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Chemise
By Madeline | January 16, 2008
I was thinking the other day of all the amounts of clothes that a person had to wear during the Tudor era, primarily the women. So I thought it would be very interesting to post all the different layers that they wore on my blog.
Starting first and foremost is the chemise which today is French for shirt. The chemise was primarily cut out of rectangles and triangles – mainly the poor did this to try to preserve as much fabric as possible. It was made out of rough cloth for the poor, while the rich wore chemises made of thin, soft and fine linen.
The chemise was the first item that was donned not only by women, but by men too. The chemise was garment that was usually changed on a daily basis (at least for the rich who could easily afford multiple ones) and was washed regularly. The purpose of the chemise was to protect the outer garment, which was seldom, if ever, washed as it absorbed the natural oils produced by the body and kept the BO smell from becoming too obvious.
The chemise wins the award for longevity when it comes to fashion because it was used all the up until the 20th century before it was fashioned into panties, underwear, bras, slips, etc. However, many men typically still wear a sort of chemise which has taken shape in the basic white undershirt. I thought that was pretty interesting.
Topics: Medieval Era, Tudor Era |
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