Stockings for knights and stockings for women ...
A still from the amusing West German movie "Wonderful Times in Spessart" (1967). Something, and medieval costumes are good there, especially for women ...
A woman should not wear men's clothing, and a man should not wear women's clothing, for everyone who does this is an abomination to the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 22: 5
Deuteronomy 22: 5
History clothes. The topic "history of clothes" seemed to many readers of VO to be quite deserving of their interest, and it is understandable, especially this applies to its female audience, which is quite numerous, by the way. Last time we stopped at the clothes of Byzantium, and then it would be just this cycle and continue, but there were some obstacles. The fact is that further it would be necessary to write about the clothes of the Middle Ages, and this topic is already very diverse. Firstly, there was the early Middle Ages or the era of Romanesque fashion, and secondly, it was replaced by the Gothic fashion of the classical medieval era, but there was also the era of "Burgundian fashion", which was also very peculiar and interesting in its own way. And now it turned out to be ... a very difficult task to find a sufficient amount of illustrative material in all these three directions. Although everything seems to be there, but ... to isolate the necessary images from a huge amount of illustrative material turned out to be simply an overwhelming task. That is why, although this topic will be continued, its content will change somewhat in favor of, so to speak, individual elements of the costume in different eras. Well, we will start with such an extremely important element of clothing at that time as ... stockings.
Marriage of João I of Portugal and Philip of Lancaster (1387). All the participants were clearly dressed up, both women and men. Miniature from Jean de Wavren's Old English Chronicles, 1479 British Library
Let us recall, if anyone did not know, that the culture of the early Middle Ages was entirely based on the opposition of the secular and spiritual principles. Hence the asceticism and spirituality promoted at all levels. Brutality, if someone and painted, it was only the knights who fought for the church. By the way, women, striving to give spirituality and sophistication to their appearance, in the XI-XII centuries. they began to shave their foreheads, pluck their eyebrows and wear high caps. Another factor that greatly influenced fashion was ... the width of the loom, which did not allow fabrics to be made more than 70 cm wide.
Blio - all classes, all classes, as well as men and women, in the XII century wore this as a daily outer dress
A still from the film "Wonderful Times in Spessart". Everything is in blio! But on the mennesinger, the male version
“Karl wore Frankish folk clothes. On his body he put on linen, a tunic trimmed with silk fringe on top and trousers. He wrapped his legs up to the knees with a linen cloth. In winter, he covered his chest and shoulders with a cape made of otter and sable skins. On top of everything he threw a greenish cloak and always girded with a sword, the handle and sling of which, silver or gold, were adorned with precious stones on solemn days and at receptions. Foreign clothes, no matter how beautiful they were, Karl neglected. Only in Rama, at the request of Pope Hadrian, and another time, his successor Leo, did he put on a long tunic and chlamydas and put on Roman shoes. Only on especially solemn occasions did he put on clothes woven with gold, and put on shoes covered with precious stones, fasten his cloak with a gold buckle and put on a gold crown. On ordinary days, however, his attire did not differ much from that of a commoner. "
Eingard. The Life of Charlemagne, 821
Eingard. The Life of Charlemagne, 821
Kott or cotta is also an outer dress that was worn from the 1230th to the XNUMXth century, and fashion made these clothes sometimes long, sometimes short! Surko - replaced Blio in the XIII century. This is a sleeveless tunic. In XNUMX, the surcoat was transformed into a kind of double apron. For a long time it was a military clothing!
That is why, both in the era of Romanesque fashion, and in the era of gothic fashion, clothes, as a rule, were narrow, but long. The clothes of exclusively warriors were short, and even then - the lower one. As for the women of the noble class, they wore very long and narrow dresses, but with a wedge-shaped hem and sewn-in sleeves, which had to be ripped off at night.
Medieval cowards, whose age is ... 500 years! Photo Universität Innsbruck
And this is a bra from the same time, found at the same time as panties. The historians who found them were amazed! Photo Universität Innsbruck
But today we will be primarily interested in what the then men and women had "under the bottom", such a euphemism at the time of my childhood was called underwear. And there, first of all, there were bre - short pants, which since the XNUMXth century have completely passed into the category of underwear.
Modern reconstruction of the br. Photo from the book "The World Encyclopedia of Fashion and Style Costume" Blokhin, I.V. Minsk, Harvest, 2009
They were made of linen and wool, and the peasant bre (linen) were first dyed red, and woolen ones in dark colors, but when they became linen, they wore them unpainted. Moreover, both men and women.
Before us are typical bres (the figure of a young man on the right), and they were worn by both the poor and the rich (1); shirt (2) was also a universal garment of all classes; highway (3) - were the clothes of warriors and nobility and were most often sewn of cloth or thin suede; chain mail chausses (4) had a lining of suede or thin leather, while the early ones had chain mail weaving only in the front, and the later ones were one-piece chain mail stockings, moreover, often covered with fabric on the outside!
