The ruff - a pleated, heavily starched collar worn by men and women alike - began as a small collar but reached great proportions by the early 17th century.
During the renaissance period laws were passed that prescribed which fashions could not be worn by the lower classes so as to keep social distinctions intact. Queen Elizabeth would not allow the ruff to be worn by commoners.
One one occasion, whilst at dinner with his family, Sir Thomas More took off his ruff for comfort. His daughter in law looked at him and started to giggle. The rest of the family gradually joined in the increasingly hysterical laughter before finally More looked down at himself and joined in the commotion. Then red faced he stuffed back under his doublet the secret hairshirt that had nudged itself into sight.
During the reign of Elizabeth I close relations between the courts of France and England encouraged the use of lace in England. Elizabeth's high ruff of lace, of which she was very fond, is familiar to everyone who has seen her portraits.
Elizabeth I's ruff around her neck was so flamboyantly and delicately decorated that it rendered her head almost immobile.
Such starched, elaborate collars were an example of an impractical fashion adopted to heighten grandeur and emphasize distance of wearers from manual labor in Elizabethan times.
Originally those wearing ruffs around their necks couldn't easily drink soup from bowls, as the early spoons with their short stems, were not able to transport the soup past the ruffs without spilling. So spoon handles lengthened and the spoon's bowl became larger permitting more liquid to be transported to the mouth with less chance of dribbling the contents on the ruffs.
By the end of the sixteenth century, ruffs were falling out of fashion in Western Europe, in favor of wing collars and falling bands. The ruff was banned in Spain during the reign of Philip IV (1621-1665).
The fashion lingered longer in the Dutch Republic, where ruffs can be seen in portraits well into the seventeenth century, and also farther east.
Ruffs stayed on as part of the ceremonial dress of Lutheran clergy in North Germany, Denmark, Norway, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland.
Ruffs remain the formal attire of bishops and ministers in the Church of Denmark (including Greenland) and the Church of the Faroe Islands.
Source Compton's Encyclopedia
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| A ruff from the 1620s. |
During the renaissance period laws were passed that prescribed which fashions could not be worn by the lower classes so as to keep social distinctions intact. Queen Elizabeth would not allow the ruff to be worn by commoners.
One one occasion, whilst at dinner with his family, Sir Thomas More took off his ruff for comfort. His daughter in law looked at him and started to giggle. The rest of the family gradually joined in the increasingly hysterical laughter before finally More looked down at himself and joined in the commotion. Then red faced he stuffed back under his doublet the secret hairshirt that had nudged itself into sight.
During the reign of Elizabeth I close relations between the courts of France and England encouraged the use of lace in England. Elizabeth's high ruff of lace, of which she was very fond, is familiar to everyone who has seen her portraits.
 |
| Ruff of c. 1575. Detail from the Darnley Portrait of Elizabeth |
Elizabeth I's ruff around her neck was so flamboyantly and delicately decorated that it rendered her head almost immobile.
Such starched, elaborate collars were an example of an impractical fashion adopted to heighten grandeur and emphasize distance of wearers from manual labor in Elizabethan times.
Originally those wearing ruffs around their necks couldn't easily drink soup from bowls, as the early spoons with their short stems, were not able to transport the soup past the ruffs without spilling. So spoon handles lengthened and the spoon's bowl became larger permitting more liquid to be transported to the mouth with less chance of dribbling the contents on the ruffs.
By the end of the sixteenth century, ruffs were falling out of fashion in Western Europe, in favor of wing collars and falling bands. The ruff was banned in Spain during the reign of Philip IV (1621-1665).
The fashion lingered longer in the Dutch Republic, where ruffs can be seen in portraits well into the seventeenth century, and also farther east.
Ruffs stayed on as part of the ceremonial dress of Lutheran clergy in North Germany, Denmark, Norway, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland.
Ruffs remain the formal attire of bishops and ministers in the Church of Denmark (including Greenland) and the Church of the Faroe Islands.
 |
| A priest in the Church of Denmark wearing a ruff. By Staunited |
Source Compton's Encyclopedia
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