Presentation of reconstructed 15th century garments from Lengberg Castle (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Lengberg Finds. Remnants of a lost 15th century tailoring revolution. NESAT XIII
Archaeological Textiles – Links Between Past and Present. NESAT XIII, 2017
Among the textile fragments discovered at Lengberg Castle in East-Tyrol, Austria, were a few almost completely preserved pieces of garments such as several nearly complete linen bras and fragments of possibly skirted bodices. Before the finds at Lengberg Castle, no physical evidence of supportive undergarments, so-called ‘breast bags’, had been discovered, although garments of this type were mentioned in several written sources of the time. There were also fragments of linen linings for three gowns: two for a small girl (one of blue wool and one of red silk) and one blue woollen example for an adult woman. These linen linings are most noteworthy for the techniques applied to their tailoring. The Lengberg lining fragments demonstrate that 15th century tailors had a highly-advanced understanding of the bias properties of fabrics, far beyond anything expected, and not to be duplicated in fashion until the 1930s. In the creation of the fashionable 15th century gowns with under-bust pleating, the tailors used the bias collapse and drape of the fabrics to provide the shaping around the individual breasts, instead of using straight grain panels and gores, as is seen in the Greenland finds – a dramatic revolution in tailoring techniques. While this design augmented the shape of the breasts, it provided no support, and thus separate supportive garments were worn under the gown to support, shape and lift the breast. With the transition to Italian style garments at the beginning of the 16th century, these bias techniques of women’s tailoring were no longer needed, and thus were lost, with bias-cut hose and stockings being the only remnant of this tailoring revolution. The aim of this research is to draw a correlation between supportive undergarments and the tailoring of the gowns worn over them. The bra allows for looser tailoring of the gown, which accentuates two separate breasts, as opposed to supportive kirtles which result in a monobosom (one curving mound). One garment requires the other. The three gowns, the supportive underwear and smocks are under reconstruction to better understand the tailoring methods used, how the single garments worked individually and as layers (supportive undergarment – smock – gown), and contribute to the study of female apparel of the second half of the 15th century.
A unique survival: A woman’s fifteenth century headwear from Lengberg Castle, East Tyrol.
CRAFTING TEXTILES. Tablet Weaving, Sprang, Lace and Other Techniques from the Bronze Age to the Early 17th Century, 2021
In Lengberg Castle, East Tyrol, a perplexing textile fragment made of humble fabric but with exquisite detail was found beneath the floorboards among thousands of objects. It is of white linen cloth with a variety of decorative elements in linen thread. These decorative elements include needle lace, loop braids, and most strikingly, sprang. All three textile techniques were worked with an undyed linen thread. The complex tree of life pattern of the sprang suggests this is a noteworthy garment. It was meant to be seen. Since the original function of this textile could not be determined with certainty by merely investigating the extant garment, a reconstruction was attempted in order to produce a copy with which wearer trials could be conducted. Thanks to a grant from the Janet Arnold Foundation, new light can now be shed on this mysterious textile, and how it was worn. After frustrating failed attempts, a surprising solution was determined: the textile is headwear.
Enigmatic Beauty_Headwear of Lengberg Castle.pdf
2019
In Lengberg Castle, East Tyrol, a perplexing textile fragment made of humble fabric but with exquisite detail was found beneath the floorboards among thousands of objects. It is of white linen cloth with a variety of decorative elements in linen thread. These decorative elements include needlelace, loop braids, and most strikingly, sprang. The complex tree of life pattern of the sprang suggests this is a noteworthy garment. It was meant to be seen. Since the original function of this textile could not be determined with certainty by merely investigating the extant garment, a reconstruction was attempted in order to produce a copy with which wearer trials could be conducted. Thanks to a grant from the Janet Arnold Foundation, new light can now be shed on this mysterious textile, and how it was worn. After frustrating failed attempts, a surprising solution was determined: the textile is headwear. Note: Parts of this article will go into a chapter of a book (work in progress) on the reconstruction of the garment fragments from Lengberg Castle. Complete with cuts and patterns. Therefore you are welcomed to comment on the article and how helpful (or unhelpful) you find the instructions, cuts and patterns, especially if you want to make such a headdress for yourself. This article was uploaded on 12 January 2019, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Emperor Maximilian I, who died on 12 January 1519.
K. Grömer and F. Pritchard (eds.) 2015: Aspects of the Design, Production and Use of Textiles and Clothing from the Bronze Age to the Early Modern Era.. Archaeolingua Main Series 33. Budapest 2015., 2015
The NESAT XII symposium was organized by the Natural History Museum Vienna from 21st to 24th May 2014 in Hallstatt, Austria. The North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles (NESAT) was founded in 1981 as a discussion forum between various disciplines: textile archaeologists, historians, art historians, natural scientists, conservators and craftspeople. The conference volume contains 35 scientific papers grouped into seven chapters. The first chapters introduce Austrian textile research and prehistoric textile finds from Europe, such as recent analysis of the earliest wool finds and early Scandinavian textile design. The main corpus of articles deals with textiles and clothing covering a time span from early medieval to the early modern period, their archaeological research, experiments and art historical context. Five papers focus on tools and textile production, object-based research as well as experimental archaeology and investigation of written sources. The chapter “Specific analyses” embraces interdisciplinary research including dyestuff analysis, isotopic tracing and a drawing system for archaeological textile finds from graves. The book, therefore, provides a wealth of information on recent research being undertaken into archaeological textiles from sites in Central and Northern Europe.
Fashion Theory, Special Issue on ‘The Making Turn’, eds. Peter McNeil and Melissa Bellanta, 23, 3 (2019): 363-399, 2019
This article showcases experimental dress reconstruction as a valuable research tool for the historian. It presents a case study detailing how two underskirts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, French Farthingale Rolls and French Wheel Farthingales, were reconstructed using historical techniques and experimental methodologies. The first section outlines my methodological approach to reconstructing these ephemeral garments, exploiting archival and printed records, visual sources and knowledge of seventeenth-century sewing techniques. The second section focuses on the experience of reconstruction and shows how this process allows the historian to form tacit knowledge. This section also raises questions and provides answers about artisanal design practices such as reflective rationality, embodied experiences, and tacit skills that cannot be accessed in other ways. Finally, this article shows how reconstruction can inform understandings of the embodied experiences of dressing and wearing. Dressing the female body in the reconstructed underskirts discussed in this article made it possible to observe the garments’ practical realities and challenge polemical historical sources concerning fashionable sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European dress.