{"id":9935,"date":"2017-09-08T05:28:06","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T05:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=9935"},"modified":"2017-09-11T05:30:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T05:30:41","slug":"how-fashion-adapted-to-climate-change-in-the-little-ice-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-fashion-adapted-to-climate-change-in-the-little-ice-age\/","title":{"rendered":"How fashion adapted to climate change \u2013 in the Little Ice Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lane Eagles<\/a>, University of Washington<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

One could say the consequences of the planet\u2019s warming climate can be seen on fashion week runways and the shelves of Anthropologie and H&M. Silhouettes shrink as midriffs and backs open. Sheer fabrics, breathable textiles and flowy draping are in<\/a>. And in response to climate change\u2019s rapid pace, some corners of the fashion industry are moving toward implementing sustainable business practices<\/a> and incorporating more flexibility<\/a> within their designs<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Today people may see global warming as a modern phenomenon, but fashion has a long history of responding to worldwide climate change. <\/p>\n

The only difference is that while we sweat, early modern Europeans froze. The Little Ice Age was an interval of erratic cooling that ravaged the Northern Hemisphere roughly between the 14th and 19th centuries. And like today\u2019s designers, Renaissance fashion designers were forced to contend with shifting temperatures and strange weather.<\/p>\n

A menacing chill settles on Europe<\/h2>\n

Scientists have yet to determine the primary cause of the Little Ice Age<\/a>, and historians are still pinning down its exact chronological parameters. But voices from the era describe a rapidly cooling climate.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time there was such a great cold that we almost froze to death in our quarters,\u201d a soldier wrote in his diary<\/a> while traveling through Germany in 1640. \u201cAnd,\u201d he continued, \u201con the road, three people did freeze to death: a cavalry-man, a woman, and a boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The entry was from August. <\/p>\n

Scholars do agree that the Little Ice Age impacted our shared global history<\/a> in myriad traceable ways. Its unpredictable temperature fluctuations and sudden freezes devastated harvests, escalated civil unrest and left thousands to starve. It may have inspired the menacingly chilly settings of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cKing Lear\u201d and Charles Dickens\u2019s \u201cA Christmas Carol.\u201d Darkness and clouds haunt the skies<\/a> of paintings<\/a> created during the period. <\/p>\n

And the Little Ice Age also altered the history of fashion<\/a>. As the cold ramped up in the 16th century, fashion championed warmer styles: Heavy drapery, multiple layers and sleeves that trailed on the floor became more common across the visual and material record, while examples of the oldest surviving European gloves<\/a>, hats<\/a>, capes<\/a> and coats<\/a> from the era populate museum costume collections today. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo one in Egypt used to know about wearing furs,\u201d a Turkish man traveling through northern Africa wrote in 1670<\/a>. \u201cThere was no winter. But now we have severe winters and we have started wearing furs because of the cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staying fashionably warm<\/h2>\n

This change can be observed by comparing medieval and Renaissance dress.<\/p>\n

In one French medieval manuscript<\/a> (illustrated between 1115 and 1125), the knight\u2019s skirt is slit to the hip, and his squire\u2019s hemline stops above the knee. There are no capes, fur or headgear; the garments are light and loose \u2013 especially compared to what men wore 400 years later, when the Little Ice Age was in full swing.<\/p>\n

Take Hans Holbien\u2019s iconic 1553 painting \u201cThe French Ambassadors<\/a>,\u201d which depicts two courtiers to King Henry VIII. The man on the left, wearing thick, dark velvets and a heavily fur-lined overcoat, is the French ambassador to England, Jean de Dinteville. Georges de Selve, the bishop of Lavaur, stands on the right. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n Hans Holbein\u2019s \u2018The Ambassadors.\u2019<\/span>
\n Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The cleric has donned a floor-length coat befitting his godly station. But it would have also been very effective against cold. Both men sport fashionable caps and undergarments. The laced collar of De Selve\u2019s undershirt peaks above his robes, and those white slashes in de Dinteville shiny pink shirt show off his hidden layers. <\/p>\n

As with all portraits from the era, these men dressed to impress for the sitting \u2013 meaning their fanciest clothes were possibly their warmest.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n A c. 1545 portrait of Catherine Parr.<\/span>
\n Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Women\u2019s clothing also had to sustain temperature fluctuations that tended to range colder during the Little Ice Age. In a 16th-century portrait of Katherine Parr<\/a>, the sixth wife of Henry VIII, Parr wears a headdress and a multi-layered gown with billowing sleeves. <\/p>\n

Several petticoats would have been required to sustain the bell shape of her skirts. If you look closely, you\u2019ll see a thin, translucent layer of fabric that shields her exposed skin where the neckline ends. Meanwhile, a large fur mantle \u2013 at the time, an essential accessory \u2013 is draped over her arms. <\/p>\n

A removed opulence<\/h2>\n

New York City\u2019s Metropolitan Museum of Art has a surviving collection of clothes from the late 16th century<\/a>, some of which could point to the cold\u2019s influence on Renaissance clothing.<\/p>\n

For example, one Spanish dress<\/a> is outfitted with a cape atop the thick fabrics that make up the bodice, skirt and stacked sleeves. Beneath this densely layered gown, the wearer would have also needed to don several tiers of skirts and undergarments. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n A late 16th-century Spanish ensemble features thick fabrics.<\/span>
\n MoMA<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A British lady\u2019s jacket<\/a> from around 1616 also may hint at cold weather. Tailored from linen, silk and metal, this tight bodice probably kept its wearer very warm. (Early modern clothing often featured cloth-of-gold thread, which was made from actual thin strips of gold metal and painstakingly wrapped around sewing thread.) <\/p>\n

Portraits and preserved garments from the Little Ice Age tend to have one thing in common: They are all the pictures or products of elites who enjoyed the means to have a likeness made of themselves. Their wealth is evident in the very existence of these images and the expensive clothes they wear. <\/p>\n

Knit wool caps<\/a> are perfectly suitable for fending off freezing temperatures, but the wealthy women of the era instead opted for elaborate, pearl-lined headdresses that trailed yards of gauzy veils<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Their opulence ignores the various crises of the era. While countless peasants were displaced from their homes and died from starvation or rampant disease, the rich simply transitioned to sable-lined sleeves and mantels threaded with gold. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s dangerous to oversimplify historical narrative. But the parallels to our current situation are hard to ignore. Climate change is a looming threat, with deep social and political ramifications. <\/p>\n

\"TheYet for many, it remains a distant phenomenon, something that \u2013 beyond buying lighter, looser clothing \u2013 is easy to dismiss.<\/p>\n

Lane Eagles<\/a>, Ph.D. Candidate in Art History, University of Washington<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lane Eagles, University of Washington One could say the consequences of the planet\u2019s warming climate can be seen on fashion week runways and the shelves of Anthropologie and H&M. Silhouettes shrink as midriffs and backs open. Sheer fabrics, breathable textiles and flowy draping are in. And in response to climate change\u2019s rapid pace, some corners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":9936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[158,139,728,129,349,839,3100,191,3098,3099],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9937,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9935\/revisions\/9937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}