Hall, the author of ‘Satires,’ 1598, speaks of a man, an effeminate dandy, as wearing a partlet strip. It appears to me, who am unwillingly forced into judging between so many learned persons, that, from all I have been able to gather from contemporary records and papers, the partlet is indeed, as Minshein says, ‘the loose collar of a doublet,’ in reality the same thing as a shirt band.
Henry VIII. wore a band about his neck, the forerunner of the ruff. Some of his bands were of silver cloth with ruffs to them, others, as I have shown, were wonderfully embroidered.
In this case, then, the partlet is head of the family tree to our own collar, ‘to be set on or taken off by itself,’ and so by way of ruff, valued at threescore pound price apiece, to plain bands, to falling bands, laced neckcloth, stock—to the nine pennyworth of misery we bolt around our necks.
Dress, on the whole, is much plainer, sleeves are not so full of cuts and slashes, and they fit more closely to the arm. The materials are rich, but the ornament is not so lavish; the portrait of Edward by Gwillim Stretes is a good example of ornament, rich but simple. Shoes are not cut about at the toe quite with the same splendour, but are still broad in the toe.
For the women, it may be said that the change towards simplicity is even more marked. The very elaborate head-dress, the folded, diamond-shaped French hood has disappeared almost entirely, and, for the rich, the half hoop, set back from the forehead with a piece of velvet or silk to hang down the back, will best describe the head-gear. From that to the centre-pointed hoop shows the trend of the shape. This latest form of woman’s head apparel was born, I think, out of the folds of the linen cap worn in the house, and this, being repeated in the velvet night-caps, became the extreme of fashion. The drawing will show how the square end of the linen cap, falling in the centre of the circular cap-shape, cut the semicircle and overlapped it, thus giving the appearance later to become exaggerated into a form cut especially to that shape. (I try to be as lucid as I can manage, but the difficulties of describing such evolutions in any but tangled language I leave the reader to imagine.)
The women are also wearing cloth hoods, rather baggy cap-like hoods, with a hanging-piece behind.
The most notable change is the collar of the gown, which suddenly springs into existence. It is a high collar and very open in front, showing a piece of the under-dress. On this collar is sewn—what I shall call—the woman’s partlet, as the embroidery is often detachable and answers the same purpose as the man’s partlet; this later became a separate article, and was under-propped with wires to hold it out stiffly.
The same stiff-bodied appearance holds good, but in more simple dresses the skirts were not quite as voluminous as heretofore.