̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - clothing

̽��ֱ��first book of fashion

amb206 — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:08:01 +0000

In 1530 Matthäus Schwarz, an accountant in the German city of Augsburg, was a man in his prime: slim, smart and successful. In a portrait that shows him in an outfit made for the occasion of the Imperial Diet of Augsburg, he is every inch the fashionable man about town, ready to step out of his door and join the party.

In the painting Schwarz wears a doublet made in panes of brilliant red and yellow silk over a shirt cut from fine linen. His slender calves are shown off in yellow leather hose and his knees are cross-gartered. On his feet are slim shoes and on his head is a flat black beret made in felted wool. At his waist are belts carrying the sword and red purse that complete the picture.

Now an experimental project undertaken by Dr Ulinka Rublack, Reader in Early Modern History at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, has brought this portrait alive in a historically accurate reconstruction of the outfit it depicts. ̽��ֱ��project reveals the role of dress in conveying complex social and political messages and the way in which fashion had a profound effect on mood and behaviour.

Head accountant of the Fugger merchant company, Schwarz commissioned paintings of himself showing in considerable detail the clothes that made up his changing and highly fashionable wardrobe. These portraits, known as the Schwarz Book of Clothes, represent a treasure trove of information for anyone interested in the history of fashion as well as Renaissance performances of the self as visual act.

In order to bring her project to fruition Dr Rublack enlisted the expertise of dress historian and theatre designer Jenny Tiramani to whom historical accuracy is of paramount importance. She has worked with some of the country’s leading theatre directors – including Sir David MacVicar and Tim Carroll – and recently set up the School of Historical Dress with the backing of Mark Rylance, Sir Roy Strong and Dame Vivienne Westwood. Her knowledge of the materials, shape and construction of early 16th century clothing of the type worn by Schwarz was vital to the success of the project.

To put together the outfit in the painting would have taken Schwarz many months of effort in sourcing materials and the craftspeople to make them up. It would have incurred him considerable expense. And to put the finished garments on in the privacy of his home Schwarz would have needed the assistance of servants to lace him tightly in. To achieve the narrow waist that such an outfit demands he would have denied himself rich foods.

As a historian of material culture, Dr Rublack seeks to get close to the past by looking at the things that people lived with and among, and exploring their complex relationships with the objects they used and collected. She is particularly interested in fashion and her research concentrates on the Renaissance and Reformation.

Many of the things that have survived from these periods are those which were looked at rather than used, precious items which were regarded as heirlooms and tied up with notions of continuing value - painting and sculpture, jewellery and curiosities, for example. Much rarer are items that had, at least in part, a practical function, such as textiles, clothing and footwear. And the further back one goes, fewer are the examples of this second group of things passed down to us.

Historians of material culture need to look at visual and written sources, such as portraits and diaries, in addition to inventories, to build up a picture of how people lived in relation to the things they possessed – and the roles that these things played in shaping their lives. In the instance of fashion, the shaping element takes on a literal sense: just as the body makes demands on clothes so do clothes make a demand on the body.

In her book Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe (Oxford, 2011), Dr Rublack tells a vivid story of how people across society expressed their aspirations and emotions through appearances in an age which underwent fundamental changes in how things were made and marketed. ̽��ֱ��process of writing the book brought her close to the experience of what colours, textures and cuts appealed to men and women at the time - but she wanted to get a better grasp of both the practical processes that went into the making of dress and the experience of wearing garments that are, to our eyes, so outlandish.

̽��ֱ��portrait that Dr Rublack chose shows an outfit that Schwarz wore in 1530. He had it made for one of the most important events of the era - the return of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to Germany after nine year period during which many parts of the country had turned to Protestant faiths. Augsburg witnessed long-standing confrontations between Protestants and Catholics and would eventually tolerate both faiths.

̽��ֱ��purpose of the outfit was to impress and, in particular, to signal Schwarz’s allegiance to Catholicism and to the Emperor. And impress it did: in 1541 Schwarz was ennobled, a tremendous leap in social status for a man who was the son of a wine-merchant. Although he was well off, he was essentially a scribe who worked with figures, recording the business transactions and managing the credits of the Fugger merchant company.

“ ̽��ֱ��colours red and yellow are associated with happiness – and they demonstrate Schwarz’s joy at the visit of the Emperor and his brother Ferdinand of Austria. Schwarz notes that he wished 'to please Ferdinand' and he did so by symbolically expressing gaiety, youthful agility, pride and beauty. His was an aesthetic performance of political values through the expense and effort he had invested in such having so wonderful an outfit created,” says Dr Rublack.