But the bras had a relatively short length, so that the main role of covering, so to speak, of the lower extremities in the Middle Ages and partly in modern times was assigned to the highway! What it is? And here's what: stockings cut along the leg, which were sewn from fabric, for example, from cloth or knitted from woolen yarn. Each half of the chausses was worn separately, tucking bras into them. The chaos were fastened to the belt with the help of garter cords, of which there could be from one to three, and with ceremonial clothes they put on chaos with three garters decorated with bows!
Here they are - typical highways of the Middle Ages!
Traditionally, they were of dark colors - red, brown, green. But since the fabric dyes were based on natural dyes, the colors were not very bright. However, the beauty of the clothes was delivered by the gold plaques sewn on it with multi-colored stones, the embroidered border, and, of course, furs, which were used both as a lining and for decoration ...
Blio elegant
I ordered to get it for her,
II purple-bordered cloak,
What was cut for her here.
Everything was brought to them at once:
Here is delicate fur, brocade, satin,
Here dresses silk shines smooth
Ermine lined.
On the collar and cuffs
I won't let him lie to myself -
Gold plaques are sewn
And in them precious stones -
Green, scarlet, blue -
They are enchanting with a magnificent game.
Although the outfit was dear,
On a cloak, luxurious and rich,
He did not yield to him in the least.
The strings, however, were not enough ...
C. Trois. Erek and Enida, circa 1162
I ordered to get it for her,
II purple-bordered cloak,
What was cut for her here.
Everything was brought to them at once:
Here is delicate fur, brocade, satin,
Here dresses silk shines smooth
Ermine lined.
On the collar and cuffs
I won't let him lie to myself -
Gold plaques are sewn
And in them precious stones -
Green, scarlet, blue -
They are enchanting with a magnificent game.
Although the outfit was dear,
On a cloak, luxurious and rich,
He did not yield to him in the least.
The strings, however, were not enough ...
C. Trois. Erek and Enida, circa 1162
The stone trim on the dress is taken directly from this description. Scene from the film "Wonderful Times in Spessart" (1967)
Structurally, the tracks consisted of a sock and a long leg warmer. This form of chausses existed from the time of Charlemagne and up to the XNUMXth century, when they thought of stitching them together into one piece with the help of wedges in the front and back. Interestingly, the track shoes very often served as footwear, since a leather sole was sewn on them from the bottom of the foot.
"Portrait of the Arnolfini couple" (1434). Jan Van Eyck (c. 1385 or 1390-1441). At that time, due to frequent wars and epidemics, there was a fashion for pregnancy, so a dress gathered on the belly was very often just a tribute to fashion, and not at all a consequence of the lady's "interesting position". The man is dressed in surcoat. National Gallery, London
Very early, namely at the end of the XII century in Western Europe, there was a fashion for miparti clothes, that is, "of two colors." The mipartis were two-colored: one, for example, half white, the other red. There were a lot of options, and not only the highway, but all the clothes as a whole were often divided in half!
Miparti clothing worn by Venetian soldiers of the late XNUMXth century. Artist Christopher Rochero
Since we have a Military Review, let's look at the military highways. At first they did not differ from ordinary clothes, but already on the "Bayesian Tapestry" we see that, at least for kings, a strip of chain mail already covers the leg up to the knees in front, and it is held on with ties at the back. Then, in the XII century, chain mail highways appeared. They are worn over the usual ones made of cloth. But the metal wipes the cloth too quickly, so there are leather tracks on which chain mail tracks are pulled. But the chain mail highway, as well as the chain mail hauberk, are too unpresentable. Therefore, they put on surcoats over the hauberk - a caftan with or without sleeves, but on the legs - one more chaussie made of fabric, over the chain mail chaussure with a leather lining, worn in turn on linen chaussie and the same bra!
As for the stockings, then ... they were also known in Ancient Egypt, where, however, they were not sewn, but knitted. In the V century. knitting of stockings flourishes in the East and around the XI century. ends up in Europe, where until that time stockings were sewn from linen and thin leather. They differed from chaussses in length - slightly above the knee, so that they could be fastened with garters.
XNUMXth century soldiers also wore stockings ... Artist Richard Hook
The Renaissance was a time of many discoveries. Fashion was no exception. It was then that such a toilet item as calce appeared - narrow pants-stockings made of thin cloth or suede, tied with ribbons. Leather soles were also sewn onto them and worn like shoes. Attached them to the tunic with laces and loops. In 1500-1550 on their feet, noble people wear thin stockings made of wool or silk. Above, they put on eaux-de-chausses - short top pants that look like pumpkins or balls.
