Standards - Clothing Essay - Livery

Livery is a uniform worn by servants, in the case of the 15th century men who worked for a lord worked within the "Livery and Maintenance" system. I lord gave his men livery in the form of clothing such as gowns and as part of the maintenance provided food, shelter, and pay based on rank; in exchange these men worked in a lords household and many also acted a soldiers for the lord's military obligations.

Lord Grey's Retinue wears livery while in armor or while working in camp and it is too warm for a gown. The lord’s colors are red and green and his personal badge is a badger over a crown.

Our reconstructions are based on the artwork of our time frame; currently we have no knowledge of an extant example of a livery garment like this.

Observations:

Construction Details From Art

• The body is made of four panels and the peplum is made of four panels like a doublet
• The body and peplums meet at the true waist
• The arm holes on the body panels are wider than the arm holes for a doublet. They must be big enough for a ball shoulder to go through
• The peplum can be either a straight fit or pleated
• The peplum can range in length from just below the doublet peplums to just below the groin.
• The front neck opening should be round and slightly larger than the opening on a doublet
• The back neck opening can be triangular or circular and should be slightly larger than the doublet neck hole
• The shoulder should be slightly smaller than the shoulder of the doublet

Closures

With no extant example of one of these garments we must take an educated guess at how they close based on other garments from this time period. Thus far we have no depictions with buttons so we use the following methods listed in order of preference:

• Making the garment a little big and making it a pull over garment.
• Hook and eyes
• Tiny solid brass rings sewn to the under side of the garment that lace the opening closed.

The Badge

• Fustian or linen shapes. Paint the edges with a black water proff acrylic paint for fabric
• Cut out the shape in the center of your paint lines to help prevent fraying
• Appliqué the shapes on with linen thread
• If you are going to use a linen lining in your coat appliqué the shapes to the wool before adding the liner. Liners were meant to be taken out and replaced.

Styles Lord Grey's Retinue Prefers

• Sleeveless that covers the body with a pleated peplum. This style can be seen in the English manuscript Life of Edward IV on armored men, on Chales VII men from France, in The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, and many examples in King Rene's Book of Tournament
• Sleeveless with a slim body with a pleated peplum (Over armor or jacks only). This style can be seen in the English manuscript Life of Edward IV on armored men.
• Sleeveless that covers the body with a straight peplum as you can see on the right in The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, in King Rene's Book of Tournament, and on the archers in La Cité de Dieu bellow.
• Sleeveless with a slim body with a straight peplum (Over armor or jacks only). As seen on the archers in La Cité de Dieu bellow.

Construction Standards

Sleeveless that covers the body with a pleated peplum. This is a preferred style because we have pictorial evidence of it's us in England

• Four panel body construction
• Two or four panel peplum construction
• Wool exterior and linen lining for the body; lining optional.

Sleeveless with a slim body with a pleated peplum (Over armor or jacks only) This is a preferred style because we have pictorial evidence of it's us in England

• Four panel body construction
• Two or four panel peplum construction
• Wool exterior and linen lining for the body; lining optional.

Sleeveless that covers the body with a straight peplum

• Four panel body construction
• Four panel peplum construction
• Wool exterior and linen lining; lining optional.

Sleeveless with a slim body with a straight peplum (Over armor or jacks only)

• Four panel body construction
• Four panel peplum construction
• Wool exterior and linen lining; lining optional.

Image Gallery
Please click on the thumbnails for a larger image

Manuscript, Life of Edward IV. c. 1461. British Library, England

Dieric Bouts the Elder. The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek c. 1464-67. Sint-Pieterskerk, Leuven

Manuscript, Augustine, La Cité de Dieu, Books I-X 1475 came from Koninklijke Bibliotheek National Library of the Netherlands (Click here for the search engine)

King René's Tournament Book. Varying Illustrations c. 1460s.

Jean Fouquet. Des Cas des Nobles Hommes et Femmes, Boccaccio, Cod. Gall. 6, fol. 2v. c. 1460. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

Jean Fouquet. Unknown illustration c. 1460. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.