Costume in the Kingdom of Bavaria: 1825

As a sort of continuation of my last post, I wanted to talk about the second super useful book which I was shown at the Trachten Informationszentrum.  National Kostüme Des Königreiches Bayern is a reprint of a collection of prints from 1825, all of which show various styles of dress and genre scenes of everyday life across Bavaria.  (naturally, it is also out of print and not easy to find...)

Fig.1: [1825] Kellnerinnen von München (Waitresses/Bar-Maids from Munich)

The women pictured in Fig.1 are wearing gowns that appear to be in line with the fashions throughout Europe at that time.  The waistlines are at a fairly natural height, hems gently brush the top of the feet and carry various styles of decorative trim, and the sleeves are moderately full.  Over top of these gowns, the women wear a stays/corset-like garment called a mieder, which unlike the more broadly fashionable gowns is a specifically regional item of clothing.  Their ensembles are finished off with aprons, colourful kerchiefs, and a style of embroidered or beaded headdress specific to Munich and Upper Bavaria.

 Fig.2: [1825] Sennerinnen von der Kreutz Alpe Tegernsee (Milkmaids from Tegernsee, an area near the Alps not far from Munich)

The styles shown in Fig.2 appear quite different to those in Fig.1, but though highly regionalized, the silhouettes still reflect broader fashions of the time.  The waistlines are still raised to the height which had been fashionable about five to eight years prior to this point, and skirts maintain the volume as those seen in Fig.1. However, Fig.2 is particularly wonderful as it depicts nearly every item of women’s clothing typically worn in the Upper Bavarian region during this time period.  These garments consisted of a linen shift worn underneath everything, over the shift came the leibchen which was often armless and buttoned up the front, next is the mieder as mentioned above, skirt, jacket, kerchief, apron, and the footless stockings which were also worn by the men of the region.

 [1825] Kirchwieh Tanz in der Umgegend von Tegernsee (Religious Festival/Parish Fair Dance in the area of Tegernsee)

This last example is also featured on the front cover of the book, and for good reason I think.  It's great seeing men's and women's fashions side by side!  The book is chock full of a wide variety of wonderful imagery, but I'm rather leery of stepping on too many copyright toes and don't feel comfortable posting everything.

1825 Dress-Coat test run

I ought to have posted this earlier, since I put together this muslin/toile of the 1825 men's coat from Cut of Men's Clothes shortly after scaling up the pattern a couple weeks ago.

The only adjustment I made was to the collar at the center back, as the collar was originally too large to fit into the neckline properly.  The collar is too large in the diagram in the book as well, so it wasn't just me being sloppy with the scaling things up... as it was, I had to take a total of nearly four inches out of the collar for it to work properly.

The coat is quite small, too.  As a matter of fact, it fits me pretty well which makes me wonder about the person who owned the orginal!  Perhaps I'll have to make myself a tailcoat sometime in future...

Oberbayern Tracht from the 1810s and 1820s

I found some really wonderful prints yesterday when digging around on the internet on the website of the Trachten Informationszentrum, which apparently is an institution not terribly far from Munich which specializes in fashion and folk costume from the Oberbayern (Upper Bavarian) region.  Their website contains a very small selection of their entire collection, which is comprised of over 4,000 items of clothing, 20,000 images, and an extensive library.

I think I need to go there.  According the website they are open to the public every Thursday, but are very open to setting up private appointments on other days to look at things. Hopefully I'll be able to take a trip sometime in the next month.

The first two prints are from 1813 and are by Ludwig Emil Grimm... and yes, that is Grimm, as in Ludwig was the younger brother of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.  Very, very cool.

1813 - Baierische Bäuerinnen vom Schliersee

I love almost everything that these two are wearing... the strange little pantaloon type things (also worn by the men in the print below), the decorated back of the bodice, the almost gauntlet-like sleeve things, the overall silhouette... I have a feeling I'll be drawing heavily from this sort of style in my designing.

