Fashion Timeline 11 (Europe in the Fifteenth Century)

Europe in the 1400′s, the period just before the Renaissance, just after Medieval period. Dressing still defines status, from serfs at the bottom of the pyramid, peasants, lords, nobility, clergy and royalty. It seems like a lot of fairy tales probably are perhaps set in (or near) this time period.

Inspiration: Cinderella (peasant), Little Red Riding Hood (Peasant), Cinderella (peasants meets nobility/royalty), etc.

At the bottom of the Fifteenth Century the arts experienced a insurgence in popularity and funding, leading to further interest in fashion. The economy also experienced some stabilization at this time, increasing  accessibility to resources, like textiles, to the masses. Fashion became more less focused on utilitarian needs and more on artistic expression.

Early Fifteenth Century: Long flowing robes (houppelandes, to be technical) were in, from neck to toes, for men and women. Men were just starting to choose hose, breeches and tunics, and light capes and overgarments were common with men and women.

Earlier Fifteenth Century clothing featured more flowing robes with billowing skirts and arms.

Late Fifteenth Century: A better selection of textiles was available. Men started wearing more fitted hose and doublets, and the codpiece and shoulderpads were in – actually, men started wearing a lot of padding to prove they were buff (Kind of like in that episode of Modern Family where Mitchell wears the padded superman costume to work under his suit). Women’s dresses lost the front gather and billow, and became more fitted in the waist and arms. The skirt hoop starts to make an appearance.

Later Fifteenth Century clothing was was more fitted.

Slashing and dagging were in. That is the slashing of an outer fabric to reveal a fancy contrasting fabric beneath, sometimes taking the fabric underneath and poking it through the outer slashes for dramatic effect. Dagging being the cutting of patterns in the outer fabric for the same decorative peak-a-boo result.

Hairstyles: Men rocked the bowl cut with a clean shave. Fun fact: it was illegal for men to rock a mustache according to 1447 English law. The sugar-loaf hat was where it was at. Women covered their heads once married, but prior to wore it super long, braided and piled up. In the late Fifteenth Century men started wearing their hair a bit longer, – risque!, and feathers became popular (in hats). Women slowed the wearing on their conical hats (as seen in old fairy tales), in favour of smaller headdresses, while hairstyles became more complex, with fake hair added, hair dying, and wigs increasing in popularity.

Makeup was understated, perfumes were natural powder based, and bathing as infrequent. Necklaces, jeweled collars, rings, belts and gloves were worn, and shoes varied from simple moccasins, to ornamented pointed shoes and boots. Shoe competitions to see who has the longest shoe was not unheard of. Near the end of the Fifteenth Century more chunky shoes were where it was at, squared toes were in, decreasing odds of winning a pointed shoe competition.

So, what do you think, could you embrace Fifteenth Century fashion if you were sent there in a time machine? Or would you want to come back to the present and wear the current clothing a la mode? I feel like there was an increased style accessibility, choices and colours during this time – I could dig that. Lack of plumbing – couldn’t dig that, especially knowing what we have today, I would be ruined.

“Europe in the Fifteenth Century.” Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 3: European Culture from the Renaissance to the Modern Era. Detroit: UXL, 2004. 445-464. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web.

Fashion Timeline 10 (Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas)

When I think of Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas I generally think of ziggurats, spicy hot chocolate, and rough hewn hammered jewelery, jungle and gold. Typical generalizations. The images in this post are outfits inspired by these cultures.

The period we will be looking is from about 300 CE to 1500 CE. A lot of achievements and unique characteristics of these cultures, were lost with Western invasion and many artifacts were not preserved in the hot and wet climate near the equator.

Their clothing was loose fitting, with holes left for the head while weaving the fabric. Similar to other cultures, the fabric used for the clothing indicated social status and division. Aztec law forbade poor people from wearing cotton. Among the Incas only the wealthy could wear cumbi, a soft cloth made of baby alpaca wool. The poorest members of society wore very simple plain clothing, while the more wealthy would wear colourful clothing, with intricate patterns and embellishments. Men wore loincloths, women wore tunics and dresses, or skirts with or without a scarf top.

Today we still value some fabrics more, like linen, silk, and cashmere, above the likes of polyester, but much is based on personal preference and knowledge of fabrics, since price points for all these fabrics can vary widely along with quality.

