From Medieval Hoods to Elizabethan Farthingales

press release: Four Lectures on Historical Clothing: From Medieval Hoods to Elizabethan Farthingales. Presented byGale Owen-Crocker and Robin Netherton on Saturday, May 4, 2019 at Crucible Nightclub!

Please join us for a day of education and fun! Lecture topics and registration details are now available below.

Lecture Topics:

MORNING: Gale R. Owen-Crocker

Anglo-Saxon Dress and Textiles

The lecture begins by considering how we come to know anything about dress and textiles in the Anglo-Saxon period (England, c. 450–1066), considering in turn the written evidence, the archaeological evidence, and the evidence of art, and explaining the special value and limitations of each. It continues with a rapid chronological survey of what we know, highlighting what seem to be particularly favorite features throughout the Anglo-Saxon era.

Headgear with a History

Headgear was an immediate identifier of gender, role, and status throughout the Middle Ages (and indeed into modern times). This lecture takes a close look at four surviving items, respectively from thirteenth-century Spain, fourteenth-century Sweden, very early medieval Scotland (third to seventh century), and fourteenth-century England. The first two are closely contextualized; the latter two have no associations, and the objects have to tell their own stories—but what a lot they can tell us!

AFTERNOON: Robin Netherton

The Fifteenth-Century V-Neck Gown

The so-called “Burgundian” style that dominates much of fifteenth-century fashion in Western Europe is in fact two separate styles, which have distinctive characteristics and are apparently constructed in two completely different ways. An examination of artwork over the course of the century demonstrates the differences and provides clues as to how the two styles developed and the ways in which they may have been made.

Inventing the Wheel: The Strange History of the Wheel Farthingale

The “wheel” farthingale, popular in English art from the 1590s through at least the 1620s, has long been described as one of the strangest inventions of Western fashion, with its wide skirt standing out from the wearer’s hips like a dinner plate. For the past two centuries, authors have proposed a variety of ways of achieving this silhouette, based on various arrangements of boned or wired understructures. A close look at the evidence from the period, however, shows clearly that the secret behind the wheel shape was something quite different from what is typically assumed by historians and costumers alike.

Tickets may be purchased HERE through Brown Paper Tickets.

Adults: $30; high school and college students with current valid ID: $20; lunch: $7 Please preregister to guarantee availability! Registration deadline: May 1, 2019. Admission tickets will be available at the door, but lunch tickets may be limited. Cash only at the door! Please preregister if you want lunch.

Program Schedule:

8:30 AM        Registration

9:00 AM        Welcome and Introductions

9:15 AM        Gale Owen-Crocker Lectures

11:45 AM*    Lunch Break

12:30 PM*    Robin Netherton Lectures

3:00 PM        Open question Period (Time Permitting) 

3:30 PM        Program concludes

4PM              Site opens as a Gallery Night venue

5PM               Dinner out at local eatery