CHAINSE

Needless to say, back in medieval times brassieres were
not yet invented for wearing under one's chainse,
nor did most of the ladies wear eye makeup like this.  But hey...

 

A few weeks ago I went to a lovely get-together.  Over fifty gals in our neighborhood had lunch at the Carolina Lakes Golf Club.  Lunch was great though a bit noisy, as it usually is if there is another function going on.  We were in the midst of a book club lunch and a rather large golf outing.  The course is, I’m told, though I’ve never played it, a really tough one. (I’ve always said I’d learn how to play golf when I could play at Pebble Beach! – never gonna happen, so it’s a safe thing to say.)

But the point of all this was the very interesting after lunch speaker, Bree Broderick. She’s a Mom and a chef and a lot of other things, but she is especially interested in medieval and Renaissance dress. Her talk was so interesting to me, especially since those are my favorite periods for historic fiction. I suppose the stories I read are geared to modern sensibilities. Bree, who specializes in women’s dress, said usually those gals had one chemise or chainse, an undergarment, and they wore it forever: I mean to work, to eat, to sleep, to very occasionally bathe.  Most folks didn’t have two of them, one had to do. O.K. are you thinking what I’m thinking? Must have smelled just divine in those ages.

Want to make one for yourself? Easy peasy!

more here - if you speak French, though

measurements are measurments in any language.

And just in case you are interested, here's a

glossary of medieval clothing terms.

Very interesting!