Cloaks were worn by all, again simple unadorned cloaks were worn by the poorer people, while the wealthy wore cloaks with intricate designs, or made of jaguar skins, and adorned. The cloaks of poorer people reached no further than the knee, while the more wealthy wore cotton cloaks that swept the ground. Cloaks were of such status that sometimes people wore more than one to demonstrate their wealth. Inca cloaks were tied over the left shoulder and secured if with pins in front of their chests. On a happy note, once a year the Aztec emperor would give out cloaks taken from conquered people to the poor.

Most people went barefoot, but some wore sandals. Some Inca’s wore, a sandal that left the toes exposed to grip the ground and mountainous terrain. These sandals were made of untanned skins and attached with ties of wool secured around the ankle.

Hair was intricately styled, and could also demonstrate social rank. Mayan women gathered their long hair on top of their heads in ponytails, decorating them with ribbons and ornaments for special occasions. Mayan men wore their hair long but burn the hair on their foreheads to accentuate their long faces. Mayan slaves had their hair cut short.

Aztec men wore shoulder length hair with bangs, and plucked their facial hair, while the women wore their hair loose and braided it with ribbons and ornaments for special occasions. Warriors wore ponytails with some locks singled out and in a decorated braid or ponytail, while their female companions wore short hair, to the nose, died with black mud and shined with indigo dye.

Inca men and women wore their hair long, and hair cutting was used as punishment for some crimes. Women wore their hair loose and parted in the middle, sometimes wearing two braids, sometimes wearing colourful headbands. Wealthy women covered their head with cumbi cloth. Men wore their hair long with bangs.

Mayans did not have metalworking skills and created jewelry from materials like bone, stones and shells. The Inca and Aztecs created jewelry with gold and silver, along with feathers, shells and stones.

Bibliography

“Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas.” Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 2: Early Cultures Across the Globe. Detroit: UXL, 2004. 389-406. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 27 May 2011.

Fashion Timeline 9 (Native American Cultures)

What do you think of when you imagine Native American fashion? Headdresses? Buckskin leggings and war paint? Hipsters inappropriately appropriating “native chic”?

The first think Katie thinks about is old. 12,000 years old, to be exact. The first fashions she thinks of are perhaps some of the very first to have existed in North America – beads of bird bones, hematite, and red ochre that were made during the last Ice Age. Fibers and skins don’t preserve, but those beads did. Those beads, that may have been sewn onto clothing (because these cultures were carving needles), strung around a neck, tied into hair, they’re beautiful.

The first thing Chelsie thinks of when she think of Native Americans are colourful beads and moccasins. And, we think it’s safe to say, that’s a common image that resides in many people’s minds. But it’s also a very narrow one. While every culture made a style or styles of leather footwear (go here for a map of the different cultural styles and some amazing photographs), the stereotypical images of a beaded moccasin is a Plains culture one (as are our images of tipis, headdresses, and pretty much everything else Buffalo Bill and Hollywood deemed sensational enough). Also, while amazing intricate beadwork existed long before the arrival of Europeans, the brightly colored beads seen on clothing artifacts are a result of the contact and reservation-eras of American Indian history, where beads were used in trade and later available to tribes that had been forced onto reservations.

While it’s impossible to adequately cover the entire stylistic history of every American Indian culture (and we would be foolish to even try), here’s a little bit of historical background and a lot of fantastic references.

First western contact is dated by archaeologists at around 900CE, while more detailed records date back to the early 1500 and 1600s. Native Americans lived in different climates, and thus logically dressed differently, for the elements.

Natives in American Southwest were among the first group to develop a loom to weave cloth in 1200CE. They grew cotton which they wove into cloth, and also wove yucca, wool, feathers, and hair into cloth. I don’t think they get much credit for this.

"Ojibwa style wool strap dress with detachable sleeves and red wool beaded leggings." Reproduction by Zender-Dale Arts

Before European contact plant fibers were woven into clothing, especially tree bark, which was stripped from tries, dried and shredded, to weave comfortable clothing, including skirts, aprons, shirts, belts, hats, capes, and even raincoats. Today we wear bamboo clothing, hemp clothing, and even fleece (sometimes a derivative of recycled plastic).

