Samuel Pepys ‘ clothing images reveal his innocent pleasure: Fancy French clothes

A collection of European style prints provides valuable new insight into Samuel Pepys ‘ lifestyle years after his premature death journal entry. The butcher’s son’s fascination with trend continued long after he gained wealth and status. However, they also introduce Pepys ‘ internal conflict due to its European aesthetic.

Most of what we know about Samuel Pepys ( 1633–1703 ), the famous English diarist and naval administrator, comes from the diary that he kept from 1660–69. He wrote a bit about clothing, from girls to Parmesan cheese, and the Great Fire of London. But, Pepys lived for another 34 times and while surviving characters offer signs, we know less about the next, more affluent half of his life.

Marlo Avidon, a writer at the University of Cambridge, discovers exciting new insights after visiting Pepys ‘ personal set of style designs in the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where Pepys had been a scholar. The acquisition of Pepys ‘ private library, including his original diaries, in 2024 marks Magdalene’s 300th anniversary.

One of the largest certain collections of European style images from the 17th century is housed in the library. Avidon, a Ph. D. researcher at Christ’s College, Cambridge, focuses on two of its volumes, the” Habits de France” and” Modes de Paris”, which comprise over a hundred fashion illustrations printed between 1670 and 1696.

The article by Avidon, which is published today in the journal The Seventeenth Century, features eight photos from the series for the first time. One of these images is linked to a cringe-worthy Pepys ‘ journal season, according to Vidon.

In a summertime match he had just purchased, Pepys wrote in 1669 that he was “afeared to be seen” because it was” very good with the gold lace at the hands.” After he suddenly gained the courage, a politically superior partner spotted him in the playground and informed him that his station’s sleeves were above his station. With the arms, Pepys decided to “never appear in court” and had a tailor cut them off,” as it is fit I does.”

Pepys learned a lesson that day but this did n’t put him off fashion. He then purchased a print titled” Habit Noir” ( evening wear ), which features an elite Frenchman proudly displaying very similar lace cuffs and plentiful ribbons.

” Hobbes would have seen this dress as very risky”, Marlo Avidon said. ” This was for a European nobleman, and was perhaps well beyond his budget. However, Pepys perhaps did not have many of these string rings in her closet. This is how clothing used to work and still does today: you demonstrate your ability to design within your means.

” Tomkins felt like he had to walk a very fine line, especially at this stage in his career. His mother worked as a washerwoman, his father was a tailor, and Pepys was deeply concerned about how he was perceived, and he managed to maintain his image. His emotions as a young child are depicted in the book. The prints show that throughout his career, he remained determined to prove himself through clothing and social investment.

Pepys was elected as an MP in 1679 and served as the Admiralty’s Chief Secretary until 1673.

Pepys stopped keeping a notebook just as his job was booming, according to Avidon. It’s really challenging to get to Pepys ‘ later life. These designs give him a unique opportunity to consider his style preferences during this time.

Pepys ‘ initial display purchases and precise observations of his legal service superiors, as described in his diary, demonstrate his desire to gain access to powerful social circles, Avidon contends.

However, as Pepys expanded his write selection, he became a member of a group of gentleman scholars affiliated with the Royal Society and the Naval Office.

He began using fashion to” consolidate his social standing and show his liberal tastes,” according to Avidon,” but collecting style prints was also a way to cultivate intellectual relationships and uphold his scientific reputation.”

” I went into this research with a lot of reservations about Pepys, I did n’t like him. However, the prints provide a much more complex, realistic portrait of him. His steps in response to that stress still evoke a familiarity today because he was gullible and frightened.

A innocent pleasure

According to Avidon’s studies, Pepys never let go of his concerns about dressing badly, making a style faux pas, or the moral quandary of wearing French-made clothing.

Concerned about Charles II’s close ties to the Catholic French King Louis XIV and the expansion of European impact on English tradition, there was problem. This gave off the impression of a social problems. Popery and its relationship with vanity sparked a certain pixiecrat in England, Avidon said.

Luxury silks, over-the-top cut, and lace were frequently viewed as being outrageously expensive in England as a result of their combination of extravagant clothing.

” Tomkins had a European wife, was friends with European traders, and had a strong interest in European culture,” Avidon said. Pepys even ridiculed people who came back from France in extravagant French outfits, and he was concerned about the frivolity of French elites.

Peters felt under pressure to keep his country’s moral high ground, both socially and economically, by dressing appropriately for his own social status and by upholding what was socially and economically appropriate.

In his book, Pepys condemned the English Queen’s Maids of Honor for wearing French-inspired masculine-inspired driving habits, creating “nobody may take them for women in any place whatever—which was an odde look, and a view did not please me”.

A month earlier, nevertheless, he thought the same, noting “it was pretty to see the younger pretty women dressed like guys”. Additionally, Pepys eventually purchased a European print featuring an evolved version of this design featuring a martial-style coat.

” When it came to women’s clothing, Pepys’s style and sentiments were constantly changing and usually conflicting”, Avidon said.

Pepys ‘ trendy people

When combined, Pepys ‘ book and write series demonstrate that women were the victims of vanity and excessive usage, but style still remained a very masculine concern during this time.

Elizabeth Pepys’ French woman died in 1669, just before Pepys began collecting his clothing prints, at the age of 29.

According to Avidon,” Pepys ‘ journal suggests that he really wanted his family to look good and dress well.” He worried about her spending too much on clothing, though, and he occasionally went shopping with her. Pepys maintained Elizabeth’s status as he did his own in a position of purgatory.

According to sources in Pepys ‘ journal, Elizabeth was interested in images herself, and Avidon thinks that this influenced what Tomkins later collected.

Elizabeth passed away shortly after a May 1669 journey with Pepys to Paris. Although we do n’t know much about their stay, they almost certainly shopped for prints because Pepys ‘ friend John Evelyn coached them on how to do it and perhaps even clothes.

” Tomkins was distraught by Elizabeth’s death”, Avidon said. ” I believe Pepys must have been inspired by these images of classy young people,” she said. As a tribute to her, the set might be seen.

Pepys quickly employed a young maid, Mary Skinner, who quickly became his lady. They remained close until his passing, and she frequently received the nickname” Mrs. Tomkins.” Although we are not really familiar with Mary, Avidon believes that the print collection will take us much more in touch with her.

Mens cujusque is vers quisque’ (‘ The body’s the man’). Credit: Magdalene College, Cambridge”>

Avidon suggests that he may have colored Mary’s black and white style images by incorporating her into her knowledge by Pepys, who had molded her as he had molded her as he had Elizabeth.

” Some of the images were evidently not properly colored, they look incompetent,” Avidon said”. Throughout the course of his connection with Mary, Pepys picked up these images. It’s possible that he was instructing her on how to color these images. We’ll never know for certain, but by the time Mary passed away, she had already established herself as a very stylish woman.

In” Habit Noir,” Avidon points to unethical white spaces in the painting. In another prints, the colours bleeds over ranges obscuring clothing details. One has colored the embroidered velvet pattern in” Habit de ville,” a printing depicting a popular city gown, with unsophisticated squiggly lines. Vidon suggests that Mary Skinner might have possibly colored both designs.

In her Ph.D. thesis, Avidon studied Pepys ‘ print collection. D. research into the influence of clothing on the development of powerful women’s identities in the late 17th centuries.

” Avidon said,”” The Pepys Library is a very private place to study in.” Right next to you, Pepys ‘ book is in a show case filled with his valuables, and you are surrounded by shelves. I was thus excited. These designs would have been taken out and talked to associates about by Pepys. Then I get to do that.”