The costume collection Hüpsch in the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt

Die Kostümsammlung Hüpsch im Hessischen Landesmuseum Darmstadt Bestandskatalog der Männer- und Frauenkleidung Studien zu Material, Technik und Geschichte der

Bekleidung im 17. Jahrhundert

by

Johannes Pietsch

James Biddlecombe was kind enough to put a link http://mediatum2.ub.tum.de/node?id=619442 

to this PhD thesis by Johannes Pietsch, on the 16^th and 17^th century clothing page on Facebook. For those fazed by the fact that it is in German I give a quick outline below.

The thesis is a detailed examination of 23 garments in the collection of the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt and is now available full text online. The garments were collected by Baron Hüpsch (1730-1805), and are described as bourgeois, and of German, specifically Cologne, origin, with one exception, a 1660s man’s doublet suspected of being English.

The garments are all upper body wear and 18 date from the 17^th century (between c.1610 and c.1675), with 5 from the 18^th century. All five of the eighteenth century garments are for women, as are nine of the seventeenth century items, including one which is a fragment of either a boned bodice or stays, the date of which is debatable. The remaining nine garments are all men’s doublets, although two are described as boy’s wear.

In each case there are patterns taken from the garments illustrating the cut, and also the placing of linings and interlinings. There are line drawings of the patterns on the fabrics, and even some diagrams of the construction of laces and of some of the sewing techniques used. At the end there are photographs, frequently in colour, of the garments themselves, and close ups of the construction and some details.

The women’s bodices from the 1620s and 1630s have the long front that are very Germanic or Eastern European in style, similar to that seen in Ruben’s self portrait of himself and his first wife painted in 1609.

List of the garments covered is:-

1. Man’s doublet 1610-1620
2. Man’s doublet 1610-1620
3. Woman’s bodice 1615-1625
4. Woman’s bodice 1625
5. Woman’s bodice 1627-1635
6. Woman’s bodice 1627-1635
7. Woman’s bodice 1630-1635
8. Woman’s bodice 1630-1635
9. Fragment of boning from bodice or stays, could be 1630-1635 altered later in 17th or 18th Century
10. Upper part of a woman’s gown. 1630-1635
11. Man’s doublet 1630-1635
12. Man’s doublet 1630-1635
13 Boy’s coat 1635-1645
14. Man’s coat 1640-1645
15. Man’s doublet, possibly English 1660-1665
16 Man’s doublet 1665-1670
17. Boy’s doublet 1665-1675
18. Upper part of a woman’s gown 1660-1665
19. Woman’s jacket 1750-1770
20. Upper part of a woman’s gown 1770-1780
21. Woman’s spencer 1790-1795
22. Upper part of a woman’s gown (theatrical) 1770-1785
23. Upper part of a woman’s gown (theatrical) 1775-1790