Witcher Fandom: Costume Historian Weighing In On Episode 1
my first post that’s screenshots next to art/garments they remind me of and a little commentary
Important details to highlight:
-Wrap around top with a separate piece as the collar
Portrait of a Young Man; ca. 1508 Hans Süss von Kulmbach, German
NGL I had completely dismissed finding anything for Renfri because of how anachronistic her design seemed to me re: historical design (because of her pants and leather armor) but I was wildly delighted to find this piece. I was drawn to the similar wrap-around structure with a separate collar piece to add stability. In the painting it seems more like a jacket with sleeves that button open along the arm, but I’m still chuffed!
;) hair’s not so different either
Important details to highlight:
-High gathering on the sleeve head- though not a puffed sleeve
-Small ruffle on the cuffs and collar of his shirt/smock
-Unstructured overgown/surcoat (considered somewhat unfashionable/worn by old men by the 1550s)
Originally, I’d placed the silhouette much more in 1500 because of the length of the skirt on his jerkin and his wearing an overgown/surcoat but high neckline, the absence of a true puffed sleeve, and the long line of buttons pushes this forward in time
Portrait of a Man with a Rosary ca. 1508 Lucas Cranach the Elder, German
The neckline here is low compared to Stregobor but you can clearly see the kind of overgown/surcoat that Stregobor wears: they were often trimmed with fur, as in this painting, but they were typically fitted through the shoulders and loose around the body.
On the arms of the doublet, you can also see what appears to be a damask or brocade fabric- though much much subtle than Stregobor’s!
Alessandro Vittoria ca. 1580 Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari), Italian
Here we can see a sleeve much more like Stregobor’s- it’s gathered high in the head and tapers down into a slimmer fit on the forearm. We can also see the ruffles of his shirt at the cuff and collar. There’s a line down the front, and I can’t see if there’s buttons because of the image quality, but fabric or thread covered buttons to “blend in” with the garment were also made at the time!
Important details to highlight:
-Breastplate with vertical striped ornamentation
-Relatively low/smooth line to the pauldrons
-Relatively small/tight spaulders
-A low pigeon breast curve to the breastplate
Hello I know very little about dating armor
Sir John Shurley of Isfield (1588) British Painter British
Arms and armor are hard for me to date but I feel like these look like contemporaries
Important details to highlight:
If I remember correctly, this is the style of helmets worn by pikemen and cavalrymen- the ridge was to redirect the force of a direct bashing blow
Important details to highlight:
-Low neckline on her smock/chemise
-Waist is high under the bust
We don’t have many dated and easy to discern peasant outfits in the historical record- but what I really like about Marilka’s outfit is that the palette is in a natural and available dye color. Her skirt is in the range of what you can dye with madder and her coat/bodice is a mostly blue / sort of green which you can achieve by overdying woad with weld.
Juni, Brevarium Grimani, fol. 7v (Flemish) circa 1510
As I said above, here’s a good example of the color palette in the historical record. For the closer woman, the blue portion you can see is probably the bottom half of a kirtle which would also have a laced bodice. Marilka could be wearing a kirtle under her jacket: many didn’t have a “front” portion as we would know them- some of them had a full back and just tied across the front to accommodate different sizes. The jacket has short sleeves which would have provided additional protection from the sun and like Marilka they have a v front.
okay hello everyone I am not going to go down the rabbit hole of the history of knitting here too like I’m sorry it’s weird and complicated and hard to explain but TL;DR knit garments of the time were not like Marilka’s they were like this because of complicated political/guild reasons and also the price of labor and wool
-High shoulders to the jackets
-Lack of puffed sleeves, some with shoulder “wings”
-Trunks/Hose are close to the legs
The puffed sleeves generally drop from fashion in the 1560s and the puffed trunks/breeches drop in the 1570s where they become baggy and become more fitted in the 1580s. Though in the 1580s, the doublets generally had longer skirts so I’d generally place this in the 1590s.
Doublet 1605-1610 (made), 1870-1895 (altered) England
This is from a decade later- so the waist line on the jacket has risen a bit. Here you can see the double seams of the sleeves (along the front and back of the arm) that allow for a tighter fit and full range of movement. You can see the shoulder wings here- rather conservative. In the 1590s the wings were wider in length, and in the 1600-1610s they were thicker. Interestingly, along the waist seam you can see small holes/eyelets where the hose/breeches/trunks would lace into the doublet! That lacing held your “pants” up
Two Children Teasing a Cat (c. 1600) Annibale Carracci Italian
NGL I just thought this was cute
-Sleeves Coordinating (not matching) Body
-Slight puff to shoulders
Separates for women were a thing that we know was common though there’s fewer portraits I can find of it. Women wearing doublets was a trend in the Elizabethan era (c. 1560-1600). I think her full outfit has a separate matching skirt and there’s a peplum on the doublet which did happen.
Portrait of a Lady in Black and White - Alessandro Allori (Florence) c. 1590
This is a rather fanciful example but here we go: a front closing women’s doublet/gown with coordinating sleeves. Under the ruff, there was likely a grown-on collar as Ciri wears. I’m peeved because I know I’ve seen examples much closer to what Ciri wears but I can’t find any right now.
I skipped over a few screenshots I originally wanted to do (Eist, the ball guests, and Mousesack/Ermion for sure) because I’d already spent two nights on it but if there’s something you’d like me to unpack- I’d be happy to do it for you <3