“What we’ve learned in the course of this project is just how spectacular and dramatic such an assemblage would have been. ̽��ֱ��effect of the bright yellow is almost dazzling when you look at it for some time. ̽��ֱ��coordination of the textures, dyes and materials is subtle and ingenious. ̽��ֱ��outfit was designed to lift the spirit, make people marvel at novelty and show off advanced civilization .”

Handling the garments made for the project has shown the extent to which last-minute styling contributed to getting the right look. Dr Rublack says: “ ̽��ֱ��shirt, doublet and hose would need to be skilfully fitted by at least one servant when Schwarz was dressed in the morning to make them work together perfectly. Once he had taken his sword and walked on the streets, a man like Schwarz would be completely confident of his sartorial achievement – but equally he would have been worried about any speck of dirt or loose seam as well as about over-eating and drinking.”

High fashion treads a dangerous line: in making a bold statement, it’s easy to look foolish. ̽��ֱ��Renaissance fascination with image-making encouraged self-display – but this had to be balanced by an awareness of the dangers of self-delusion and ridicule. In the Renaissance, as today, fashion encouraged fears as much as fantasies and fun, openness to change and reflection on what it means to be human.

Fashion conveys complex messages. ̽��ֱ��recreation of an outfit taken from one of an extraordinary series of Renaissance portraits reveals how one man made his mark on society.

̽��ֱ��outfit was designed to lift the spirit, make people marvel at novelty, and show off advanced civilization

Dr Ulinka Rublack

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Matthäus Schwarz

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Making the cloth that binds us: spinning, weaving and island identity

amb206 — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 08:00:47 +0000

There’s a theory in the fashion world that a period of austerity or recession heralds a return to the comfort and familiarity of tried-and-tested classics. In this way, we seek solace in what we think of as our heritage. Certainly, many of the collections in the shops for this winter feature designs that have their roots in the craft-based industries of the rugged islands in the north Atlantic that gave their names to some of the styles most closely associated with traditional British clothing – Harris, Shetland, Fair Isle. Today these iconic styles are widely copied by mass market producers while the craft industries which developed them struggle to remain viable, the weaving of tweed on the islands of Lewis and Harris being a notable exception. However, they continue to define the way the places and people of the isles are thought of. For the practitioners too, making plays an important social role in how they see themselves.

For thousands of years, the process of becoming an adult was for most people rooted in what they did, in craft-based activities, learning through making. Craft brought people together. Traditionally this crafting was especially important in the rural communities of the north, where seasonal demands meant that people spent a large amount of time working on their own. It was often joked, for example, that husbands and wives were only seen together in some of these tasks such as the rooing (plucking the wool) of sheep, or carding (untangling) the wool. Centres of making became centres of meeting. For young people growing up in these societies, the environment itself was their classroom and the community their teacher as they absorbed the practical skills needed to enable them to making a living from the resources around them.

Ben Cartwright is a member of the ̽��ֱ��Material Culture Lab in Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s Department of Archaeology. ̽��ֱ��Material Culture Lab is a small group of researchers dedicated to the social study of things from the past. He is interested in the ways in which cloth production was linked to social identity for the island populations of Atlantic Scotland between 600 AD and 1200 AD. This was a period of considerable social change. It begins with the birth of the Viking Age, the creation of various chiefdoms in the Northern and Western Isles who interfered with political events of the age, notably through the creation of the Earldom of Orkney which acted like a firebrand across the skies of the early Viking world. Historically, the sagas record Earls raiding and taking possession of territory as far down as the Isle of Man. Earlier Irish sources record the activities of war bands of mixed Scandinavian and Hebridean descent as ‘foreign Gaels’.

̽��ֱ��ebb and flux of these piratical Chiefdoms end in what in Atlantic Scotland might be called the early middle ages, when the Isles functioned as colonial possessions of the Kings of Norway, who subjugated their troublesome neighbours across the sea. Modern sailing yachts make the crossing in the annual race from Bergen, Norway, to Lerwick, Shetland, in less than 24 hours; in the Viking Age the same voyage would have taken at least two days and nights on the open water and involved far greater danger. Modern crews rely on all manner of engineered man-made fabrics for canvas, rope and notably sailcloth, as well as their protective clothing; in the past all of these items were made by hand from natural materials.

Cartwright’s research explores the ways in which the crafts of spinning and weaving, as ‘learnt bodily histories’ (performing the task requires the learning of certain repetitive body movements and behaviours), contribute to community and individual identity. He is interested in how these crafts shape the means by which people behave and present themselves to themselves and others - not least in the clothes they wore.

“My work looks not just at the ways in which skills and traditions were passed down across the generations but also the central role that crafts played in terms of how people created a community – something that you might describe as ‘islandness’. Craft brings people together, creating a social space where ideas are swapped and made sense of, quite literally with the hands. As apprentices learnt new techniques, which, especially at the loom, could be painful and body altering, it also changed their minds, the way they thought and saw the world around them. They took on and participated in re-making community narratives, the stories, gossip and opinions that made sense of their place in the world. Bringing the past into the present,” said Cartwright.

