Laurent Vital on Irish clothing in 1518
Burgundian courtier Laurent Vital visited Kinsale, Co. Cork in 1518. He wrote an account of the visit titled "Speaking a little of the country of Ireland" which included descriptions of Irish people and culture. Vital was less bigoted toward the Irish than many of the 16th c. English writers. His writing was still somewhat biased though, because his information came from a French-speaking (probably Anglo-Irish) Irishman who was prejudiced against the rural Gaelic Irish.
Vital's account was only translated into English in 2012, so it is not included in Irish dress history books, because all of them (Dress in Ireland by Mairead Dunlevy, Before the Kilt by Gerald Kelly, Bríd Mahon's books, H. F. McClintock's books) were published before 2012. This is unfortunate, because Vital's descriptions include a lot of details of Irish dress.
The 2012 translation has some flaws. I think the translator, Dorothy Convery, was not knowledgeable about 16th c. Irish dress and possibly not the most familiar with 16th c. French, because she completely misinterpreted some of the clothing descriptions. I have done my best to correct these, but I don't actually know French, so my revised version is not perfect either. If anyone has suggestions for improving it, let me know. I used Randle Cotgrave's 1611 A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2020 (DMF 2020), the University of Chicago's compilation of historical French dictionaries, Wiktionary, and honestly, google translate for this. (Google translate actually does a really good job with French, like 60% of the time.)
The original French text of Vital's account is available here. Convery's complete translation is here. Content Warning if you decide to read the Vital's complete account: It contains a description of assault with a possible forced marriage. Also, Vital was kind of obsessed with breasts. I am only including the parts describing Irish dress and hairstyles in this post. Translation footnotes are at the end of each page. I couldn't figure out a nicer way to format them on tumblr.
Excerpts from "Speaking a little of the country of Ireland" translated by Dorothy Convery and revised by Deidre
p. 285
The inhabitants [of Ireland] are very strangely and singularly costumed and would that it is so well described that you might picture how they dress just as I saw them, both the men and the women. For to see them is enough to make you laugh. Firstly married women wear their finery, and linen head coverings (1); some yellow and others white. When they are women of status, they have chemises with wide sleeves, worked around the collar and in the seams with silk needlework of different colours. Many of them had their hair cropped in front and back, except for two tresses of hair at either side, which are an ell long. They plait these like children here making hats from rushes and then secure them so they do not come undone. And with the tops of their heads so adorned, these loops of hair braided accordingly hang down in front more or less to their waists, in such a way that these women can put the ends into their kerchiefs (1), which they secure with wool tape (2). These women have their kirtles or petticoats (3) punched (4) there as they were worn alone in the past, with rings placed over (5) the bustline to support their breasts. And above their dresses they wear wide fillets (6) and big belts decorated with beautiful buckles, some of gilded silver, also of copper, metal or brass, according to their rank. Their dresses have loose sleeves, open the length of the arms, unfastened to hang (7) very nicely. Generally, the men, women and young girls wear their chemises (8) open to the waist, without any difference between them except that the women's chemises are, as they are over here, wide at the bottom, made with gores (9) with 4 seams, (10) if needed. So that most young women and girls have their chests naked to the waist; it is as common there to see or touch the breast of a girl or woman, as it is to touch her hand. And so, there are as many different fashions and customs as there are countries.
Translation notes:
coevrechief: kerchief or headcovering
patelette: Bande d'étoffe (DMF 2020) cloth tape, wool or possibly linen
cottes ou cotelettes: kirtle, or possibly coat, or frock/gown (see Cotte in Cotgrave 1611)
ponchonnées: pierced or punched, meaning eyelets made with an awl, or possibly decorative stamping
rondz eslevez: possibly metal lacing rings which were in use by the late 15th c. This whole sentence is confusing to me.
tissu: a bawdricke, ribbon, fillet, or head-band of woven stuffe (Cotgrave 1611)
lachiés à traillette: laschier: let go, release (DMF 2020) trailler: to trayle a Deere (Cotgrave 1611) to trail or to hang. I think this sentence is describing hanging sleeves like those on the Shinrone gown, but it could also be interpreted as "Their dresses have wide sleeves, open the length of the arms, loose to hang very nicely."
I am keeping the original French usage of chemise to mean both the man's and woman's garment, because Irish uses the same word, léine, for both.
ghéron: I think this word is derived from the Old French giron meaning gusset or triangular shape.
genoulx: knee, also join (ie seam in this context) (cf. genouille: full of joins (Cotgrave 1611))
p. 286
The women and girls there wear coloured stockings (1) of red and green and others that they like, better narrowed and tightened with garters than those of Castile. They wear little shoes (2) with single soles, very pretty and cute, worked over other colors of leather and sometimes gilded with tinned leather, as if it were gilded (2), like the shoes which were bought for children at fairs in past times. The place was full of beautiful young women and also girls of marriageable age who were very charming and pleasant. Unmarried young women went bareheaded in summer time with their hair tied back in the same way as maidens over here; and they wear on their heads garlands of flowers or greenery.
Translation notes:
chausses: stockings or hose in Middle French (wiktionary.org)
solier: alternate spelling of soulier: shoe (Cotgrave 1611)
ie like with gold
p. 287-288
Having heard about the rig-out of the women and girls, listen how the men are kitted out. For sure, even more strangely than the women, and particularly the rural people and the savages; for they were shorn and shaved one palm above the ears, so that only the tops of their heads were covered with hair. But on the forehead they leave about a palm of hair to grow down to their eyebrows like a tuft of hair which one leaves hanging on horses between the two eyes. They are strangely bearded, some shave their beards just to just above the mouth and others to below the mouth. Others shave some places and let their beards grow in tufts. These men have their chemises open there, down to the belt, without having sleeves, so their arms are naked. They are belted (1) in heavy linen which goes one and a half times around them, and goes nearly from their neck to their feet, and they go with naked feet and bare legs. [. . .skipping the part on weapons because I don't know enough about weapons. . .] These men dress and enshroud (2) themselves in large hairy mantles, worn over their heads as the women in Brabant wear their huiks. (3) This mantle only goes halfway past the belt; and over that a long shortening (4) of linen. Thus shorn, bearded, armed and barefoot — as I said — imagine how strange this costume is to look at. I must say, I have never seen anything like this before even in a painting.
Translation notes:
chaindent: from chainture the Middle French spelling of ceinture
affubler: to cloath, clad, put on; to attire, or cover with, muffle, or enwrap in, hide, or shrowd, under clothes. (Cotgrave 1611)
huik: a type of cloak worn by women in the Low Countries. It typically had a bill-like brim to shade the wearer's face. more info
escourcoeul: probably the same origin as écourter: to shorten. I think Vital is describing the Irishmen's practice of shortening their léinte by pulling them up over their belts, but I'm not confident about the translation of this sentence.