16th Century Style

Women's neckwear began as something extravagant with the emergence of the neck ruff during the sixteenth century, which was actually a garment piece originally designed into menswear. The earliest ruffs served a protective function as pieces meant to be worn as a covering to men's outerwear. The functional pieces eventually morphed into stylish fashion and became worn by both men and women alike. Ruffs implied status for women and were occasionally worn in such flamboyant sizes that they seemed to drown their wearer. The ruff eventually fell out of major fashion by the late seventeenth century, but nowadays it has re-emerged, flashing its flouncy frilly face in haute couture collections and costuming.

I've been experiementing with layering teabags onto string to recreate these ruffs of the past. Its very time consuming as the process is fairly involved and montonous (boil,drink,desconstruct,stain,dry). I've taken some photos of the samples and my progress so far.