)
Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester wearing a mandilion colly-westonward
A mandilion or mandelion is a loose men's hip-length pullover coat or jacket, open down the sides, worn in England in late sixteenth century.[1]
It was fashionable to wear the mandilion colly-westonward or Colley-Weston-ward, that is, rotated 90 degrees so that the front and back were draped over the arms and the sleeves hung down in front and behind.
- "...sithence such is our mutability that to-day there is none to the Spanish guise, to-morrow the French toys are most fine and delectable, ere long no such apparel as that which is after the high Almaine fashion, by-and-by the Turkish manner is generally best liked of, otherwise the Morisco gowns, the Barbarian fleeces, the mandilion worn to Colley-Weston ward, and the short French breeches make such a comely vesture that, except it were a dog in a doublet, you shall not see any so disguised as are my countrymen of England." - William Harrison, The Description of Elizabethan England (1577), 'Of Our Apparel and Attire'.
Why the fashion was named after the small village of Collyweston in Northamptonshire remains uncertain.[2]
Another pronunciation of the fashion is "coley-westwards".
See Chaperon for a similar development in the medieval hood-turned-hat.
References
- ^ Ashelford, Jane. The Visual History of Costume: The Sixteenth Century. 1983 edition (ISBN 0-89676-076-6), 1994 reprint (ISBN 0-7134-6828-9)
- ^ "Leather Jackets USA". Retrieved 15 July 2019.