“To study these communities of makers, and how their ideas changed over time, I look at the objects from the period, such as loom weights and spindle whorls. Lumps of stone, that are so often ignored, can be measured to show the qualities of what they were used to produce, yarn and cloth, and how techniques of making differed over time. A history of learnt body techniques provides a different way of looking at how social ideas shifted or remained. New clothes, styles and sails needed new ways of making, and reasons or motivation to make them. We need new clothes because we want to look like x or y, usually a social ideal or a fashion. We learn to move our fingers in new ways because we want new clothes. These changes were made sense of in relation to their own social histories and the events in the world around them.”

Survival in northern climates depended on the fabrication of materials that protected from wind, rain and cold. Craftsmen looked to the landscape to provide materials for the looms, stones to use as loom weights, fibre to spin into yarn, vegetable matter to use in dyes. ̽��ֱ��demands from the loom would have sent people out into different parts of the environment at different times of the year, creating a rhythm of interaction. “Anyone who has spent time in the Isles will tell you how animate a presence the wind and weather can be. To fulfil these tasks people needed the right clothing, and other items from sacking all the way through to sails,” said Cartwright.

“Cloth is much more than functional: it is imbued with the spirit of those who make it and those who wear it, use it, or sleep beneath it. There’s evidence in the Viking Age that the processes of spinning and weaving were tied into the spirituality and belief systems of the time. We know many myths and ideas, sometimes carved onto spindle whorls, gave religious and historical importance to the activity. And it is very likely that the spinners and weavers would have known and ‘re-spun’ these ideas, giving significance to what they were doing. They were re-weaving the spiritual world for their families and communities, clothing them in meaning.”

̽��ֱ��transformation of a greasy fleece or flax stems into a garment was an intensive practice often involving thousands of hours of labour. ̽��ֱ��skills required to do this involved a sensory engagement with materials in terms of what it is possible to do with them, how they behave and how to manipulate them, processing raw materials into items of desire, twisting colours together in a way that mirrors the subtle beauty of the landscape. “Many of these ideas would have been passed down, from generation to generation. Body techniques full of meaning, superstitions and practices acted as a social skill set. How these changed - or didn’t - is key to understanding how the islanders created a sense of ‘us’ in this period of social upheaval,” said Cartwright.

Clothing is one of the ways in which people, or groups of people, make themselves distinctive. This is likely to have been as true a thousand or so years ago as it is today. When people take on different roles, new clothes give them new ways of behaving. ̽��ֱ��tailoring, material, and weave of the cloth restrict or emphasise certain movements that made up a social system of manners. Ways of being structured the social relations central to a creating sense of home, and an ‘us’.

Cartwright summed up: “You could even say that the clothing wears the body, gives it certain habits. And just as fashion trends change today as the results of influences both within and beyond communities, so they would have done so in the past. Though seemingly remote to our modern road-based way of thinking, and sometimes cut off from surrounding places by storms, the islands of Atlantic Scotland were in the middle of one of the busiest shipping, and therefore of all transport, routes of the age– and this interconnectedness reveals itself in some of the material choices of the Islanders. Not least at the loom.

"It was this ability to participate in the historic changes of the age, that re-forged the political maps of Britain and Ireland, as well as maintain a distinctive localised identity, a ‘heritage’ bound up in cloth, that makes the islanders of the time so fascinating.”

Ben Cartwright, a member of Cambridge’s Material Culture Lab, is an archaeologist whose research focuses on the ways in which the crafts of spinning and weaving are embedded into the historic culture of the islands of the North Atlantic and remain an important part of island identity.

Craft brings people together, creating a social space where ideas are swapped and made sense of, quite literally with the hands.

Ben Cartwright

Shetland Museum and Archives, Lerwick, Scotland

From fleece to the fibre of local identity: the man in the foreground wears a traditional Fair Isle jumper for working with sheep

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Well dressed?

tdk25 — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

As clothes become cheaper and fashion becomes 'faster', how are we to balance our consumption with environmental, economic and social sustainability?

Growing out of the ‘green’ movement of the 1960s, concerns over the environment began to turn towards ‘sustainability’ in the 1990s. Today, interest is also sharply focused on the issue of greenhouse gas emissions, and consumers in developed economies have become increasingly aware of the environmental impact of the products they buy and the social conditions of those who make them.

There are signs that this awareness is beginning to influence the way people shop. Last year, Marks and Spencer (M&S) decided, at some risk, to convert all of its coffee and tea sales to products made under the ‘Fairtrade’ agreement (which helps disadvantaged producers in the developing world). Sales grew 12% immediately and, after a year, remain 6% higher than previously.

