main outline very carefully; but as to the actual length of
sleeve or shoe, or the very measurements of a cloak, they varied with
the individual folly of the owner. So a man might have long sleeves
and a short tunic, or a tunic which trailed upon the ground, the sleeves
of which reached only to the elbow.
I have noticed that it is the general custom of writers upon the dress
of this early time to dwell lovingly upon the colours of the various
parts of the dress as they were painted in the illuminated manuscripts.
This is a foolish waste of time, insomuch as the colours were made the
means of displays of pure design on the part of the very early
illuminators; and if one were to go upon such evidence as this, by the
exactness of such drawings alone, then every Norman had a face the
colour of which nearly resembled wet biscuit, and hair picked out in
brown lines round each wave and curl.
These woollen clothes - cap, tunic, semicircular cloak, and leg
coverings - have all been actually found in the tomb of a Briton of the
Bronze Age. So little did the clothes alter in shape, that the early
Briton and the late Norman were dressed nearly exactly alike.
When the tomb of William II was opened in 1868, it was found, as had
been suspected, that the grave had been opened and looted of what
valuables it might have contained; but there were found among the
dust which filled the bottom of the tomb fragments of red cloth, of gold
cloth, a turquoise, a serpent's head in ivory, and a wooden spear shaft,
perhaps the very spear that William carried on that fatal day in the New
Forest.
Also with the dust and bones of the dead King some nutshells were
discovered, and examination showed that mice had been able to get into
the tomb. So, if you please, you may hit upon a pretty moral.
THE WOMEN
And so the lady began to lace....
A moralist, a denouncer of the fair sex, a satirist, would have his
fling at this. What thundering epithets and avalanche of words should
burst out at such a momentous point in English history!
Not that the lacing was very tight, but it commenced the habit, and the
habit begat the harm, and the thing grew until it arrived finally at
that buckram, square-built, cardboard-and-tissue figure which titters
and totters through the Elizabethan era.
The paragraph above is exceptionally observant of the silhouette
changes that came into being a few hundred years later. Conversely
reading the paragraph directly below which he wrote in the early 1900s,
in the C21st seems almost unbelievable and slightly ludicrous to us, but
is the result of Dion Clayton Calthrop's Victorian upbringing whatever
he may really have thought.
Our male eyes, trained from infancy upwards to avoid gazing into
certain shop windows, nevertheless retain a vivid impression of an
awesome affair therein, which we understood by hints and signs confined
our mothers' figures in its deadly grip.
That the lady did not lace herself overtight is proved by the many
informations we have of her household duties; that she laced tight
enough for unkind comment is shown by the fact that some old monk
pictured the devil in a neat-laced gown.
It was, at any rate, a distinct departure from the loosely-clothed lady
of 1066 towards the neater figure of 1135.
The lacing was more to draw the wrinkles of the close-woven bodice of
the gown smooth than to form a false waist and accentuated hips, the
beauty of which malformation I must leave to the writers in ladies'
journals and the condemnation to health faddists.
However, the lacing was not the only matter of note. A change was coming
over all feminine apparel - a change towards richness, which made itself
felt in this reign more in the fabric than in the actual make of the
garment.
The gown was open at the neck in the usual manner, was full in the
skirt and longer than heretofore, was laced at the back, and was loose
in the sleeve.
The sleeve as worn by the men - that is, the over-long sleeve hanging down
over the hand - was also worn by the women, and hung down or was turned
back, according to the freak of the wearer. Not only this, but a new
idea began, which was to cut a hole in the long sleeve where the hand
came, and, pushing the hand through, to let the rest of the sleeve droop
down. This developed, as we shall see later.
Then the cloak, which had before been fastened by a brooch on the
shoulder or in the centre of the breast, was now held more tightly over
the shoulders by a set of laces or bands which ran round the back from
underneath the brooch where they were fastened, thus giving more
definition to the shoulders.
You must remember that such fashions as the hole in the sleeve and the
laced cloak were not any more universal than is any modern fashion, and
that the good dame in the country was about a century behind the
times with her loose gown and heavy cloak.
There were still the short gowns, which, being tucked in at the waist by
the girdle, showed the thick wool chemise below and the unlaced gown,
fitting like a jersey.
The large wimple was still worn wrapped about the head, and the hair was
still carefully hidden.
