By , ruffs were so large they could extend the width of a nobleman or gentleman's shoulders. Goffered frills, or ruffs, began as an extension of a man's shirt. As the frilly add-ons grew larger and extended further, ruffs were transitioned into a separate accessory piece. Crafted using pleats in figure-eight shapes , ruffs were adopted by women by the early s and were often made out of a mixture of linen and lace.
By the s, ruffs could be nothing but lace, held together with pieces of bone, wood, ivory, or steel. Ruffs were usually pinned to one's clothing to hold them in place. Queen Elizabeth was said to have ordered pins by the thousands to accommodate her wardrobe, ruffs included.
The added benefit of starch made ruffs even available as stand-alone fashion pieces. Once a ruff was its own entity, it was tied around one's neck with a drawstring or tassels to keep it in place. As ruffs became bigger and stood out further - as far as 12 inches - they represented wealth, social status, and prestige. Ruff collars in Spain were made with numerous of yards of fabric, with one extant collar incorporating 42 yards of linen.
In England, the amount of fabric that went into a Tudor ruff varied, with the earliest "cartwheel" or "fan-shaped" ruffs using about 6 yards of fabric. When Lady Cobham wrote to Bess of Hardwick in , she remarked on a garment she was making, indicating how fashion had changed and that "10 yards is enough for the ruffs of the neck and hands. As the 16th century progressed, more and more lace and linen was necessary as ruffs became larger.
During the s, 18 yards of material were used with supporting wire, decorative edging, and elaborate ornamentation. Ruffs were fragile, and the materials used to construct them could fall apart due to hot weather, rain, or body heat. As a result, many ruffs were only worn once. Because ruffs were increasingly made using the most delicate lace and other materials, weighed down by more and more adornments, this, too, caused them to lose shape.
Quite often supportasses , or stiff wire frames, were used to keep the ruff in place and help it keep shape. Boards were also employed , although they were never seen under the large ruffs. Queen Elizabeth wore ruffs, enjoyed ruffs, and essentially determined ruff trends. In addition to banning blue ruffs , the monarch also legislated the size of ruffs worn in her kingdom. Ruffs were worn by men and women, poor and wealthy, commoners and nobles alike, but when double ruffs appeared on the scene during her reign, she forbade them.
One of the most distinctive fashions of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the ruff was a wide pleated collar, often stiffened with starch or wire, which stood out like a wheel around the neck.
Expensive and time-consuming to care for, the ruff was only for the wealthy. Ruffs had the effect of holding the head up in a proud and lordly pose, which made them popular with nobility across Europe. Both men and women wore the awkward ruff. The ruff was a wide pleated collar, often stiffened with starch or wire, which stood out like a wheel around the neck.
Courtesy of the. In the late s the necklines on men's doublets, slightly padded short overshirts, and women's gowns opened to reveal the shirts worn underneath. These shirts were often closed at the neck by means of a draw-string laced through the edge of the fabric. When such a string was drawn tight, it produced a gathered ruffle around the neck. This ruffle soon became fashionable, and it grew in size until it became a separate piece of cloth or lace that was tied around the neck. The first wide ruffs appeared in Spain, but they soon spread to England, France, Italy, and Holland, where they remained popular well into the seventeenth century.
Over the course of their two-century history, ruffs varied greatly in size and style. The Dictionary of Costume. London: B. Batsford Ltd. Vincent, Susan J. Oxford: Berg, Previous pinafore. Next fichu. About The Author. Related Posts. Search for:. Recent Essays In , 18th century, decade overview. Instagram Over the 17th century, the Dutch nation became one. The s was a period centered around a more angu. Bill Kaiserman Rafael was a retail salesman turn.
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