The Kids Rule! Guide to… Fashion & Fads

Fashion through the ages

Fill in the missing words to start learning all about the trends, fashions and fads through English history

Throughout history, people have found all sorts of different ways to follow the fashions of the day – from the clothes they wore to the houses they lived in. But what seemed stylish then can seem surprising now! For example, in the 16th century, lots of women covered their faces with make-up made of white powdered , which we now know was poisonous, while in the 17th century people would wear wigs that were made of hair. The style of buildings has also changed a lot. The ancient used a lot of columns with lines going up the sides – a style that was copied in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. Or you can spot a Norman or castle by their round-arched doorways and blocky designs. Dover Castle is a good example of this. People came up with all sorts of different ways to decorate their homes. These ranged from the fancy plasterwork in the Durbar Room at Osborne to complicated designs. Some designers even became famous, such as Humphry Repton. He was a landscape gardener in the late 1700s and early 1800s who came up with plans for around 400 gardens!

5 things to spot

What’s inside?

Here’s what you can find in this issue of Kids Rule!

Discover

Can you find these five things hiding in the pages of this issue?

Medieval shoes

of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s family portrait

The designers that made Kenwood one of London’s most fashionable homes

Learn about mad fads through the ages – from giant wigs to face paint!

Roman brooch

Victorian top hat

Georgian wig

Elizabethan ruff

Create dress-uppaperdolls

If you go to Kenwood – a big villa in London that dates from the 17th century – you can see the house’s huge art collection. It includes a group of nine portraits by William Larkin (see right). He was a painter who lived in the Jacobean period (during the reign of James I) from around 1580 to 1619. The pictures are of Katherine Howard, 1st Countess of Suffolk, her friends and relatives. They show how members of high society looked at the time, with their big lace collars, embroidered clothing and fancy footwear decorated with ribbons (known as shoe roses). Now, with our special dress-up dolls, you can create your very own mini Jacobean fashion models inspired by Larkin’s portraits!

You will You will need: need:

• Print-outs of the templates

• Thin piece of cardboard

• Scissors

• Glue

• Felt-tip pens or colouring pencils

Send us your photos!

When you’ve finished creating your Jacobean dolls, please ask a grownup to send us a photo to membersmagazine@ ourmedia.co.uk and we’ll share the best in our next issue!

What you need to do…

1 Go to www.englishheritage.org.uk/kids. Download your doll templates and print them out.

2 Colour everything in. You can use Larkin’s portraits as inspiration or use your imagination.

3 Cut out the templates. Trace the dolls on to card, cut these out and glue them to the the dolls to make them stronger.

4 Dress up your dolls, folding the tabs over to keep everything in place. Try different combinations to come up with your own 17thcentury trendsetters!

Discover more!

Watch our YouTube series to learn more about fashion through history youtu.be/ DDMrpUZO5pA

Find out about a mega Georgian mansion and make your own mini model Page 10

See you on the back page!

A day in the life

It’s 1846 and Queen Victoria has commissioned a very special family portrait

Queen Victoria has been on the throne for nine years and has five beautiful children. So she thinks it’s the perfect time to get a portrait done by her favourite artist, to hang in her favourite room, in her favourite home – Osborne, on the Isle of Wight.

Queen Victoria’s favourite painter is a German artist called Franz Xaver Winterhalter. He is the court painter for King Louis Philippe of France. Victoria writes to the French king asking if she can borrow Winterhalter.

A few weeks later Winterhalter arrives to meet the queen at Windsor Castle. He has met Victoria before but is still respectful when he is introduced to her.

Send this immediately.

Franz must arrive as soon as possible!

The queen is the first to pose for the painting. She has to sit as still as possible for hours on end so that Winterhalter can capture her likeness perfectly.

It will be an honour to paint your family, your majesty

I expect only the best!

The queen is a lot better at sitting still than her children. Her eldest daughter Vicky, who is only six, makes a great effort of leaning over the baby Helena to pose but this makes her very sleepy…

One must not sneeze…

We shall have the most magnificent portrait, Albert. There is only one man for the job!

Please, your highness, I cannot see your eyes

Bertie is five and poses in a fine Russian blouse next to the queen. Bertie clearly loves the attention and keeps waving at the painter.

Sigh, please keep your arm down Bertie

Look at me, Franz!

Alfred, who is two, is also wearing a dress, as all of the royal children, including the boys, wore dresses until they were three or four. As he’s so young he struggles to stay still for very long and keeps wandering off.

Sigh! Well, that’s another lovely painting of the back of Alfred’s head!

Alice is wearing a lovely dress but it takes a long time to put it on. She gets quite grumpy when she’s getting ready, which doesn’t help Winterhalter when he tries to paint her.

Please, your highness, don’t you want to turn that frown upside down?

No, I want to be outside playing!

The final member of the family to pose is the queen’s husband, Prince Albert. He and Winterhalter occasionally strike up conversation about their time living in Germany.

Do you miss German sausages, your highness?

No, they are the wurst!

