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Making 15th century front-laced kirtles
To my knowledge, there are no extant garments nor records sufficient to document any one particular approach to 15th century kirtles construction. The method that I personaly prefer however, is consistent with extant examples of medieval clothing construction. I have also experimented with other plausible construction techniques and came to a very similar overall look but found that the basic geometrical construction type is the simplest and most economic method of all. Garments such as the "Moy gown" found in a bog at St-Clare, Ireland, and the cotehardie from Sir Robert Braunches brass , English man who died in 1364, both show this type of gore settings but there are other surviving garments which consists of such a construction as well.

This type of garment was worn by all social classes throughout much of the 15th century in all of Europe. It could be worn either on its own directly over the chemise for cummun tasks or, with an additional under-kirtle (with or without sleeves) for daily wear. However, I believe that this was a garment worn as a petticoat underneath the main garment such as a houppelande or gown for mundane wear and therefor, was more of an undergarment than a decent vestment to be worn in public. For this reason, this garment needs to be fitted and supportive. For commodity and decency, sleeves could be pinned-on between tasks while worn without an overgown. There are equal amount of visual sources that shows examples with and without a waistseam.
February 2007
These are a few of the many exemples of laced kirtles being worn underneat the woman's gown or houppelande ;
Book of hours of Anne de France 1473
A domestic in service
Book of hours of Anne de France 1473
Portrait of Marie d'Anjou by Jean Fouquet
The standing madonna by Robert Campin 1410
Martial d'Auvergne_Vigiles-de-charlesVII 1484
Joan of Arc taken to the stake
(on the same page she has taken off the white gown)
Master ES A Knight And Lady 1460-1465 (detail)
MASTER of the Life of the virgin,
The birth of the virgin 1470 (detail)
Front closing gown worn over laced kirtle
Another Master ES engraving
Another Master ES engraving
Vincent de Beauvais, le miroir historial
Vincentius Bellovacensis,
Speculum historiale 1463
Rogier Van der Weyden,
Seven Sacraments triptych (detail)
Onto the construction ;


Other type of front-laced kirtles of interest ;
This type of kirtle is what I believe to be what was long though as being some sort of placket pinned onto the kirtle in order to create a contrasting piece to cover the cleavage of the "V" neck burgundian gowns, houppelandes and other cotes. For a very long time, I though that the kirtle of a different color that could be seen bellow the over garment was in fact a wide guard. I've soon realised that this wasn't the case as there are plenty images out there that nearly show the totality of the kirtle and yet, the part seen in the cleavage remains of a contrasting color. The sheme is very simple when you think about it ; Two kirtles, plain and simple. The first layer show in the cleavage while the second layer being above, show at the bottom.
This would also explain images such as this one from the Stark triptych, where an additional  short sleeve can be seen under the short sleeve kirtle and the limit of the second layer can be seen through the lacing. And also images like the following where huge parts of the under kirtle can be seen ;
Boccace's De mulieribus claris, 1490
The Stark triptych, 1480
Hans Memling, 1480
Triptych of Adriaan Reins
Fire at a-masked dance in Paris,
Les chroniques de Froissart
This is also a valuable source, which shows the lacing, long thought to be part of the "V" neck burgundian gown, through the sheer partlet, therefor making it impossible to be attributed to the overgown ;
Augustine La Cité de Dieu, 1475-1480
Illuminated by Maître François
I believe the initial kirtle to be sleeveless and to have been of extremely commun use through out Europe in the 15th century. The italian images suggest the existance of such a kirtle, since no sleeve can be seen through the armcye.
Fra Bartolommeo, 1480-1490
Costanza de' Medici Caetani
Agnolo Donnino del Mazziere,
Portrait of a Young Woman
This would also explain the often weird layering of garments such as this. The sleeve would be pinned to the sleeveless kirtle instead of the short sleeve above, creating a long sleeve effect underneat, when in fact it's not the case ;
Hans Memling,
Lamentation 1475-80
Vrancke Van der Stockt, Lamentation 1470's
There is evidence of sleeveless kirtles through out Europe at that time ;
Birth of the virgin (Germany)
Douze dames de rhetorique,
1475 (France)
Diebold Schilling's chronicals
(Switzerland)
Francesco Cossa 1470,
The Triumph of Venus (Italy)
I hope that you have found these few pages helpful. For further documentation on this last type of layered kirtles, you can also visit my page on the so called "plackets" here ;
http://cadieux.mediumaevum.com/burgundian-placket.html
Thanks for reading
Flemish tapestry 1460-1470
(rabbit hunting with ferrets)