German working women

Im working on a new outfit, an outfit for a 16th century working woman of southern Germany. There are a lot of woodcuts of 16th century working woman. But they are almost never in colour. So I also have too look elsewere. There are both biblical and allegorical scenes painted in contemporaneous settings and therefore its safe to belive that the working class garments shown in them are accurate. The women in these paintings wear gowns with a smooth bodies, fitted sleeves and a skirt pleated to the bodies. The neckline is most often squared-shaped, but the can also be a bit more round. The most common way to close the bodies is with hooks and eyes in the front, but there are also a few that are closed at the side. Undergarments can be closed with eyelets. Colours tend to be yellow, red, green and blue. Dresses without sleeves can be seen but are most likely kirtles. 

They almost always wear a apron, mostly white linen, but there are some red ones too. And yes, I know there are other colours too, but I have not seen any on workers. The contemporary designations Schurz, Schurzrock, Schurz fur, Schurzhemd and Schurzfleck from 16th century German inventories refer to differences in apperence. According to Jutta Zanders-Seidel (Textilier Hausrat) the apron surrounding the whole skirt is called a Schurz. The Schurz, also called a doppelschurze, a dubbleapron, had during the 15th century and early 16th century also a part over the shoulders, covering the upper body. We see both versions on the working women of the first half of the 16th century. Like this lady here. She is from a painting by Albrecht Altdorfer from 1526. She is wearing a schurz, a  wrap-around apron, in white linen. And she is also wearing a white linen gollar on top of her blue gown. A gollar, most commonly in linen, could be worn both underneath the gowns and on top of them. This is because they could actually be fined if the neckline where to low. It was solved by wearing gollars of different shapes and sizes. There are plain ones in white linen but they could also be wearing a bit more fancy ones. I really love her outfit. It reminds me of my own clothing. And therefore I used it as inspiration for the working class outfit Im working on right now. I have the apron and the gollar, I need to remake this painting as a picture when Im done. 

 

Many of them does not cover their hair. Its common in paintings showing workers and farmers to see women wearing straw hats and braided hair. Or even with their hair hanging loose. In Durers woodcuts many of them have a hairdo that look like a mix, like in this picture, they cover half the head with a headcloth, wrapped around the back parts of the head, together with a ribbon around their forehead. It might be some kind of newly-wed thing. Unmarried women in the lower classes where allowed a silk headband acording to sumptuary law. And when they wed they might use this half-covering wit the headband visible. This headwear is quite common in Durers woodscuts. But we see a lot of ordinary stechleins too, wulsthaubes covers with a veil or cap.

This is a hairdo that is seen in the same serie of woodcuts. Maybe they just wrap a cloth around the braid when they got married to get the look seen in the picture above. It would explain how they got the cloth to stay on their heads, it never work on me, it just falls off. Sebald Behman made this one in 1537.

Here we see working people taking a break. Straw hats, wrapp-around aprons and gowns and kirtle in light purple, red and green. From Augsburg 1516. 

In the woodcuts many of them also wears different kind of jackets. They can have the same length as the bodies or a bit longer, some even down to half the thigh. This one is one of the longer versions. Many of them are closed with a few eyelets. Even the dresses is sometimes closed with a few eyelets, like the one in the picture above. Her bodies is closed entirely in the lower half and open at the top except for a string at the very top. As is the jacket in the picture above, with the people dancing.

My plan was not to use woodcuts just because they are in black and white, but I obviously did that anyway... because they are beautiful....and common. 

We can talk about this instead. The women are wearing gowns in different kind of yellow. The one in the front has black borders on hers. It has also many pleats a the waist, also in the front. Its not unusual to have less pleats in the front, to get some of the fabric away to be able to work. But it does not look like she has any problems with that. The woman in the back actually look like she is wearing some kind of hairnet, with some hair visibly at the temples. That was actually high fashion in the first half of the 16th century and the first time women could allow some hair to be visibly. I would have though that the working women this early would not wore them though. It could also be some kind of cap. 

 

The dresses are plain. They could have borders but if they do its most common on the bodies or on the skirt, not both. Like the one above, she has black borders on the bodies, but non on the skirt. And we dont see any slashing. And many of them are quite short, like in this woodcut, made by Sebald Beham 1500-1550. The length of the skirts varies between footlengh to half the calf. She is wearing a jacket with a squared neckline closed with two eyelets. And a gown or kirtle with a border on the skirt. Her headwear is something you see on older women during the period, not something that are in fashion. It also look like she is wearing a highnecked gollar in linen.   

This farmer is wearing a undyed wool kirtle, a hemd and a straw hat. Im a bit confused about her hemd. It looks like she has something black around her neck but this social class where not allowed to wear blackwork according to the sumptuary laws. So its probably something else. It could be just a painted shadow to show that the hemd is smocked. It has similarities with how the smock on the apron in the first painting in this post is made. 

I could not resist to put in a picture of myself in my farmer´s kirtle. My hemd is not as white as hers but otherwise I think I could fit right in! Im also wearing a apron like in the first picture in this blogpost. I need to remake this painting with a stick, a straw hat and a belt. In that angle I might even be able to have my hair loos without showing my bangs.