European women’s fashion in 1450-1500

Fashion in 15th-century Europe was characterized by a series of extremes and extravagances, from the voluminous gowns called houppelandes with their sweeping floor-length sleeves to the revealing doublets and hose of Renaissance Italy. Hats, hoods, and other headdresses assumed increasing importance, and were swagged, draped, jewelled, and feathered.

Women's fashion
Clothes that clearly outline the line of the body from this era became mainstream. Costumes that were farmers' women's costumes tied in front of themselves and costumes to wear can be worn preferentially in relatively rich classes. Also, costume wearing sleeveless covering the waist corresponding to the current bodys liked to the upper class.

In France, a crown appeared directly as an ancestor of the current corset which puts whale bone in the bodice and tightens her waist.

Common people
Many farmers covered their hair with a hood and a scarf in simple clothes from the earlier days wearing cot on top of it. Hanging keyrings and wallets on the waist, with legs made with leather or cloth and wore shoes with bottom with trees. " The most valuable time book of the Duke of Berry " depicts the figure of a French farmer's daughter looking on a white underwear with a blue dress that tightens the front and slims his waist. The costume to tighten this cord was called Corset, initially it was a farmer's daughter's costume, but by the mid- 15th century a relatively rich hierarchy of daughters also arrived.

In the image of the saint created in the 15th century, there is something wearing a costume dressed in a luxurious cloth spreading the skirt slowly. It seems that these statues of Saint were referenced to the relatively wealthy young women's clothing of those days, the hair is braided in braids and gathered on both sides of the head, and the gently knitted ones are seen behind. Hat head whose back head part protruded greatly is also in fashion, but what was more elegant was Enan hat which appeared from the end of the 14th century as well. Since the 15th century, the veil covers the entire hat. Shoes were a trendy Phulane.

Upstream citizen
In the first half of the fifteenth century, cot was tailored with luxurious fabrics, corset etc worn. Her hair was wearing various kinds of objects which were formed by pasting a thin and tight fabric such as hemp on the frame. From the middle of the 15th century, it is mainstream to wear Uppland which opened the neck deeply under the influence of Italian mode. Many things opened in a trapezoidal shape, as the end of the fifteenth century approached deep V neck seems to be more. The waist position became a considerable high waist down to the lower chest, and the skirt had a considerably long draw hem. In the case of a wealthy citizen, there were five replacement sleeves (removable arm cover type, those with embroidery etc.) that were fashionable at the time, while women of ordinary citizens usually had one There was also possession of one. Some people were in bankruptcy because of sleeves.

Early in the 15th century, hairstyles that added hair and tied hair to a square around a temple and wearing a veil-like object from the top were popular. Wearing a hood with a ruffled face around the face also became popular, but in the late 15th century it became a custom of an old woman. When the times come down, style that pulls the hair behind and takes the position of the forehead wide is popular. In order to decorate veils used for such head dresses, white work was used and embroidery using white threads and a technique of drilling holes opened in the fabric were introduced from Italy.

Upper class
Early in the last century, Cotardi was wearing, but the luxurious Uppland which became extremely high waist became popular mainly. The pull skirt is so long that even a painting in a horseback riding horse laying on the warehouse hangs just above the ground. Also, as a costume worn only by ladies, waist length outerwear is appearing without sleeves made of arumin (white ten ) fur. It was used in formal wear with Surreaux Two Veil (a coat with windows).

Gown, kirtle, and chemise
Women's fashions of the 15th century consisted of a long gown, usually with sleeves, worn over a kirtle or undergown, with a linen chemise or smock worn next to the skin. The sleeves were made detachable and were heavily ornamented. The long-waisted silhouette of the previous period was replaced by a high-waisted style with fullness over the belly, often confined by a belt. The wide, shallow scooped neckline was replaced by a V-neck, often cut low enough to reveal the decorated front of the kirtle beneath.
Around 1450, the dress of northern Europe developed a low V-neck that showed a glimpse of the square-necked kirtle. The neckline could be filled in with a sheer linen partlet. Wide turn-backs like revers displayed a contrasting lining, frequently of fur or black velvet, and the sleeves might be cuffed to match. Sleeves were very long, covering half of the hand, and often highly decorated with embroidery. Fine sleeves were often transferred from one dress to another. The term robe déguisée was coined in the mid-1400s to describe garments reflecting the very latest fashions, a term which endured into the 16th century.