"Front of a hemp and wool twined and netted bag." Reproduction by Zender-Dale Arts

Native Americans wore snug or loose fitting leggings underneath their clothes. Leggings were often two tubes of animal hide, (usually dear, but also including beaver, buffalo, skunk, and even salmon skin), covering each leg individually. In the winter, leggings were fur lined, or fur side facing in, and had attached feet. (Is anyone else thinking of fleece lined tights? If you know where to get these illusive treasures, do share!) Natives in the Arctic did not wear leggings, but instead wore full length pants to protect themselves from the elements. Leggings were tied with string, belted, sashed at the waist, gartered, or tied at the knee.

"Brain tanned deer skin side seamed leggings with porcupine quilled garters. Quilled mocassins with ribbon work flaps. Knee breeches and linen hunting shirt." Reproduction by Zender-Dale Arts

It also needs to be noted that, as the clothing of existing and continuing culural groups, the timeline for American Indian fashion isn’t over. A reference that Katie loves on the current and dynamic world of American Indian designers is Jessica R. Metcalfe’s blog Beyond Buckskin. Be sure to read her review of Fashion Week and the presence of native and/or primitivist aesthetics.

And while there have already been several fantastic discussions on the recent appropriation of psuedo-American Indian, we invite you to revisit those conversations.

• The Strange Case of the Hipster Headdress
• But Why Can’t I Wear a Hipster Headdress?
• The Critical Fashion Lover’s (Basic) Guide to Cultural Appropriation
• On Hipsters/Hippies and Native Culture
• The Feather in Your “Native” Cap
• My Culture is not a Trend

Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 2: Early Cultures Across the Globe. Detroit: UXL, 2004. 385. Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Interrobangs Retrospective: Our Favorite Posts of the Past Year

Or, in which the Interrobangs kill two birds with one post.

One year anniversaries call for cake!

A year has come and gone, and it hasn’t just been a calendar year, but also the first year of Interrobangs Anonymous. Technically, our first post was on December 21, 2009, but with the hullabaloo of Christmas, Solstice, New Years, and Tuesdays, we postponed our celebrating until now. So here are our favorite posts of 2010/our first year blogging together.

This is how we really act

Style and Self-Image

• Going Grey in Your 20′s
• Thoughts on Having Short Hair
• The Leg Hair Question
• Fashion while Traveling
• Style Advice from Slime Mold
• No Makeup Podcast
• Gender Roles in Fashion Blogging
• Attractiveness in Academia
• Exploitation in Fashion
• Will I be Pretty/You Don’t Have to be Pretty
• The Prices of Things Part I, Part II
• Negative x Negative = Positive

Tutorials

• Shredded Jersey Scarf
• Mosaic T-Shirt
• Ruffled Collar
• Reverse Tie-Dyeing
• Cutlery Pendants
• Patent Leather Patch-Up
• Wearing Pins without Ruining Your Clothing

Resources

• Sticky insoles
• Natural Beauty Products
• Stores for the Long of Leg
• Stores for the Narrow of Foot
• Where Katie Doesn’t Shop
• Where Millie Does Shop
• Ditching the Shampoo

Series

• Fashion Timeline
• Sustainability

Pure Awesomeness

• Milliesaurus
• Is that a Tapeworm in Your Pocket?
• Clown Noses Make Everything More Fun
• Ada Lovelace
• Bison!
• What to Wear when Dissecting Squid

The past year has been so much fun. Thank you for reading, commenting, and being such an amazing community of fun, inspiration, and friends.

Fashion Timeline 8 (Oceania: Island Culture)

small business bookkeeping pretty

Fashion Timeline 7 (Europe in the Middle Ages)

We left off with the barbarians defeating the Roman Empire and its collapse circa 476 CE. Constant war and disorder ensued between those tribes governing the collapsed empire, leading to the dark titling of this period as the Dark Ages, part of a larger period entitles the Middle Ages (500CE – 1500CE). Wow, that’s a long time.

Being that there was constant turmoil, people lived meagerly, and by the feudal system.

Fashions of the Middle Ages include:

• beret
• bowl haircut
• hoods
• ram’s horn headdresses
• steepled headdresses
• coif
• tonsure haircut
• wimple
• gloves as a fashion accessory
• purses

The Roman Catholic Church ruled during this period, the Crusades happened, and so did the Black Death/Plague/Bubonic Plague.