1813 - Baierische Baueren vom Schliersee

1817 - Eine Bäuerin von Holzkirchen

 1818 - Ein Bauer von Flintspach

1825 - Bauern-Bursche & Bauern-Mädchen von Brannenburg

Making for the men- an 1825 dress coat

When it comes to constructing costumes for the 1820s (and really, for the majority of all time periods) I'm far more familiar with women's clothing than with men's.  To start to gain that familiarity with the shape and inner structure of men's clothing, I'm putting together a muslin of the 1825 Dress Coat from the book Cut of Men's Clothes.  I'm not sizing it in any way, just scaling up and making a mock-up in the original size.  The idea is to be able to understand the garment so that when I get around to making the actual pieces for my project, I'll know how and where I want to deviate.  The coat is actually really small; it might even be a decent size for me!

I scaled the pattern up by hand, which was super easy to do once my tutor told me a little trick... since the measure at the side of the page isn't a nice and neat 1/8 to an inch, draw a grid (or partial grid) over the pattern and then cut the scale off the side of the page to use as a sort of mini-ruler.  Such a common sense solution.  I couldn't believe I'd never thought of that before...

The muslin is currently all cut out and partially constructed, and I should hopefully finish putting together tomorrow.

Royalty and Riches - journal entry from 27 Sep, 2013

So what were German nobility wearing at this time period (1819-25)?  It varies a little bit, but for the most part it seems as though they were following the same fashions trends found in France and England with only very slight differences.  I love the crazy amount of glorious silver or/and gold embroidery on a lot of these...

Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, Queen of Bavaria, by Joseph Stieler

1823 - Worn by Oscar I of Sweden and Josephine of Leuchtenberg for their wedding in Munich

Could anything possibly look more fairytale than this ensemble?  I kind of doubt it.

1819 German Court Dress

 1823 - Princess Augusta Amalia of Bavaria

 1820s German Court Dress

 1825 Queen Pauline of Württemberg

1825 Ludwig I of Bavaria

 1825 King Ludwig I of Bavaria again... this time all decked out in his regalia.  Check out those shoes!

Tracht - journal entry from 23 Sep, 2013

Nearly my entire morning and early afternoon has been pleasantly spent searching the internet for images of German Tracht (traditional folk costume).  One website in particular has been wonderful for images of mid to late 19th cen traditional costume, containing scans of a huge number of 19th and early 20th century postcards. In looking for images from the early 19th century however, I've mostly relied on google and pinterest searches; searching for 1819 Tracht, 1820 Tracht, etc... fortunately there's not a lot of overlap in search results, and there are several very interesting prints from nearly every year which pop up.  Unfortunately, I haven't yet found a single site where images of early 19th cen Tracht are conveniently compiled... perhaps that's something I should consider doing myself...

Some of the highlights from today's search:

Town woman and farm girl from Augsburg - 1820

Trachten aus Kammern und Kallwang, Aquarell um 1820 Matthäus Loder
Traditional clothing from Kammern and Kallwang in 1820

Bayerische national Trachten - Nürnberg, Renner, und Schuster um 1820
Bavarian national clothing in 1820

It's really interesting how even though this print is dated to 1820, the clothing is very strongly 18th century in style.  In the mens' clothing the short waistcoats and standing collars on the coats are indicitive of the early 19th century, but cocked hats and knee breeches had fallen out of fashion years prior.  The woman's outfit is obviously Tracht instead of 'fashionable' wear, but the cut of her jacket is also rather reminiscent of the 18th century.

Later images show a more fossilized and highly regionalized fashion:

Bayerische Volkstrachten - Unterfranken und Aschaffenburg, Uettingen
Bavarian folk costume

Hessische Trachten, Mädchengruppe, Sonntagskleider
Hessian traditional clothing, group of girls in Sunday dresses

 Niedersächsische Braut, Kleid mit Perlenhut

Bride from Lower Saxony, dress with beaded/pearled hat

Volkstracht aus dem Elzthal
Folk costume from Elzthal

This last one is super interesting, as the woman on the left is wearing a dress which is obviously modelled on 18th century clothing, as is the straw hat which the woman on the right is wearing.  Since this is an early 20th cen postcard featuring Bayerische Volkstrachten (Bavarian Folk Costume), I can't help but wonder if it is presenting the tradional clothing from two different eras... just shown side by side. 

If anyone has recommendations for good books or websites on the subject, please let me know!  I'm only just starting to study this particular area, and am still trying to figure out the best sources of information.