Landsknecht Guild

Post edited 9:45 pm - May 20, 2010 by julie

Having your hemd (chemise) showing was definitely a style that appears in a lot of paintings. Cranach especially has plenty of plenty portraits of women with lace front gowns with their underclothes showing through. Like the portrait of the three princesses of Saxony (which I don’t think is Cranach, but it’s always the first one that springs to mind…) This style of open front gown was also popular in Flemland Flanders (a.k.a. Belguim and the Low Countries). Drea Leeds has a book on Flemish working women’s clothing (it’s out of print) that I can bring along this weekend if you want to see it. She reproduces several paintings by Pieter Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer that show front lace gowns. In some cases they wore an underdress, and sometimes they didn’t and you can see the chemise. My guess is that whether they wore an underdress probably depended on the season/weather. You can check out her page on Flemish clothing here http://www.elizabethancostume……dress.html