Zuzana Kraemerova wrote:
Perhaps I was not clear enough - when I was talking about petticoats, I meant mainly the 19th century of course. The fact is, I was asking if anyone knew a web page or a book where I could read something about fastenings in common - which kind of fastening was used in the middle ages, what in renaissance etc.
For example I'd like to know when did people start to use lace as a fastening - and when buttons. and how did the buttons actually look like? Were they from the same fabric as the garment, or could they have been made of metal? For such questions it is hard to find anywhere an answer.
Hi. Part of the reason is that, first, there may not be an existing starting
date known for what you ask, and second, different items looked different and
were made of differing materials as time went on. There are periods in which,
looking at illustrations, sculptures, etc., one can determine that a certain
item of clothing had begun to, lets say, be fastened by being laced, but that
does not mean that the technique of lacing, for example, shoes did not predate
it...Different garments and clothing items have come and gone in terms of
fastening. For example, there are small shoe buckles being worn on some styles
of shoes up until the 1530s or so, then they go out of style up until the late
1650s 0r early 1660s. Another example would be toggles, which, for a while,
were common fasteners on shoes and perhaps purses, but were never (or, at best,
rarely) seen on clothing (of which I am aware)until after the periods I
reenact, although their close cousins, frogs, were. Another e!
xample would be button shapes, which changed from different historical periods
as well as cultures.
Any study of fastenings that wasn't done from an archaeological background (IMO), such as that book on the history of striped clothing and it's social meanings (I can't remember the title, not that it matters in the vein of this discussion)will, by it's nature, be rather incomplete and inconclusive. Most authors feel the need, one assumes, in order to sell the book to a wider audience, to make social commentary, which takes away from the purely scholarly aspect of such a work. Your best scenario, in this situation, would be to look at things on a case by case basis.There are many experts (or at least educated amateurs)within this list that can quote chapter and verse on their own areas of specialty, and assist you in their own ways. Good Luck, Mike T.
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