All the hard work by Winterhalter over several months is worth it. Victoria is delighted with the painting and allows thousands of people see it when she hangs it in St James’s Palace in London.

A truly magnificent seven! Victoria

Picture perfect!

DESIGNED TO DELIGHT

With its stylish rooms and glorious gardens, Kenwood in London was a fashionable villa created by two of England’s most famous 18th-century designers

REMARKABLE RETREAT

Kenwood is a beautiful villa in north London. It was built more than 200 years ago and is surrounded by parkland with woods, ponds and gardens. Inside the villa you can see beautiful rooms, including a magnificent library, as well an important collection of paintings.

FAMOUS RESIDENTS

Kenwood has been home to some fascinating people. The first mansion was built in 1616 by John Bill, who was printer to King James I. More than 100 years later, it was owned by a Scottish aristocrat, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, who became prime minister. Later in the 18th century, Kenwood was the home of William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, who was the top judge in England, known as the Lord Chief Justice.

FASHIONABLE FACELIFT FACELIFT

Lord Mansfield and his wife Lady Elizabeth had no children of their own. But in 1766, their two great-nieces came to live with them. This meant that Lord and Lady Mansfield needed more space. From 1764 until 1779, they employed Scottish architect Robert Adam to transform Kenwood into a fashionable neoclassical villa, inspired by the architecture of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Robert Adam

STATE OF STATE OF THE ART

In 1925, the 6th Earl of Mansfield sold Kenwood to Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh. He was very rich and bought lots of beautiful paintings. When he died in 1927, he left Kenwood to the nation for the public to enjoy free of charge. If you visit Kenwood today, you’ll see masterpieces by some of the world’s most famous artists, including Rembrandt,ReynoldsGainsborough, and Turner.

THE BIG THE REVEAL

In 1793, the 2nd Earl of Mansfield employed landscape gardener Humphry Repton to redesign the gardens at Kenwood. Repton wanted to make Kenwood seem bigger and grander than it was, so he planted trees to hide nearby houses, moved a road further away from the villa and created viewpoints to see London landmarks like St Paul’s Cathedral.

interiors

Look inside amazing rooms from history

ENTRANCE HALL, ELTHAM PALACE, LONDON

Stepping into Eltham Palace’s entrance hall is like being in a James Bond film set. This huge triangular room is surrounded by wood walls decorated with figures, and is topped with a large circular glass dome for light.

STAR OF THE SHOW SHOW

Robert Adam added a new entrance with giant columns, a grand staircase and an attic with extra bedrooms. He also redecorated almost every room. His most spectacular room was the library, which was used by the Mansfields to host dinners, perform music and play games. The room has 19 paintings set into the walls and ceiling, themed around law, reflecting Lord Mansfield’s role as a judge.

LOL!

Where do frogs leave their coats?

In the croakroom!

To find out more about Kenwood, go to www.englishheritage.org. uk/kenwood

DURBAR ROOM, OSBORNE, ISLE OF WIGHT

This room is decorated with Indian-style plasterwork to reflect Queen Victoria’s status as Empress of India. It was used as the venue for dinners for European royalty and must have left a lasting impression on guests.

THE HEAVEN CLOSET, BOLSOVER CASTLE, DERBYSHIRE

This room is off the master bedchamber in the Little Castle at Bolsover. It is decorated with amazing paintings all over the walls and ceiling, which show Christ’s journey into heaven.

Gainsborough

Humphry Repton

Discover some of the strangest crazes through history, from poisonous face paint and pointy shoes to face patches made of mouse skin!

In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, fashionable women wanted to emphasise the paleness of their skin, so they used make-up made of white powdered lead, which we now know is actually toxic. Queen Elizabeth I of England used white lead mixed with vinegar to give her a very pale face and cover up her smallpox scars. This eventually made her ill, and may even have caused her death in 1603.

In the 15th century there was a fashion for men’s shoes with long, pointed tips called poulaines or pikes, which were up to half the length of the shoe itself. They were named cracow shoes after the city of Krakow in Poland, where they may have been invented. King Edward IV got so sick of them he banned them in 1465!

In the Middle Ages medical science was very primitive. Your health was thought to be affected by ‘humours’ – blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm – and their influence on your body and emotions. Doctors thought they could control the humours by taking blood out of you using leeches – creatures like slugs that suck the blood of mammals. Although the medieval reasoning for sickness may have been misguided, they were on to something and doctors still occasionally use leeches to aid healing today!

In the 16th century, shirt collars developed into ruffs – a kind of big puffy collar made of linen. Rich people started wearing bigger and bigger ruffs as a status symbol. These were made of up to 16 metres of linen fabric, washed with starch to make it stiff, over a wire framework. They made eating and drinking difficult but they looked amazing!

In the 17th and 18th centuries, many people suffered from diseases like smallpox, which left scars on their faces. Fashionable women in England and France glued little black patches to their faces to cover up the marks. These were made from velvet, silk or even mouse skin! In time, the patches became fashionable anyway.

LOL!

