A
ruff is an item of
clothingA feature of nearly all modern human societies is the wearing of clothing or clothes, a category encompassing a wide variety of materials that cover the body....
worn in Western
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century.
The ruff which was worn by both men and women, evolved from the small fabric
ruffleIn sewing and dressmaking, a ruffle, frill, or furbelow is a strip of fabric, lace or ribbon tightly gathered or pleated on one edge and applied to a garment, bedding, curtain or other textile as a form of trimming...
at the drawstring neck of the
shirt or chemiseThe term chemise or shift can refer to the classic smock, or else can refer to certain modern types of women's undergarments and dresses...
. They served as changeable pieces of cloth that could themselves be laundered while keeping the wearer's
doubletDoublet may refer to:*Doublet , a man's snug-fitting buttoned jacket that was worn from the late 14th century to the mid 17th century*Doublet , an assembled gem composed in two sections, such as a garnet overlaying green glass...
from becoming soiled at the neckline.
The discovery of starch allowed ruffs to be made wider without losing their shape.
A
ruff is an item of
clothingA feature of nearly all modern human societies is the wearing of clothing or clothes, a category encompassing a wide variety of materials that cover the body....
worn in Western
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century.
The ruff which was worn by both men and women, evolved from the small fabric
ruffleIn sewing and dressmaking, a ruffle, frill, or furbelow is a strip of fabric, lace or ribbon tightly gathered or pleated on one edge and applied to a garment, bedding, curtain or other textile as a form of trimming...
at the drawstring neck of the
shirt or chemiseThe term chemise or shift can refer to the classic smock, or else can refer to certain modern types of women's undergarments and dresses...
. They served as changeable pieces of cloth that could themselves be laundered while keeping the wearer's
doubletDoublet may refer to:*Doublet , a man's snug-fitting buttoned jacket that was worn from the late 14th century to the mid 17th century*Doublet , an assembled gem composed in two sections, such as a garnet overlaying green glass...
from becoming soiled at the neckline.
The discovery of starch allowed ruffs to be made wider without losing their shape. Later ruffs were separate garments that could be washed, starched, and set into elaborate figure-of-eight folds by the use of heated cone-shaped goffering irons.
At their most extreme, ruffs were a foot or more wide; these
cartwheel ruffs such as the one in the portrait to the right required a wire frame called a
supportasse or
underpropper to hold them at the fashionable angle.
By the end of the sixteenth century, ruffs were falling out of fashion in Western Europe, in favor of wing
collarIn clothing, a collar is the part of a shirt, dress, coat or blouse that fastens around or frames the neck. A collar may also be a separate or detachable accessory worn around the neck.-Origins:...
s and falling
bandsBands are a form of formal neckwear, worn by some clergy and lawyers, and with some forms of academic dress. They take the form of two oblong pieces of cloth, usually though not invariably white, which are tied to the neck. Bands is usually plural because they require two similar parts and did not...
. The fashion lingered longer in
HollandRotterdam
The Hague
Haarlem
Dordrecht |} Holland is a name in common usage given to a region in the western part of the Netherlands. The name 'Holland' is also often informally used to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands...
, where ruffs can be seen in portraits well into the seventeenth century, and farther east. It also stayed on as part of the ceremonial dress of city councillors (Senatoren) in North German
HanseaticThe Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading cities and their guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period...
cities and of Lutheran
clergyClergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. The term ultimately comes from the Greek κλῆρος - klēros, "a lot", "that which is assigned by lot" or metaphorically, "inheritence"....
in those cities and in
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
.
In the twentieth century, the ruff inspired the name of the
Elizabethan collarAn Elizabethan collar or space collar is a protective medical device worn by an animal, usually a cat or dog...
for animals.
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