Hose and Breeches

In the eleventh century medieval fashion got a twist. With emerging monarchies in France, England and Spain, courts with real wealth were created and it became fashionable to spend money on clothing. Wealthy people had their servants customize their clothing, and here we have the emergence of the tailor.

Fashion Timeline 6 (Nomads and Barbarians)

I’m starting to realize that this timeline is quite Western and Eurocentric. Perhaps a study of other cultures and their fashions will be in order afterward to fully round out this topic.

Barbarians and nomads refers to those northern Europeans who invaded and pillaged the residents of northern Britain and northern France. The Scandinavian barbarians came to be known as Vikings.

Vikings and barbarians are the first culture that I have seen so far in this timeline to dye their hair colorfully, have a complete and utter disregard for their hair, and have an adventurous and nomadic lifestyle.

Now the first thing I think of when I think of Vikings is Lars’ music video in the movie, Serendipity.

Viking clothing was much like that of other Europeans from the same time period. Men wore trousers, a tunic, and perhaps a coat or a large cloak. Women dressed similarly, though their tunic was long, reaching all the way to the feet. Viking clothing was made primarily of wool, and sometimes of linen, and was often brightly colored, with purples, blues, and greens. Like other clothing from this period, however, few actual garments have survived, leaving much of what is known to secondhand accounts from other societies. (“Vikings: The Last Barbarians.” Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 2: Early Cultures Across the Globe. Detroit: UXL, 2004. 278. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 25 July 2010.)

"Footwear of Nomads and Barbarians." Fashion, Costume, and Culture, 289-290. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 25 July 2010.

Fashion Timeline 5 (Byzantine Fashion)

I have to admit, I know absolutely nothing about Byzantine fashion. I don’t even know what it is. So, without further ado, let’s take a crash course and see what thought provoking things I can come up with. Maybe I’ll even want to reproduce the look?!

The people who we know today as the Byzantines called themselves Romans, spoke Greek, and lived in modern-day Turkey. (The name Byzantine came from the founder of the empire’s capital, a Greek man named Byzas, who may have existed only in legend.) While the areas that were once ruled by the Roman Empire fell into disorder as conflicting tribes fought for control of their territory, the Byzantines maintained a legacy of learning and a civilization inherited from the Greeks and Romans for more than a thousand years. In the meantime they developed extensive trading relationships with the Middle East and the Orient, including India and China. From 476 C.E. until the collapse of the empire in 1453 C.E., the Byzantine Empire was the most powerful and developed civilization in the Western world. (Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 2: Early Cultures Across the Globe.  Detroit: UXL, 2004. p255-259.)

Looks like some more draping materials, but this time, with more form. As we just found, the Byzantine Empire took a lot of style cues from the ruins of the Ancient Roman Empire, while also acquiring coloru and decorative tradition from the Orient and the Middle East. Byzantines inherited basic Roman clothing forms, the tunic and toga for men, and the stola, a type of long dress, for women, as well as their shoes and their hairstyles.

The one woman on the bottom, second from the left, kind of reminds me of a Byzantine Princess?

With the Byzantine’s we see a more simple approach to fashion, and brighter colored fabrics with designs. Looks like tunics to me, and I can wear tunics. Although if we wear bright coloured clothing, we might be encroaching on the territory of Byzantine royalty, and they might be violent… I’m seeing a real trend here of borrowing from other cultures and slowly making them your own. And isn’t that what we still do today?

Conclusion: I’m not sure what I really got out of this, other than the fact that bright colours and pattern mixing were in during Byzantine times. Maybe I feel inspired to layer, wear bright colours and patterns, and tunic is up?

More history after the jump.

Roundtable: Fashion Timeline 4 (Ancient Roman Empire)

Ancient Roman Empire – Approx. 10 BCE – 5 CE

Ancient Rome – Gladiators – Armor – Gladiator Sandals… so last year?!

How does our style today draw from and reflect elements of Ancient Rome? We reinterpret fashion and retrofit it for our current period.

Robes – Mumus – Folds – Gathers

Again we have the Chiton:

And now we also have the Peplos:

Is it crazy that I almost want to try to make a Peplos now?