Hercule-François de Valois, Duke of Anjou and Alencon (1555-1584). Unknown artist, c. 1580 Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna
Leather tunic. Materials: leather, silk, linen, cotton. Western Europe, circa 1580 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
By the way, it was calze that gave rise to (and the name!) Pants, which were first knitted. Well, knitted stockings, as is commonly believed, were the first in England to be worn by Queen Elizabeth. At that time, women's pants were sewn from ... gold and silver brocade and supplemented with silk stockings! So even in a negligee, a woman, at least outwardly, continued to be the same noble lady!
But the homeland of knitted stockings with embroidered color inserts is considered to be Spain. In the XVI century. the products are so highly valued that they are presented to the English king Henry VIII as an expensive gift. Stockings are luxury goods, and their wearing is limited by decrees.
Knitting machine by William Lee. Ruddington Knitting Museum, Nottingham
In 1589, the Galverton master of philosophy, William Lee, invents the first knitting machine capable of making twelve hundred stitches per minute instead of a hundred in conventional hand knitting. The mechanism could have become a unique achievement of its time, but Queen Elizabeth refused to grant the master a patent, since she considered the stockings knitted on such a machine to be coarser than those sewn from silk. In addition, the queen was concerned about the fate of the English artisans, who would be out of work if the production of stockings was concentrated in the hands of one person. Soon, Lee presented a machine for knitting silk stockings, but again did not receive approval and left for France. In Rouen, he then founded the first mechanized knitwear workshop, where mainly Protestant artisans who were hiding from persecution by the French Catholics worked.
The final introduction of the hosiery machine dates back to 1656. Much of the credit for the development of the machine-made production of hosiery belongs to the Minister Colbert, who created a manufactory in Boulogne, which consisted of two hundred knitted machines.
Having a manufactory, it would be strange not to put stockings on your soldiers! French Royal Guardsman of 1670. Illustration from the book: Gerhard Forster, Peter Hoch, Reinhold Muller. "Uniformen europaischer Armeen", DDR, 1978
And this is a 1682 Bavarian musketeer in flirty striped stockings ... Illustration from the book: Gerhard Forster, Peter Hoch, Reinhold Muller. "Uniformen europaischer Armeen", DDR, 1978
The invention of the circular knitting machine, knitting fabric in the form of a tube, took place at the end of the XNUMXth century. in France. Since that time, handicrafts have practically fallen out of use, since machine production required much lower costs at a high production speed.
"Toilet" by Francois Boucher (1703-1770), painting 1742. Private collection. The artist skilfully shows how rococo women's stockings were worn with garters ...
During the Great French Revolution, long pants almost completely supplant stockings and culottes (short pants to the knees), but revived in the period of the Napoleonic empire along with a court costume, and after 1815 men get by with just socks and pantaloons.
At the end of the XIX century. silk ladies' stockings, decorated with delicate embroidery, appear. As the skirts are shortened, the stockings become more and more flirtatious: women of fashion wear fishnet, lace and fishnet stockings. After the First World War, stockings made of rayon and synthetic fibers are in great demand. In the middle of the XX century. the textile industry begins to produce nylon tights in flesh or tan. In the second half of the XX century. stockings are replaced by tights and socks.
Costumes for girls and women. Mordva Moksha. Late XNUMXth - early XNUMXth century Penza province. Chembarsky district. The village of Karsaevka, Pichevka. Pretty women, to be sure. But pay attention to the legs! Especially the one on the left ... Photo of the Mordovian Republican United Museum of Local Lore in Saransk http://mrkm.ru/kollektsii/etnografiya
Women's festive suit. Russians. The beginning of the twentieth century. Tambov province. Spassky district. The village of Studenets. Kotman. Photo of the Mordovian Republican United Museum of Local Lore in Saransk http://mrkm.ru/kollektsii/etnografiya
Women's boots. Tatars. Mid-twentieth century Colored morocco, leather mosaic. Photo of the Mordovian Republican United Museum of Local Lore in Saransk http://mrkm.ru/kollektsii/etnografiya
In Russia, stockings, despite their western origin, receive an eastern name - translated from the Tatar "cholgau" means "footcloths", "onuchi". In the XVI century. Soft shoes are also called stockings in Russia. In the XIX century. in Russian villages a strange fashion for thick legs is spreading. To achieve the desired result, women pull on six pairs of woolen stockings, collecting them on their legs with an accordion, poorer peasant women wrap their legs with onuchi, and put on stockings on top. Rustic stockings were usually black and white, with patterns concentrated at the bottom. The Ufa and Samara provinces are famous for their elegant woolen stockings with distinctive multi-colored patterns, popularly known under the most unusual names: “hand-written stockings”, “dolls”, “sparrow”, “eight-legged”, “burdock” and even “invigorating pans”.
To be continued ...
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