Pull Those Pants UP!

[hsifeng]

 

OK,

 

For years I have been coached to believe that German wore their pants with high waists (or at least “above the natural waistline, and certainly higher than most modern men are comfortable with”) during the 16^th century. This assertion appeared to be borne out in the art from the period. For example, from the “German Single Leaf Woodcuts 1500-1550”, Max Geisberg & Walter Strauss:

 

 

And from the back:


 

So today I was trolling through the new-and-improved-but-stinky-for-downloading-images bildindex,  when I was struck by what appeared to be low waist in several extant pairs of pants. This got me curious, so I did some more digging into my own image archives and on several other sites. What I found didn’t jibe with what I have always thought was an accurate statement regarding the height of men’s pants in this period.

 

 

 
Same pair in yellow above, from the back:


 

Look at where the codpiece lands in relation to the waistline in the woodcuts. Now look at where it lands in the extant pants.

 

What gives?

Comments

[jillwheezul.livejournal.com]

The knitted hose supposedly belonged to August von Sachsen who did not inherit the title until 1556. They are likely from that date or afterwards. His inventories are still extant so they perhaps could be found in those, but they are still in manuscript form (grrr).

I also think you are looking at 2 different fashion styles timewise. The waistline moves downward when Charles takes over both Germany and Spain, and the Spanish fashion starts to dominate. The lower hose makes sense because you would want to reduce unecessary bulk under the doublet.

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

Thank you for nailing down some date information on those knit hose: It is nice to be able to firmly place them in an “after 1550” era. The Spanish vs. German fashion ideals thought totally works for me as well. *nods head*

Mostly, I figured if I posted the images that were confusing me, I would get a lot of expert replies – and I have! It’s good to have smart friends. *grin* I didn’t expect to have unearthed anything earth shattering, and assumed that there would be some very simple answers once the ball got rolling.

Thank you for your input!