In Italy, the low scoop-neck of the early decades gave way to a neckline that was high in front with a lower V-neck at the back at mid-15th century. This was followed by a V-neckline that displayed the kirtle or gamurra (sometimes spelled camorra). Sleeveless overgowns such as the cioppa were popular, and the gamurra sleeves displayed were often of rich figured silks. A lighter-weight undergown for summer wear was the cotta. A sideless overgown called the giornea was worn with the gamurra or cotta. Toward the end of the period, sleeves were made in sections or panels and slashed, allowing the full chemise sleeves below to be pulled through in puffs along the arm, at the shoulder, and at the elbow. This was the beginning of the fashion for puffed and slashed sleeves that would last for two centuries.

The partlet, a separate item to fill in a low neckline, appeared in this period, usually of sheer fabric (linen or possibly silk) with an open V-neckline. Some partlets have a collar and a back similar to the upper part of a shirt. Burgundian partlets are usually depicted worn under the dress (but over the kirtle); in Italy the partlet seems to have been worn over the gown and could be pointed or cut straight across at the lower front.

Two uniquely Spanish fashions appear from the 1470s. The verdugada or verdugado was a gown with a bell-shaped hoop skirt with visible casings stiffened with reeds, which would become the farthingale. The earliest depictions of this garment come from Catalonia, where it is worn with pieced or slashed sleeves and the second new style, a chemise with trumpet sleeves, open and very wide at the wrist.

The sideless surcoat of the 14th century became fossilized as a ceremonial costume for royalty, usually with an ermine front panel (called a plackard or placket) and a mantle draped from the shoulders; it can be seen in variety of royal portraits and as "shorthand" to identify queens in illuminated manuscripts of the period.

Hairstyles and headdresses
A variety of hats and headdresses were worn in Europe in the 15th century. The crespine of Northern Europe, originally a thick hairnet or snood, had evolved into a mesh of jeweler's work that confined the hair on the sides of the head by the end of the 14th century. Gradually the fullness at the sides of head was pulled up to the temples and became pointed, like horns (à corné). By mid-15th century, the hair was pulled back from the forehead, and the crespine, now usually called a caul, sat on the back of the head. Very fashionable women shaved their foreheads and eyebrows. Any of these styles could be topped by a padded roll, sometimes arranged in a heart-shape, or a veil, or both. Veils were supported by wire frames that exaggerated the shape and were variously draped from the back of the headdress or covered the forehead.

Women also wore the chaperon, a draped hat based on the hood and liripipe, and a variety of related draped and wrapped turbans.

The most extravagant headdress of Burgundian fashion is the hennin, a cone or truncated-cone shaped cap with a wire frame covered in fabric and topped by a floating veil. Later hennins feature a turned-back brim, or are worn over a hood with a turned-back brim. Towards the end of the 15th century women's head-dresses became smaller, more convenient, and less picturesque. The gable hood, a stiff and elaborate head-dress, emerged around 1480 and was popular among elder ladies up until the mid 16th century.

Women of the merchant classes in Northern Europe wore modified versions of courtly hairstyles, with coifs or caps, veils, and wimples of crisp linen (often with visible creases from ironing and folding). A brief fashion added rows of gathered frills to the coif or veil; this style is sometimes known by the German name kruseler.

The general European convention of completely covering married women's hair was not accepted in warmer Italy. Italian women wore their hair very long, wound with ribbons or braided, and twisted up into knots of various shapes with the ends hanging free. The hair was then covered with sheer veils or small caps. Toward the 1480s women wore chin-length sections of hair in loose waves or ripples over the ears (a style that would inspire "vintage" hair fashions in the 1620s and '30s and again in the 1840s and 1850s). Blond hair was considered desirable (by Botticelli for one), and visitors to Venice reported that ladies sat out in the sun on their terraces with their hair spread out around large circular disks worn like hats, attempting to bleach it in the sun. Chemical methods were also used.

Women's footwear
Women from the 14th century wore laced ankle-boots, which were often lined with fur. Later in the 15th century, women also wore "poulaines". They used pattens to protect their tight shoes.

Style gallery – Northern Europe 1450s–1470s

1 – 1455	2 – 1460	3 – 1460	4 – c. 1460	5 – 1467–71
6 – 1476–78	7 – 1470

1.This Portrait of a Lady by Rogier van der Weyden shows the hair pulled smoothly back from her face and confined in a caul or early hennin beneath a sheer veil. The gown has a wide V-neckline that shows the dark kirtle beneath and is worn with a wide red belt and a sheer partlet at the neck, Netherlands.
2.Emilia in the garden in this illustration from Boccaccio, Emilia wears the formal ermine-trimmed sideless surcoat that identifies royalty in illuminated manuscripts of this period, 1460.
3.Ladies in another illustration from Boccaccio wear tall steeple hennins with white veils. A long gown with a train has fur at the cuffs and neckline and is worn with a wide belt, c. 1460.
4.An attendant in the same illustration wears a red hood with a long liripipe. Her blue gown is "kirtled" or shortened by poufing it over a belt, c. 1460.
5.Woman wears a simple headdress of draped linen and a red gown trimmed with white fur. Note that the sleeve is only attached to the dress at the top, 1467–71.
6.Maria Portinari wears a truncated cone hennin with a veil draped over the back. The black loop on her forehead is thought to be part of the wire frame that balances the hennin. Her gown has a black collar trimmed in white fur and she wears an elaborate carcanet or necklace, 7.Netherlands, 1478–78.
8.Elizabeth Woodville, Queen consort of Edward IV of England, wears a black gown with patterned collar and cuffs and a matching truncated English hennin beneath a sheer veil. 1470s.

