Smocks & partlets in portraits.

[sstormwatch]

Gads, while my 'net connection has been down more often than, er, nevermind... I've been getting a head cold it seems. I keep sneezing a lot today, and am feeling very cold warm right now

Comments

[myladyswardrobe]

The last one I think is a plainer white fabric - a light silk or a very fine linen and the edgeing is a bobbin lace - but like the black lace in the Pelican and Phoenix portraits.

There is a part of that edging which "looks" like it could be a drawn threadwork/Italian Hemstitch edging. You can see it on the "diagonal" on Elizabeth's left hand side nearer to her chin and its where the lace gets attached.

I've seen "smocks" which "copy" the Phoenix/Pelican style but not as a separate smock with partlet over but as a full smock with a triangular cut out. When worn it isn't obvious but if one knows what one is looking for you can see that something is a bit "off".

[sstormwatch]

Thank you for your thoughts on that. I don't know enough about drawn threadwork or similar to know what it was I was seeing. The bobbin lace seems likely for the edge, but there was something about the overall partlet that my eye caught, but I just couldn't say what it was.

And I've not seen the triangular cutout smocks before. That is different. In our area because of our heat, they tend to make the smock overly decorated at the upper chest, and wear it as a combo partlet/smock (and integrated decorated sleeves) instead of wearing both a smock and a partlet, and then sleeves over the smock sleeves. This is a ren-fair-ism that I wanted to nip, as I know I was guilty of doing it, until I was taught the correct forms. But it seems that in my area, it is still quite the popular thing to do.

[sbuchler]

Thank you! :-)

[sstormwatch]

Thanks for asking. :-)