These environmental and social concerns are no less true for the clothing industry. Dr Julian Allwood and researchers at the Institute for Manufacturing in the Department of Engineering have been exploring the environmental, social and economic sustainability of a wide range of future scenarios for the supply of clothing and textiles to the UK. ̽��ֱ��project involved five person-years of effort and led to a major report entitled Well Dressed? published in December 2006.

̽��ֱ��price of fast fashion

̽��ֱ��environmental consequences of our textile consumption are complex and occur at different stages of a garment’s life: from the cultivation of cotton, through garment manufacture, laundering and disposal at the end of its life.

Specific effects on the environment include the use of toxic chemicals in cotton agriculture and manufacture; the high water consumption, particularly for cotton crop cultivation; the contribution to climate change through energy use during manufacture and by laundering clothes; and the solid waste created from the manufacture and disposal of clothing.

These environmental concerns go hand-in-hand with social concerns about the employment of low-paid workers in developing countries, particularly their working hours and safety, and the use of child labour. There are recognised needs for a realistic minimum living wage that would allow workers to escape a cycle of poverty and the rights of workers to form unions.

̽��ֱ��solution? Buy less, keep it longer

̽��ֱ��main conclusion of the analysis is that the impacts of the sector are largely driven by the volume of material passing through it – so the greatest beneficial change would occur if we purchased less clothing and kept it for longer. Although this appears economically negative, it need not be – it could be achieved if we spent twice as much on half the number of (higher quality) garments.

Separately from reducing the flow of material, improvements can be achieved by increasing the efficiency of each process applied to the material. ̽��ֱ��most important process at present is that of laundering – washing clothes at lower temperatures and hang-drying to avoid use of a tumble dryer would approximately halve the total life-cycle energy used by cotton garments. Also, moving from conventional to organic cotton would eliminate the use of toxic chemicals. And increasing the re-use of materials (particularly of man-made materials such as polyester) would save the high energy requirement of new material production.

Weaving the threads of change

An understanding that emerged from this study is that any change that will result in environmental and social benefits in the textile industry will be driven by consumers. How would an ‘ideal’ consumer act? They would buy fewer, longer-lasting garments, choosing those with the least ‘carbon footprint’ made by workers in reasonable working conditions; buy more second-hand clothing; wash clothes less often at a lower temperature using eco-detergents; and recycle those clothes that had reached the end of their lives.

If consumers change their behaviour, companies will follow very quickly, and politicians may follow also. ̽��ֱ��experience of M&S with Fairtrade tea and coffee shows how companies can begin to take a lead in supporting such change – but however willing the company, they can only move with their customers. Consumer education is the key to supporting a move towards beneficial change. ̽��ֱ��very positive media reaction to Well Dressed? has shown that there is growing public interest in responding to concerns about ‘sustainability’ and it is hoped that some of the outcomes will also translate to other sectors.

A world trade

̽��ֱ��clothing and textile industry is a significant part of the world’s economy: In 2000, approximately $1trillion was spent on clothes by consumers worldwide, a third of this in western Europe and a third in North America.

̽��ֱ��industry directly employs at least 26 million people and accounts for around 7% of total world exports.
More than a quarter of the world’s production of clothing and textiles is in China, with Pakistan, Bangladesh and India also making a significant contribution. Trade in clothing and textiles accounts for more than 70% of the exports of Cambodia, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
̽��ֱ��European Union and Mediterranean region retain a strong clothing and textiles industry – with over 4 million people employed, including around 200,000 in the UK.
In the UK, we spent an estimated £625 per head on clothing in 2004. Increased spending between 2001 and 2005 coincided with dropping prices largely due to the rise of ‘fast fashion’ – with sales at supermarkets and chains such as H&M and Zara providing a faster turnover of styles than previously.
Today, we are purchasing and disposing of around 35 kg of clothing and textiles per person each year, of which around 13% is collected for re-use, 13% is incinerated, and the remainder – 26 kg per person – is buried in landfill.

For more information, please contact the author Dr Julian Allwood (jma42@cam.ac.uk) at the Department of Engineering. This research was funded by the UK’s landfill tax credit scheme through Biffa and a contribution from M&S. ̽��ֱ��full report Well Dressed? ̽��ֱ��Present and Future Sustainability of Clothing and Textiles in the UK can be downloaded from https://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/resources/sustainability/well-dressed/.

As clothes become cheaper and fashion becomes 'faster', how are we to balance our consumption with environmental, economic and social sustainability?

Any change that will result in environmental and social benefits in the textile industry will be driven by consumers

Dr Julian Allwood

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Stacks of Clothes

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