See more
on these lady's hair
Shall we imagine that it is night, and that the lady is going to bed?
She is in her long white chemise, standing at the window looking down
upon the market square of a small town.
The moon picks out every detail of carving on the church, and throws the
porch into a dense gloom. Not a soul is about, not a light is to be
seen, not a sound is to be heard.
The lady is about to leave the window, when she hears a sound in the
street below. She peers down, and sees a man running towards the church;
he goes in and out of the shadows. From her open window she can hear his
heavy breathing. Now he darts into the shadow of the porch, and
then out of the gloom comes a furious knocking, and a voice crying,
'Sanctuary!'
The lady at her window knows that cry well. Soon the monks in the belfry
will awake and ring the Galilee-bell.
The Galilee-bell tolls, and the knocking ceases.
A few curious citizens look out. A dog barks. Then a door opens and
closes with a bang.
There is silence in the square again, but the lady still stands at her
window, and she follows the man in her thoughts.
Now he is admitted by the monks, and goes at once to the altar of the
patron-saint of the church, where he kneels and asks for a coroner.
The coroner, an aged monk, comes to him and confesses him. He tells his
crime, and renounces his rights in the kingdom; and then, in that dark
church, he strips to his shirt and offers his clothes to the sacrist for
his fee. Ragged, mud-stained clothes, torn cloak, all fall from him in a
heap upon the floor of the church.
Now the sacrist gives him a large cloak with a cross upon the shoulder,
and, having fed him, gives him into the charge of the under-sheriff, who
will next day pass him from constable to constable towards the
coast, where he will be seen on board a ship, and so pass away, an exile
for ever.
The night is cold. The lady pulls a curtain across the window, and then,
stripping herself of her chemise, she gets into bed.
WILLIAM THE SECOND
Reigned thirteen years: 1087-1100
Born c. 1060
This costume history information consists of Pages 10 to
20 of the chapter on 11th century dress in the era of William The Second 1087-1100 and taken from English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop.
The 36 page section consists of a text copy of the book ENGLISH
COSTUME PAINTED & DESCRIBED BY DION CLAYTON CALTHROP. Visuals,
drawings and painted fashion plates in the book have a charm of their own and are
shown amid the text. The book covers both male and female dress history of
over 700 years spanning the era 1066-1830. This page is about dress in
the 13 year reign of King William The Second 1087-1100.
For the Introduction to this book see this
introduction written by Dion Clayton Calthrop. I have adjusted
the images so they are mostly 400 pixels high and can be used for colouring
worksheets where pupils add some costume/society facts. My comments are in italics.
Fashion-Era.com looks at women's costume and fashion history and analyses the mood of an era. Changes in technology, leisure, work, cultural and moral values. Homelife and politics also
contribute to lifestyle trends, which in turn influence the clothes we wear. These are the changes that make any era of society special in relation to the study of the costume of a period.
Fashion-Era.com can take no responsibility for any information on the site which may cause you error, loss or costs incurred from use of the information and links either directly or
indirectly. This site is owned, designed, written and developed by author: Pauline Thomas and Guy Thomas. This site is designed to be viewed in 1024 X 768 or higher.
Before you write to me for costume/fashion help or information please, please consult the extensive sitemap which lists all our pages. If you still cannot find the answer after searching the site, then before you email me, please consider if you are prepared to make a donation to the website.
Donations Reader's donations help this site flourish, in particular donations encourage me to write more articles on fashion history as well as current trends. PayPal
allows anyone with a credit card to donate easily and securely. You may donate any sum you feel appropriate.
If you have any comments, or if you see any broken links, then please email with details of the page url or problem.
Find great anniversary gift ideas from Premier Gifts. Choose from our wide range of anniversary gifts to celebrate your special day in style.
Designer Inspired BagInc Fashion Bags and Cheap Handbags at Wholesale Rates.
This costume history information consists of Pages 10 to
20 of the chapter on 11th century dress in the era of William The Second 1087-1100 and taken from English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop.
For the Introduction to this book see this
The sleeve as worn by the men - that is, the over-long sleeve hanging down
over the hand - was also worn by the women, and hung down or was turned
back, according to the freak of the wearer. Not only this, but a new
idea began, which was to cut a hole in the long sleeve where the hand
came, and, pushing the hand through, to let the rest of the sleeve droop
down. This developed, as we shall see later.
