Wyliecoats, Brassieres, and other Sixteenth-Century Mysteries

with Melanie Schuessler Bond

Wardrobe accounts and inventories provide a snapshot of the types of clothing that were in use when they were written, but sometimes the vocabulary can puzzle modern researchers. Some words, such as “wyliecoat,” have no modern cognate, while others, such as “brassiere,” do not mean what they once did. Even more confusing, sometimes people in different countries used the same word to mean different things, and the meanings of many words changed over time, so that even a few decades might make a difference. While it is always desirable to find a definition in a contemporary dictionary or other reliable source, this is often not a viable solution. Detective work across multiple sources of information and triangulating clues are sometimes required, and just like today, a garment word may have had a field of meaning encompassing various things rather than one simple definition. This talk will detail a few puzzles from sixteenth-century records and how I have attempted to solve them. Correct answers are not guaranteed, but the journey is worthwhile.

Melanie Schuessler Bond is Professor Emerita of Costume Design, Eastern Michigan University, and co-editor of Medieval Clothing and Textiles. Her research focuses on sixteenth-century clothing in Scotland, England, and France, and she has published several articles and a book: Dressing the Scottish Court, 1543-1553: Clothing in the Accounts of Lord High Treasurer of Scotland. Her current project is a book on the wardrobe of Mary, Queen of Scots. For more on her work, see http://costumes.melanieandjeremy.net/