Style gallery – Northern Europe 1480s–1490s

1 – 1480	2 – 1480–85	3 – 1485–90	4 – 1490	5 – 1490s
6 – 1496–98	7 – 1496–98	8 – 1499

1.Mary Magdalene is portrayed in contemporary dress of 1480. The low front opening now laces over the kirtle or an inserted panel or plackard, and the gown is draped up to reveal the richer fabric of the kirtle skirt.
2.Long gowns of the 1480s are carried looped up to allow walking, displaying the kirtle beneath.
3.In this allegory of True Love, the woman wears a pointed hennin with a sheer veil. Her gown is laced across her kirtle, Netherlands, 1485–90.
4.Anne de Beaujeu, Regent of France, in the ceremonial ermine-trimmed sideless surcoat and mantle of royalty, c. 1490s. The small cap worn with her coronet is a new French fashion of the last decade of the 15th century.
5.Margaret of Austria wears a red velvet front-opening gown lined in ermine. Her hood has black velvet lappets and gold embroidery, 1490s.
6.Hypsipylé, first wife of Jason is depicted wearing an embroidered coif or cap decorated with small slashes, with her hair braided down her back underneath. She wears a square-necked gown with flared sleeves, French, 1496–98.
7.Another fashionable headdress of this period features a striped veil wrapped over an embroidered padded roll with a jewel, worn over a coif tied under the chin. The portion over the brow is probably a matching "forehead cloth" rather than part of the coif. The loose, square-necked gown of figured silk is worn over a black partlet, French, 1496–98.
8.Juana I of Castile is depicted in the royal ermine-trimmed sideless surcoat and a symbolic mantle with heraldic decoration.

Style gallery – Italy and Spain 1460s–1490s

1 – 1470	2 – 1476–80	3 – 1470s	4 – 1490	5 – 1490
6 – 1490	7 – 1490–95	8 – 1490–96

1.Florentine woman wears sleeves of figured silk with the fashionable pomegranate motif, 1470.
2.Simonetta Vespucci wears her very long hair in a knot at the back with a tail wrapped in black cord or ribbons. A single braid is studded with pearls, and a long loose lock is looped over the braid. Her neckline is lower and squared, 1478–80.
3.Princess Salome and her attendants are pictured in Catalan dress of the 1470s. This image is one of the earliest depictions of the verdugada or farthingale, a skirt stiffened with reeds set in casings, that would spread to Italy briefly in the 1480s and '90s, and to France and England in the 16th century. The flaring chemise sleeves of striped or embroidered fabric are uniquely Spanish at this time, but the small cap and wrapped braid of hair are common to both Spain and Italy.
4.1490 portrait of a lady features the sheer pointed partlet worn over the gown that was popular in Italy at this time. This woman wears a small cap with a brim on the back of her head; it ties under her chin.
5.Neroccio di Bartolomeo de' Landi "Lady" wears a V-necked, high-waisted gown with hanging sleeves over a floral silk gamurra with a square neckline. Her cap is of the same floral silk. Siena, c. 1490.
6.Two Venetian ladies with blonde frizzy hair and caps. The very high waist is typical of Venice. Note the chopines or platform shoes to the left. As with other similar pictures, historians argue as to whether these are patrician ladies or courtesans.
7.Isabella of Castille in her crown wears a gown with long hanging sleeves over pieced and jewelled undersleeves and a gold brocade kirtle. Her companion (probably her daughter Juana or Joanna) wears undersleeves fastened up the back over full chemise sleeves. Her red gown is open from the waist down in back and has very long hanging sleeves, one of which is looped up over her right shoulder. Her hair is braided and wrapped with a knot or tassel at the end. Spain, 1490–95.
8.Leonardo da Vinci's La Belle Ferronière wears her long hair smoothed over her ears and pulled back into a braid. Her sleeves are tied to her evening gown, and the chemise beneath is pulled out in puffs between the ribbon ties. The puffs and the lower waist would be important fashion trends in the next decades.

Source from Wikipedia