Renaissance
Fashion
The term "renaissance", meaning "re-birth", stands for a complete change in material and spiritual culture. The era was marked by a spirit of a new beginning. Ideals of classic antiquity, education, science and the fine arts were to ban the "dark ages."
In the city states of Italy, which had become rich and powerful through international trade, among the remnants of Greek and Roman antiquity, this new beginning first set in. While Norther nEurope was still under Gothic influence, Michelangelo already created works that had nothing to do with the Middle Ages anymore. The Italian Early Renaissance begins as early as the late 14th century.
Italy at that time owned a monopoly in fabric and had, owing to its trade connections with the orient, access to silk and other fabrics of a fineness as yet unknown. People wore gold and silver brocades, velvet and silk, embroidered fabrics and fur.
The colour restrictions of the Middle Ages were almost completely lifted. Personal preference became more important than conformity. Of course it should not be forgotten that all this was only true for the upper crust. Picture: Giovanna Tornabuoni in a painting by Ghirlandaio, 1488
For ladies, too, a new era dawned. Clothing became much more permissive; one could not only exhibit arms and ears again, but even a low neckline. Instead of covering the head with hoods, they styled their hair carefully and sometimes even bleached it. Make-up was another Renaissance novelty. As for men, fabrics became richer and heavier, while less of it was put into trains and sleeves.
The renaissance also brough about new patterns and ways of wearing clothes. The Burgundian fashion of wearing hose prevailed for men (but they developed into stocking trousers over time), together with a laced doublet and a voluminous cape, the zimarra. Hat fashion, however, became ever more important even for men.
In Northern Europe, Renaissance sets in with the age of Dürer, around 1500. Most typical of the time is the Landsknecht style that was invented in Germany by mercenaries who loved dressing up on one hand, but also found the tight fashion of the time too impractical for their soldiers' life. So they simply slashed the joint areas of their garments.This "slashed" style was taken up by all classes and both sexes, lingering for decades.
At the same time, around 1500-1550, the Italian High Renaissance generated completely different clothes. For the first time, men did not just wear long garments over hose, but actual trousers - if short ones - and stockings. Beards could be seen, and the most popular head covering was the beret. Women wore stiff, flat-fronted bodices with a relatively low - but not too low - neckline and lon sleeves with a puff at the shoulder. The Italian influence on fashion ended with the decline of Eastern trade in the corse of the 16th century.
Towards the end of the century, another nation took over as a fashion leader: Spain had become a booming colonial power by exploiting the riches of the New World. However, the fame of Spanish court fashion has different roots: It reflected the fact that Spain was the centre of Catholic pietism (think of the Spanish Inquisition) by the use of black and dark colours and exaggerated stiffness. Both male and female costume was rigid, stuffed, and high-necked.
As a surprising contrast to this denial of the body, the men's hose had become so tight that they were seriously endangering family planning - and even more surprising, the remedy was the invention of the codpiece that stuck up from between the stuffed balloons of the trouser legs in a rather non-pious way. The doublet, which was often stiffened with whalebone, had long, straight sleeves and shoulder pads.
The ladies negated any female curve, including that of the bust, and strove for a silhouette like two cones standing on end. To achieve it, they used very rigid corsets and a cone-shaped hoop skirt named verdugado. It is the first time in fashion history that the body shape what seriously distorted by stiffening, pressing and padding.
The Spanish fashion influenced other courts throughout Europe until well into the 17th century, being the prescribed dress for members of the court in many countries. In Frnace and England, variations developed that were marked by a lower neckline and the vertugadin ("French" farthingale as opposed to Spanish), a hoop skirt that stood out horizontally from the waist and from which the skirt fell down vertically "as though the lady was standing in a barrel."