When I do a search for Ancient Rome on Etsy, I get a lot of results for things that use the Colosseum, and jewelery inspired/derived from by old coins and classical figures. People are inspired to create jewelery and artwork drawing from this period, as with any historical period, romanticizing of the past.

Check out these cufflinks!

And these earrings!

Doesn't this brooch look a bit like a Roman Shield?

Roundtable: Fashion Timeline 2 (Ancient Egyptian Clothing)

This week we will be exploring the clothing and fashion of Ancient Egypt.

• 4,000 BCE to 356-323 BCE – Ancient Egyptians

The Ancient Egyptians had an identifiable style of clothing, with the Pharaohs and nobles putting great emphasis on their appearances through clothing, jewelery, wigs and makeup. They had an emphasis on religion, in daily life, and reflected through the mummification process to preserve the body. Farming was good in the fertile silt rich soil near the Nile, demonstrating a stable civilization.

“The Egyptians idolized the human body, and the clothes they wore complimented the lines of the slender bodies that were most appreciated in Egyptian society. Egypt’s climate was very warm… and both men and women tended to dress very lightly [with a preference for linen]. For nearly 1,500 years it was very rare for men to wear anything on their torso, or upper body. For the upper class and the pharaohs, the main form of dress was the schenti, a simple kilt that tied around the waist and hung about to the knees. Working men wore first a loincloth, a very small garment that covered just the private parts, and later the loin skirt, which was somewhat more modest and covered from the waist to the mid thigh. In about 1500 B.C.E. Egyptian men began to wear simple tunics on their upper bodies. They adopted the custom from the neighboring region of Syria, which Egypt had recently conquered.

Women also dressed lightly, and they too often bared much of their upper body. The basic form of female clothing was a simple dress called a kalasiris. It was a tube of cloth, sewn along one side, with one or two shoulder straps. In many cases the straps extended to mid torso, leaving the breasts exposed.” (“Egyptian Clothing.” Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 1: The Ancient World. Detroit: UXL, 2004. 21-24.)

“In Egyptian paintings, men and women are often shown wearing ‘perfume cones’ on their wigs, but nobody has ever found one. Artists may have drawn the shape to show that the wig was scented.” (Platt, Richard. “They Wore What?!: the weird history of fashion and beauty,” Oxford University Press: 2007, 6)

Roundtable: Fashion Timeline 1 (Prehistoric* Clothing)

So, in addition to the weekly link posts, we’re starting a round-table series too, since we’re a group blog. We’re starting off with a series looking at clothing through history, and seeing how we can relate history to the present, and putting the present in context. We’ll probably have off-series round-tables too, about subjects that may or may not be related to the main thread, but we’ll see how that goes.

First up, we start waaaay back with Neanderthals.

• 100,000 BCE – Neanderthals – Wore animal skins

Early humans cut the hides into shapes they liked, making holes for the head and perhaps the arms, and draped the furs over their bodies. They may have used thin strips of hide to tie the furs about themselves, perhaps in the way that belts are used today. (“Prehistoric Clothing.” Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 1: The Ancient World. Detroit: UXL, 2004. 5-8. Gale Virtual Reference Library.)

• 38,000 BCE – Cro-Magnon wore loincloths made of animal skins

Sharp awls, or pointed tools, were used to punch small holes in animal skins, which were laced together. With a needle (made out of slivers of animal bone), Cro-Magnon man could sew carefully cut pieces of fur into better fitting garments. Evidence suggests that Cro-Magnon people developed close-fitting pants and shirts that would protect them from the cold, as well as shawls, hoods, and long boots. (“Prehistoric Life,” 2004, 1-8)

• 7,000 BCE – Mesopotamians learned to spin wool to make clothing

Mesopotamians, (dwellers of present-day Iraq near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers), developed the ability to create pottery from clay, learned to gather and spin wool from the sheep and goats that they herded. It was in Mesopotamia and the other great early civilization, Egypt, where clothing other than animal skins first began to be made and worn. (“Prehistoric Life,” 2004, 1-4)

Chelsie: Clothing was initially a practical attire, to keep people warm during those cold Ice Ages. Today, our clothing is still designed to keep us warm – in the cool months anyway. Though there are other theories for why people started clothing themselves, namely lice.