.jpg)
Adoublet (/ˈdʌblɪt/;[1] derived fromItalian:giubbetta[2]) is a snug-fittingjacket that is shaped and fitted to a man's body. Until the end of the 15th century, the doublet was most often worn under another layer of clothing such as agown,mantle, orhouppelande when in public.[3] In the 16th century, it was covered by thejerkin which often matched. Women started wearing doublets in the 16th century.[4] The doublet could be thigh length, hip length or waist length depending on the period, and worn over the shirt with matching or contrasting "hose", the term for the tight leggings and later breeches-like lower garment which were attached by lacing to the doublet with "points", the cord or ribbon laces.
Like thepourpoint, its ancestor, the doublet was used by soldiers[5] in the 15th and 16th centuries to facilitate the wearing of thebrigandine,breastplate,cuirass, andplackart, which had to cut into the waist in order to shift their weights from the shoulders to the hips.[6] However, it differs from thepourpoint by being shut with lacing instead of being closed with buttons and having a different shape and cut.
In the 16th century, itmight have featured astomacher at the front. By the 1520s, the edges of the doublet more frequently met at the center front. Then, like many other originally practical items in the history of men's wear, from the late 15th century onward it became elaborate enough to be seen on its own.
Throughout the 250 years of its use, the doublet served the same purposes: to give the fashionable shape of the time, toadd padding to the body under armour in war, to support thehose by providing ties, and to provide warmth to the body. The only things that changed about the doublet over its history were its style and cut.
The doublet developed from the 14th century padded garment worn under armour called thepourpoint, similar to theaketon.
Despite keeping the same silhouette as the pourpoint, early 15th century doublets feature some noticeable differences like puffed sleeves and lack of quilting. Later in the 15th century, the doublet changed shape over time with each country developing its own style.[3]
Satin doublets with stomachers or "placards" were worn by footmen and henchmen at the coronation ofHenry VII of England in October 1485.[7] Through theTudor period, fashionable doublets were close-fitting with baggysleeves, and elaborate surface decoration such aspinks (patterns of small cuts in the fabric), slashes,embroidery, and applied braid. A man's doublet was worn above a shirt, and it was sometimes sleeveless or had tight or detachable sleeves. It was either made of wool or akersey, which was a rough canvas material that would be mixed with wool.[8] Until 1540, doublets had laces that would allow thehose to be tied to it.[8]
In England in the beginning of the Renaissance, a high-quality doublet would have lasted for at least two years, however there are many reports of doublets disintegrating after only four months.[8] Items of costume were suitable forNew Year's Day gifts amongst the aristocracy. In 1574,Gilbert Talbot gave his father, theEarl of Shrewsbury, a perfumed doublet.[9]
In 1536, the embroidererWilliam Ibgrave fashioned the initials ofJane Seymour with pearls and emeralds to decorate a doublet forHenry VIII.[10] He was paid for pinking and cutting the doublets ofEdward VI in 1553.[11] In the earlyElizabethan period, doublets for men were padded over the belly withbombast in a "pouter pigeon" or "peascod" silhouette.[12] Sleeve attachments at the shoulder were disguised by decorativewings,tabs, orpiccadills, and short skirt-likepeplums or piccadills covered the waist of thehose orbreeches. Padding gradually fell out of fashion again, and the doublet became close-fitting with a deep V-waistline.
Elizabeth I's tailor,Walter Fyshe, first made her a doublet in 1575, of yellow satin decorated with silver lace. Elizabethan writers like Philip Stubbes criticised the fashion, as doublets were "a kind of attire appropriate only to man". A different style of upper garment fashionable for women from the 1580s, first known as "a pair of square bodies" from the style of the neckline, came to be called a doublet, although the garment did not fasten with buttons at the front.[13]
In November 1590, anAfrican servant at the Scottish court was given a doublet ofshot or "changing" Spanish taffeta with 48 buttons, withbreeches of orange velvet, and a hat of yellow taffeta.[14] As aNew Year Day's gift toElizabeth I in January 1600,Elizabeth Brydges, a maid of honour, presented a doublet of networklawn, cut and tufted up with white knit-work, flourished with silver.[15]
By the 17th century, doublets were short-waisted. A typical sleeve of this period was full and slashed to show the shirt beneath; a later style was full andpaned or slashed to just below the elbow and snug below. Decorativeribbonpoints were pulled through eyelets on the breeches and the waist of the doublet to keep the breeches in place, and were tied in elaborate bows.
James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle wrote about the tight-fitting costumes worn by performers in English courtmasques, the fashion was "to appear very small in the waist, I remember was drawn up from the ground by both hands whilst the tailor with all his strength buttoned on my doublet".[16]
The doublet fell permanently out of fashion in the mid-17th century whenLouis XIV of France andCharles II of England established a court costume for men consisting of a longcoat, awaistcoat, acravat, awig, and breeches—the ancestor of the modernsuit.
.png)
