Author: Clarissa Thomas, Prince Rupert’s Bluecoats

Orders of the day, Volume 31, Issue 4, 1999

This article is intended to help those who wish to achieve a more hard-worn appearance as appropriate to respectable 17th century working people. None of the suggestions is expensive or difficult to carry out, but will give a more authentic effect. All should bear up to public scrutiny at close quarters. Most of the techniques are irreversible, but you could extend your wardrobe by either making some items yourself or buying second-hand from Traders Row.

In the 17th century many working people would have dressed in second hand clothes, with the exception of stockings and shirts or shifts. This is not an excuse however to wear tatty versions of banqueting costumes or have lots of lace and other trim. The wealthy were also thrifty and would have reused as much as they could themselves on new garments and recut old-fashioned or worn clothing into new styles. So stick to plain wool and cotton that looks like linen if you can’t afford the real thing. Avoid any sort of pattern, stripes, damasks, etc. as these would have been too expensive for the average person. Clothing would have been well-mended and looked after, as it was expensive to replace and provided warmth, decency and protection against the elements. Fashion was probably of little concern to the average person, and even within the Court changed only slowly. The new styles introduced by Queen Henrietta Maria in the early 1630s would have taken a long time to spread and were still worn with little alteration until the Restoration.

Fabric can be given a worn appearance in a variety of ways. Hems of skirts take a lot of friction wear and get stained by constant soaking in puddles and mud. This appearance can be replicated by leaving the skirt unhemmed and either just fraying it or cutting it to look jagged, the edge can be painted with diluted PVA glue to prevent further fraying. The effect of mud staining and other ordure can be got by mixing some brown acrylic or poster paint into the glue. I wear such a skirt made of very cheap drab material under a hitched up ‘better’ skirt of wool. This layering of skirts and petticoats looks very authentic, as for warmth and decency several would have been worn. Several grubby hemmed, tattered petticoats of different lengths topped by a ‘puffed up’ wool skirt looks very authentic.

Wear on fabric in other areas of garments can be accelerated by rubbing the fabric with something abrasive - a cheese grater has been recommended to me for this purpose. Imagine if you are walking through woods and uncultivated areas how often your skirts would catch on twigs. These can be ‘mended’ with largish stitches in a thick not-quite-matching thread, perhaps even leaving the mend puckered and uneven for greater effect.

With garments covering the upper body, wear would be likely to occur at the elbows (especially on doublets), the back of the neck and down the front edge. Over the elbows, patches would be appropriate in order to increase the life of the garment. In other areas either patches or darning over the areas of wear would look good. The seams of bodices may start to pull apart after long use, especially with tight lacing, so top-stitched mends over front seams and round any lacing holes would also be convincing.

With long wear and little or no washing, wool clothes would definitely start to get a greasy, food-stained and generally dirty look. I am not entirely sure how to reproduce this other than with small subtle splashes of dye, maybe felt-tip pen, down the front for food stains and darkening the fabric with tea bags under the arms and down the back for sweat marks. Candle grease dripped onto cloth and rubbed in would give a greasy look to some extent but would make the cloth rather stiff. Animal fat would probably be better, but a little too authentic on the nose!

For undergarments - shirts, shifts and other linens - the old tip of rinsing in strong tea or instant coffee solution works well, but may need repeating from time to time. I produced an interesting effect on a garment by boiling it with loose tea. This produced very realistic dark spots on the fabric which looked like mildew. Remember though, that linen in its natural state is a silvery beige colour rather than a pale brown, with a tendency to bleach in sunlight. Underarm stains can be produced with direct application of a tea bag to the area, but only bother with this if you frequently wear a jerkin or sleeveless bodice ... or if you can’t manage it naturally of course! And remember - no lace.

The wearing of an apron is the universal sign of being a working woman in the 17th century - look at contemporary illustrations to see how commonly they were worn by everyone but the upper classes. In an age when the washing of woollen clothing was very difficult, it makes sense to cover up skirts with a linen apron which could be changed as often as required and washed relatively easily. Craftsmen too frequently wore aprons for the same reason. These could be the long straight style still available today made in heavy duty canvas, or just a straight piece of cloth tied or pinned round the waist. Canvas or heavy cotton softened up and stained would do very well over 17th century kit. Some craftsmen may have worn leather aprons, especially where the work involved sharp tools.

For aprons, collars, caps and coifs, although it is desirable that they are not bright white, they would almost certainly have been washed reasonably frequently, so need to have more of a soft well-washed appearance with just a few indelible stains on the apron. I find using the apron for the purpose it was intended - i.e. drying kitchen utensils, wiping things, mopping things, etc. generally produces that effect.

Cloaks, cassaques and Dutch coats are all good both for keeping out the elements and for covering up rather too neat clothing. Cloaks especially can be improvised out of old plain blankets very cheap from charity shops - patched, stained and worn at the hem. Such a warm and weatherproof item would have had long and heavy wear doubling up as a blanket, rolled up and carried when warm and soaked through in the rain. They are not difficult to make and don’t need to have a hood or lining. Make out of old blanketing, dyed if necessary, muddy the hem, add a discreet patch or two, crease it up and it will look just right.

If your budget does not run to latchets you could leave your feet bare as long as there is no health and safety risk. If you are aiming to look very poor you could try binding your feet with rags or hessian for protection. Men’s feet are readily visible so it is really important to get the footwear right; women’s feet are less conspicuous with skirts, but the advantage of having the correct footwear is that you can then wear your skirts a little shorter which makes them easier to manage. Stockings can be made of either woven cloth cut to shape or knitted, preferably in wool. Patches and darns on the legs look good particularly on thick hose and are shown in illustrations. Men could wear dirty over-hose of linen, unsupported by garters and crumpling down the calf; these seem to have been worn as a practical, cheap copy of top boots. I am not sure of the authenticity of wearing odd stockings, but I suppose that if they were your last ones, you would.

So now is the time to experiment, get out needle and thread, raid your children’s art materials and have a go at dressing down!