The end of the 14th century was marked by the excess to which the more fanciful devices of the period were carried. Robes were more fan tastically cut along the edges, and decked with trailing ribbons, accompanied by a trailing tail to the hood. the pointed toes of shoes were often two or three times the length of the foot. The odd parti-colored gowns of the women blazed with heraldic impalements and quarter ings. During the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries there was great confusion about those garments which we know as stockings and trousers. One garment sometimes reaches the waist, evei. cov ering the feet. At others there were two arti cles, the nether stocks (Fr. bar de chausses) came to the thigh or knee and were continued by the trunk-hose or upper hose (Fr. haat de chausses). About 1600 the word breeches came into use to indicate the trunk-hose, and the term hose was confined to stockings.
Third Period.— This epoch was the transi tion from the mediaeval to the modern style of dress. Speaking generally, up to the 14th cen tury, long dress prevailed, loose and flowing, and offering a welcome contrast to the tight fitting armor of the knight. About 1350 the costume of the men began to change, with the introduction of the doublet, a short jacket pad ded at the shoulders, plaited a few inches below the waist and fastened with a belt. The nether stocks, now entirely exposed to view, were attached to the trunk-hose. Long, loose robes with immense drooping sleeves were indeed worn throughout the 15th century, but only by professional men or nobles on occasions of state. In women's dress the tendency appeared to cut the figure into sections instead of keeping to the girded gown. A bodice reached to the hips. The dress was somewhat shortened, and thus a step was taken toward the short hooped petti coat. During the Renaissance Period full forms became more and more popular, and petticoats and skirts spread into the form of a bell, which year by year increased in circumference.
Fourth Period.— A more distinct transition between ancient and modern dress took place in the 16th century. Men wore for show a short cloak which hung from the shoulders. The doublet was made with rather tightly fitting sleeves; beneath it was a sleeveless jerkin fitting the body and, like the modern waistcoat, so cut as to allow the beautifully embroidered shirt to be seen. The short skirt of the doublet was gored to fit the bulging trunk-hose padded with hair, while the lower hose were plain and tight, so that the figure looked broad and full above and narrow below. In this century began the wearing of the top of the nether garments loose, or slashed, with pieces of different colors set in. The arms and shoulders of the doublet or jacket were similarly trimmed. Boots were worn loose, with the upper part falling down. Ruffs, or ruffled collars, and velvet bonnets with feathers came into use.
In England the Tudor Period was charac terized by great extravagance. The chronicler Hall describes several of Henry VIII's superb dresses, among them a afrocke* or coat of velvet embroidered all over with gold, the sleeves and breast cut and lined with cloth of gold and tied together "with great buttons of diamonds, rubies and Orient pearls?' The cloaks and mantles were of corresponding magnificence.
The shirts were pinched or plaited and em broidered with gold, silver or silk. The shoes and buskins were of the German fashion, very broad at the toe, and of velvet and satin, slashed and puffed. A plain russet coat and a loose kind of kersey breeches, with stockings of the same piece, constituted the ordinary dress of middle-class men. The London apprentices wore blue cloaks in summer and gowns of the same color in winter, as badges of servitude; for this was a period of domestic distinctions, relics of feudalism. The women wore long woolen gowns, worsted kirtles (hereafter called petticoats) and white caps and aprons. About this time white underlinen came into general wear.
In Elizabeth's time the men's huge trunk hose, with hair like woolsacks," were made of silk, velvet, satin or damask. The doublets were very costly, quilted and stuffed, "slashed, fagged, pinched, and laced.* The cloaks were of Spanish, French or Dutch cuts; of cloth, silk, velvet or taffeta; of all colors; trimmed with gold, silver, silk-lace and glass bugles; equally superb inside and out. Hats now began to supersede the bonnets of the former era. They were for the most part made of felted wool, dyed. Those of beaver were exceedingly expensive.
The most conspicuous features of women's dress in the reign of Elizabeth were the farthin gale and the ruff. The former consisted of an extravagant expansion of the lower garments by means of cane or whalebone. It was the predecessor of the hoop, which in its turn was succeeded by the crinoline. The widely ex tended ruff of fine linen, like a huge frill, is familiar from the pictures of Elizabeth and Mary of Scotland. The extravagance of the ruff reached such a point that it was anathema tized from the pulpit, together with the ex tremely low cutting of the bodice; and the fancies of women's costume were denounced in a sermon preached before James I, at Whitehall, as "her French, her Spanish, and her foolish fashions.* England was slower than France, but ahead of Spain, in abandoning the farthingale and the ruff. In the beginning of the reign of Charles I dress was little changed; the ruff, of thinner make, stood farther away from the throat and looked like a framework of gauze, but the skirts were not so wide. In the middle of the 17th century there came a revolution against the entire system of padding, whalebone, starch and wire, and for about 50 years the upper classes followed the canons of beauty and grace. In stead of the ruff, the Van Dyck collar, made of rich point-lace, was worn hanging down on the shoulder and held by a cord and tassel at the neck. Long breeches, fringed and pointed, met the ruffled tops of the hoots; an embroidered sword-belt, worn over the right shoulder, held a Spanish rapier. In the flapping beaver hat hung a plume of feathers fastened by a jewel. Ladies' dresses were still made with skirt and bodice, the bodice defining but not cramping the figure, and the skirt hanging full and gracefully.