Early Fashions

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 138, 13 June 1931, Page 9

Early Fashions

When Boadicea led true charge against tho Bomans she woxo a loose gown of gold, and we are told that the warriors of ancient Britain wctre lightly clad in woad (says an English writer). Our historian, however, points out that this must have beon a iflress for special occasions only, as it would be too cold normally for anything so airy. He tells us that Pliny described tie dress of the ancient Britons as "of cloth of lino wool dyed several colours, which being spun into yarn was woven either into stripes or checks." Do you rceog'niso the description? Here is whore,the tartan originated; Now, in the' days of tho Anglo-Saxons we find that; long sleeves, sometimes reaching to the ground, wore in fashion, and that tho under-dress of long, loose lines, with its belt of gold, was called a kirtle,, and the, over-dress, wliich wo might c:all a cloak, was called the gown. When Nor mans came and dresses were more.elaborate the simple Anglo-Saxon woitnen were puzzled by hearing the Norman women talk of a robe instead ol a gunna (gown), and still more puzzled when they referred to a couvreehef. l'he word baffled them, but they liked the idea of this veil for summer or v tlVo square of heavier matorial for winte.v, so they adopted the fashion and called it a kerchief. For some years we hay c put green in the forefront of our colour scheme. So did the Plantagenet women who were extravagant in their tastes, and probably were reproved by their grandmothers for this —just as we are. Tho women did not worry when tlic "whimple" canto into fashion, and they wound these lengths of linen or silk round their heads and chins and gazed placidly on the world. ' Then we come. to the fourteenth csntury, when spencers were first worn. These showed whether the wearer was a woman of high degree or'a dame of middle class.