Welcome to The Renaissance Tailor!

"The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me."

- George Bernard Shaw

7.11.04: Ruff!

For those of you who visit my ebay store, you may be pleased to note that I have restocked my selection of Elizabethan ruffs. That's all I did this week-end; make ruffs. I am now sick of ruffs. I'm off to do something else for a while... probably involving dirt and a shovel. But thanks for your patronage! I really do appreciate it.

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Research>Introduction

" Whatever the approach, we must not overlook the fact that for many people in sophisticated societies, dressing in fashion has been and still is a delightful, if not frivolous, occupation pursued with great enthusiasm in spite of satirical comment on all sides." - Janet Arnold, A Handbook of Costume

In crafting historically accurate clothing, it is as important for the pattern to be accurate as it is for the embellishment. In tailoring, the pattern dictates what the end product will look like far more than any embellishment or even fabric choice.

About

"I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated."
- Poul Anderson

About This Site and the Information on It -

This website and a majority of the information on it was authored and designed by Tammie L. Dupuis, who lives and works in the Pacific Northwest as a Designer/Developer for an Internet consulting firm (where this site is hosted). She holds a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology/Archeaology from Montana State University and has published articles on the various topics covered on this website in several costume newsletters both nationally and internationally over the last decade.

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Extant Pattern Manuscripts

Currently, there are five extant examples of printed tailor's pattern books from Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries. No extant texts have been discovered from England or France as of yet for this time period. There are, however, several manuscripts available from German sources. Ingeborg Petraschek-Heim's article in The Journal of Costume, Vol. 6, issue 3. 1972, gives a list of the various pattern books and where they were located at the time the article was published.

Eastern European pattern sources include a Polish Tailor's pattern manuscript, housed in the LA County Museum of Art and a facsimile of four pages from an Hungarian pattern book, found in an out-of-print museum handbook from pre-WWI.

Pattern Manuscripts Available on This Site

Most 16th and 17th century costumers are familiar with the now reprinted facsimile of Juan de Alcega, 1589. There is also a printing of Alcega's pattern book from 1580, containing some extra patterns left out of the more famous 1589 version. The formats of the other spanish texts are very similar to Alcega. Some, like Diego de Freyle's are smaller in size and contain fewer patterns. Others, like Fransico de la Rocha de Burguen's, contain litterally hundereds of patterns.

Each manuscript is given it's own section. Each section contains thumbnails of various patterns from the manuscript, links to larger versions of the thumbnails, tranlations of the manuscript text, and fabric requirements in yardage. Click on the links in the lefthand navigation bar to view each MS.