Let’s Make an Elizabethan Ruff!
I had a fun job come into the studio earlier this year. I was asked to design the costumes for an events installation at the amazing Rufford Abbey. They had decided to bring in an events creation company to redesign their tourist experience. This involved vast set builds as well as virtual interactive games and video playback.
The major part for myself and my team was creating several costumes of characters that had actually lived or stayed at Rufford Abbey at one point or another throughout history. These were going to be shot on green screen as a talking heads interview. Then played into all the different rooms as the visitors wandered through the experience. These videos were vital in telling the story as people progressed through the experience.
One of the real life characters we created was Bess of Hardwick, also known as the COUNTESS OF SHREWSBURY!
An absolutely fascinating woman. One of the riches women in the England 2nd only to Queen Elizabeth the 1st. She amassed her extreme wealth by her 4 lucrative marriages. She outlived her first three husbands and unusually so managed to retain their estates.
She was also close to the Queen Elizabeth for quite some time, until its believed Elizabeth became threatened by the Countesses wealth and opulence.
Bess and her husband were assigned by the queen the task of holding Mary Queen of Scots captive for several years, this was to be completely at their own cost! The queen had decreed they were to keep her in the lifestyle fit for the royal she was! Which as you can imagine was not cheap.. One could believe had done this on purpose to seriously dent their wealth!
But anyway, back to the costumes!! Having looked through several hire houses, I couldn't quite find exactly what I had it mind for her. So I decided we would make it all ourselves in the studio (Yes, if you hadn't already realised I am a perfectionist!).
Below is the painting we were trying to recreate - as this is exact painting which would come to life in the room and begin telling the visitors the story of Bess of Hardwick’s involvement with the Abbey. So the painting would transition, and come to life so to speak! Revealing the actor in our costume telling her side of the story.
Now, I know in the painting in looks like a plain black dress with a cloak & some ruffs, but it was so much more! I really wanted to recreate the volume in the sleeves and the detailing in the embroidery. As well as capturing the typical Elizabethan shape. I think we did a pretty good job considering the limited time and budget.
Now, beyond the dress.. the main issue was, I could not find any decent stiff collar ruffs or wrist ruffs! Honestly they were all so floppy. No amount of starch could of resurrected them. So again I decided to make the ruffs myself! Only complication here was, that I had never made ruffs before! Well period ruffs at least(I’ve knocked up a couple of vintage clown style ruffs up before). But during the elizabethan era, ruffs were a show of wealth and power. The bigger the ruff the richer you were! Frankly you needed to be to be able to afford all that silk! Ruffs were hand starched daily then pinned into place. If perhaps it was a wet day and you were off to an event, one of your ladies in waiting would carry your ruff in a “ruff box” to the event and then pin it on you there. This would then save you the embarrassment of having a limp ruff caused by the rain! HOW embarrassing!
My assistant Karl found an incredible YouTube video by one of the brilliant makers at The Shakespeare theatre company in Chicago, showing you how to make an authentic elizabethan ruff… fairly quickly! I have to say its a brilliant video and the technique they use is so straight forward and really does create a brilliant ruff. The only addition I made was adding some horse hair braiding to really stiffen the ruff.
There is a link below to the YouTube we followed and some photos of our ruff and costume!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEUj0gGp8hM&t=11s
Go on, give a ruff a go!
Bye for now! Px
