Mandilion
Image:Robert Sidney.jpg
Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester wearing a mandilion colly-westonward
A mandilion or mandelion is a loose men's hip-length pullover coat or jacket, open down the sides, worn in England in the later sixteenth century.
It was fashionable to wear the mandilion colly-westonward or Colley-Weston-ward, that is, rotated 90 degrees so that the front and back were draped over the arms and the sleeves hung down in front and behind.
- "...sithence such is our mutability that to-day there is none to the Spanish guise, to-morrow the French toys are most fine and delectable, ere long no such apparel as that which is after the high Almaine fashion, by-and-by the Turkish manner is generally best liked of, otherwise the Morisco gowns, the Barbarian fleeces, the mandilion worn to Colley-Weston ward, and the short French breeches make such a comely vesture that, except it were a dog in a doublet, you shall not see any so disguised as are my countrymen of England." - William Harrison, The Description of Elizabethan England (1577), 'Of Our Apparel and Attire'.
Why the fashion was named after the small village of Collyweston in Northamptonshire remains uncertain.
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References
Ashelford, Jane. The Visual History of Costume: The Sixteenth Century. 1983 edition (ISBN 0896760766), 1994 reprint (ISBN 0713468289).
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External links
Glossary of Elizabethan Clothing Terms (with sources) at Thrednedle Strete Clothiers