bodice

Summary

Green and white shot silk lined with cream linen, trimmed in cream chequered silk ribbon. Wide rounded neck, narrow turn down collar slightly pointed at back, neck cut low in front. Threequarter length sleeves, wide below elbow and open at outer arm. Turnback cuffs. All jacket except collar decorated with punched holes in narrow triangular groups.

Display Label

Clothes from the seventeenth century are now extremely rare survivals, especially whole garments like man's doublets and shirts, or women's bodices or stays. The Gallery has a comprehensive selection of such pieces, as well as accessories like gloves, fans, purses and shoes, many of which belonged to a single family, the Filmers of Kent. Clothing of this date is often made much more interesting by the sophisticated and imaginative embroidery which decorates it, as in all the examples shown. The main image shows a woman's informal, but highly fashionable, jacket entirely covered in coloured silk embroidery showing symmetrical scrolling foliage holding polychrome bunches of grapes. Even the linen shirt in the last image, dating from the 1630s and the earliest man's shirt in the collections, has fine whitework embroidery at the neck as well as a scalloped needle lace falling collar.