The Houppelande:

Brief outline of development of fashion history, based on last year's paper.

What is a Houppelande?
	When and where was it worn
	By what sort of people
	What was it made of
	Cut and construction
	Men's vs. women's.

The Houppelande in Context
	The Black Death and subsequent attitudes towards display of wealth
	Other clothing of the period (shapes and silhouettes for men and women)
	What it might have evolved from and into

The Houppelande in Period Art and Writing
	What sort of people are wearing it
	Colours, accessories, etc
	Compared with other items worn in the same or similar pieces
	How men's and women's are treated the same or differently
	Any conclusions we might draw about what the artists or writers thought of houppelandes and the people who wore them.

Overall attitudes towards the Houppelande as a men's or a women's garment.


Trying again:

The 'houppelande' is a long tunic that buttons down the front, often with a train and trailing sleeves.  It was fashionable in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries among the nobility of France and England, among both men and women.  In fact, men's and women's houppelands appear to have differed significantly only in the shape of the collar and whether or not they were buttoned to the floor.  As far as I am able to determine, the houppelande was the only garment other than cloaks and mantles which was considered suitable for both sexes during this period.  I hope to examine why this should be the case.

The houppelande was part of the ostentatious fashion movement that arose in Europe following the Black Death.  During the hundred years from about 1350 to about 1450, many cuts and styles of clothing passed in and out of fashion that were thoroughly unpopular with monks and other writers on morals.  Women's fashions of the period were often decried as 'indecent', and men's as 'effeminate'.  The often brightly-coloured Houppelande, with its trailing skirts, started out as a men's garment in the latter category.  But the very 'effeminate' qualities that made many see it as unsuitable for men, combined with its general modesty and similarly in profile to a gown, made it highly suited to becoming a woman's garment.