The Tudor Tailor is an essential sourcebook for accurately reconstructing clothing from the 16th century, concentrating on the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I (1509 to 1603).

The evidence available for accurate reconstruction of our ancestors’ dress is fragmentary and contradictory. This book aims to disentangle this evidence and show how the many barriers to achieving successful reproduction costume can be overcome with well-directed enthusiasm. It will appeal to educators, costume designers, re-enactors, and people with a general or academic interest in 16th-century dress.

The first four chapters provide a social history of clothes in the 16th century, drawing on the latest research and primary sources such as ordinary people’s wills and surviving royal records. There is discussion of the materials used (only some of which are familiar to today’s costume maker), people’s financial and social relationships with their clothes and the changes in dress from birth to death. There is as much emphasis on the clothes of ordinary people as there is on high fashion.

Accompanying the text is a dazzling selection of illustrations, including portraits from the period and extant examples of historic garments, plus specially commissioned line drawings showing Tudor dress decade by decade.

The book provides 36 patterns for specific garments typical of the era, from basic shirts and smocks to sumptuous outer clothing for the fashionable elite, also including accessories such as ruffs, cuffs, collars, hats and headdresses. Alongside the patterns are full step-by-step instructions, detailed diagrams and photographs that show the finished garments worn by real people. There is also general advice on choosing materials, construction methods, and an insight into the Tudor tailor’s sewing kit.

This book is based on the authors’ experience of producing clothes for costumed interpreters employed by JMD&Co at Hampton Court Palace between 1992 and 2004. Authors Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davies are acknowledged experts in costumed interpretation.

The Tudor Tailor brings the history of 16th-century clothing to life.
Price: $35.00

OUT OF STOCK