Katharine Parre

Here we see Katharine wearing a later period then I usually deal with but it is lovely, I’m a big fan of the red and gold and a HUGE fan of flat caps I think I look a bit stupid in a gable headdress or even a french hood so I stretch the rules a bit and wear a flat cap because, well, I can.

I’m ashamed to say that I don’t actually know that much about Henry VIII’s sixth wife (for years I had a bad habit of confusing her with Catherine Howard) but according to some sources, today, November 11th is her birthday (Wikipedia says it was in August but it doesn’t say what day) so I’ve decided to mark the occasion with a post in her honor. Since any and all information that I could share with you would be me coughing up the facts from elsewhere, I’ve just given you some links to those basic facts and I’m going to talk about her clothes because that’s what I do. Sadly there are only two known images of Katharine Parre and one of those was speculated to be Lady Jane Grey but everyone seems to except that it’s Katharine now so I’ll post and make some comments on it.

As the last of Henry’s wives Katharine’s reign saw the end of the low square neckline with large, turn backed, fur-lined sleeves. The photo we have of her in such a dress shows a more dramatic cinching of the waist then some of the earlier images of this style portray. Notice that the sleeves seem to be almost falling off the shoulders? I believe that they must have been prevented from actually falling off by a back line that cuts strait across, looking at the way the trim curves over her shoulder I find myself more sure of this theory.

I wonder if the over gown is a silk velvet or simply a brocade? I suspect the color the artist originally painted must have faded with time but it can be assumed that it’s a silver/gold white color. The under gown and forsleeves  are obviously a red and gold brocade, while the turnbacks are ermine or a rabbit fur “faux ermine”, since she was a queen I would not be surprised if they were real for this portrait. Notice how her hair poofs a bit at the temples? You don’t see this as much in earlier images of the Tudor fashions except for in an early image of Queen Elizabeth which is even more dramatic and hints at later fashions to come, I’ll talk about that more in my post about Elizabeth. My favorite thing depicted in this image are her paternosters, which seems to have little skulls on them. Hooray for the morbidity of early fashion!

16th Century Garb for My Brother

My brother liked this look the best, a doublet and “little skirty thing” seem to be preferred over “poofy pants”. I personally can’t get over the fact that this is exactly how my brothers beard (minus the curled mustache) looked before he shaved it off. All he needs now is a little white dog

This was the one that convinced him that fur may be a good idea, I’ll probably put this sleeve style on the doublet. I’m pretty sure this image could convince any heterosexual male that 16th century garb is fucking bad ass and that they should wear it. Ladies out there who have been trying to sway the man in your life, you are welcome.

I really wish this guys garb was easier to see, I absolutely love this silhouette and (what I can see of) the slashes on his ensemble. Besides that he looks like he is holding his place in a book and kinda looks like he’d do stuff to me…. ehem, moving on.

This dudes posturing irritates me but he has good clothes that show the skirted doublet and fur over-gown in combination. Now I can refer back to the image to look at the details of his garments, show you guys what I’m scheming to make and I’ll try to ignore that he’s resting his elbow on two pink silk pillows

I’m keeping this one because it’s the first image we came across that my brother liked and even though he prefer’s the others for his fancy stuff, I still really enjoy the simplicity of this ensemble so I’m posting it here to share with you.

I’ve done it you guys, I’ve convinced my brother to let me make him some 16th century garb to wear to SCA events! He even bought some velvet, I am so excited! I’ve never made 16th century garb for a guy before, hell even doing research on it is new to me, usually I just kinda skim over them.  I found all of these images on Wikipedia and I’ve ordered them on here according to our preferences.

Online Research

Researching things online is pretty new to me, for years I just stuck with following my mothers garb books to the letter, I was convinced that in order to achieve accuracy in the things I made I must follow the rules. I’ve realized recently though that there is a lot more to recreating then that and that all of these books, telling you how to make and sew things are just other people who have done their research and showing you their interpretation of how to recreate the images they’ve come across. Realizing this brought about a huge turning point in my craft. I could now take things I had learned about  sewing seams, different fabric, construction and fitting garments, delve into the world of artwork online and come to my own conclusions about how things were made, what they looked like, what was practical for the status of the individual I was portraying and how tailors of the era may have interpreted the construction of the latest fashions from foreign countries. In other words, I could do what ever the hell I wanted as long as it came out looking right! Suddenly I get to be an artist woo!

The hard part turned out to be finding these images. I do not recommend going to google images and searching for “Tudors” all you’ll get is pictures of the TV show (their clothing is inaccurate) and some shots of the good ol fat king, Henry. If you’re interested in research I have three tips for you:

Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1500-1550_in_fashion is all right for scratching the surface of specific decades, it gives you an idea of the general aesthetic of the time. Try looking for “1400-1450 in fashion” or “1550-1600 in fashion”

Web Gallery of Art, http://www.wga.hu/index1.html give this a try if you are crazy like me and have a desire to look through hours of paintings online. I was over the moon when I found this little site and have yet to make it through a fraction of their artwork.  Notice the nifty little search bar they have at the bottom of the screen, you can search by Author, Text, Time-frame and Form, whatever you’re interested in!

Pinterest, I’m linking you to one of my boards http://pinterest.com/libertyraes/the-modern-tudor-s-style-guide/. I just discovered this nifty little site, they have loads of images of all kinds, I mostly dig them because I can keep all of my favorite images in one place online, sorted however I like , with the luxury to refer back to them as needed no matter where I am.

If you have more information on research that you would like to contribute I would be more than happy to hear about it and perhaps add to this list.