The Cranach Dress

Many people have seen the works of Lucas Cranach the Elder and the Younger. Several of their works featuring women from Saxon county, Germany, show them in a dress that is unique to the area: a cartridge pleated skirt with no obvious waistband, a jacket that when fully laced has a wide opening at the front, and a stomacher with a wide band of trim at the top. There are very few published sources about the history and construction of this garment, which seemed to have been very popular among the Saxon nobility during the 16th century and traveled as far south as Nuremberg. Here I have recreated the dress for theatrical use. Because of the demands of the stage, the construction techniques used vary slightly from what was likely actual methods. These differences have been detailed in the research binder, under the \u27Conclusions\u27 tab