In the 16th century, people had their clothes padded to give their bodies a different shape or outline. Men could have their jackets or doublets padded to make their shoulders look broader or their arms bigger, and their breeches padded to make their legs look bigger. Women had their skirts padded to make them wider. The shapes looked odd but that was part of the attraction!

From the 16th century into the 20th century, rich women wore corsets to give them slim, elegant figures. The corsets were made of stiff cloth, often with a framework of wood, wire or whalebone, and were tied tightly at the back. Some women had waistlines of just 46cm with a corset on. Corsets were uncomfortable and bad for their health, but women had to do this to appear fashionably dressed. Ouch!

In the 18th century, people started to bathe in the sea because they thought it was good for their health. However, they didn’t want people to see them in their bathing suits as this was considered to be indecent. Their solution was to use bathing machines, which were like huts on wheels. You got into one and changed into your swimsuit. The hut was then pulled into the sea by a horse, so you could climb down the steps and have a dip without anyone seeing you!

In the 17th century it was fashionable for both women and men to have long hair – but they often got head lice or went bald. So, men at the French and English courts of kings and queens shaved their heads and wore long wigs made of human or horse hair. In the late 1600s the huge wigs reached their shoulders. It didn’t matter that it looked like a wig as everyone else was wearing one!

What happened after the Georgian wig shop wasburgled? They had to replace all the locks!

DESIGN GRAND

Discover the story of the Georgian mega mansion Marble Hill, built by Henrietta Howard on the banks of the River Thames

CHILDHOOD CHILDHOOD TRAUMA TRAUMA

Henrietta Howard was born in 1689. She spent her childhood at Blickling Hall in Norfolk with her father, Sir Henry Hobart, her mother Elizabeth, Lady Hobart, and her brother and sisters. Her father died in 1698 after a duel and in 1701 her mother died from an illness, leaving Henrietta an orphan.

CLEVER MOVE CLEVE MOVE

In 1706, when Henrietta was a teenager, she married Charles Howard, a distant relative. This marriage was not a happy one and soon the couple were poor. Henrietta saved up money for her and Charles to go to Hanover in Germany to make friends with the future king of England – George I.

ROYAL MISTRESS ROYAL MISTRESS

The plan worked and Henrietta was given a prestigious job as a Woman of the Bedchamber in the household of the king’s daughter-in-law, Caroline, Princess of Wales. She soon after became the mistress to Caroline’s husband, George, Prince of Wales (later George II). Henrietta had a difficult role of trying to keep both the prince and princess happy.

GREAT ESCAPE GREAT ESCAPE

In 1723 the Prince of Wales gave Henrietta a large gift of £11,500 (over £2 million today) in stock in the Bank of England and South Sea Company. With this money, Henrietta decided to build a fashionable house in Twickenham, called Marble Hill. This house was going to be her retreat from her demanding job.

Henrietta Howard

PARTY PALACE PALACE

When completed, Marble Hill was one of the most fashionable villas along the Thames. Henrietta regularly held parties and entertainments for poets and writers such as Jonathan Swift and John Gay, along with her neighbours, including the Duchess of Queensbury and Horace Walpole, who was a writer and politician. Amazingly, Marble Hill and its glorious gardens still look much the same today as they would have in Henrietta’s time.

EXPERT ADVICE ADVICE

To create her beautiful house Henrietta enlisted the help of the architect-builder Roger Morris and the ‘architectearl’, Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke. The gardens were also carefully designed and laid out with the help of the poet (and Henrietta’s neighbour) Alexander Pope and the royal gardener, Charles Bridgeman.

STEP

DESIGNER DESIGNER HOME HOME

She decided to build it in the Palladian style, which is a classical style of architecture inspired by the work of the 16th- century Italian architect Andrea Palladio. He had been inspired by the architecture of ancient Rome. Palladian buildings are usually symmetrical (they look the same on both sides) and have classical elements such as columns.

STEP

STEP

A Palladian-style building

Horace Walpole

Becomeahistoricbuildingsupersleuth andamazeyourfriendswithourguide tothetell-talefeaturesofbuildingsof differentstylesandages

The Romans were great builders. They built towns and cities, forts, villas, baths and aqueducts, as well as classical temples like the Greeks. Their temples often had Corinthian columns, which have leafy tops (called capitals), as well as fluting. Roman buildings were admired in later times, and lots of buildings in the classical style were built in England from the 17th to the 20th century.

Classical architecture was invented in ancient Greece as a way to build beautiful temples for their gods and goddesses. A good example is the Parthenon – the temple of the goddess Athena – in Athens. The temples have columns of different types. The most popular type are Doric, which have grooves up the side (called fluting) and plain blocks (called capitals) at the top. Buildings in the Greek style were fasionable in England in the late 18th and 19th centuries.

The Normans were people from northern France, who conquered England in 1066 and ruled this country. They built churches and castles all over England in the 11th and 12th centuries. Norman buildings look very strong: they often have round-arched doorways and windows with patterns such as zig-zags on them.

In the 16th century, England and Wales were ruled by the Tudor dynasty, from Henry VII to Queen Elizabeth I. The style of the buildings from this time is named Tudor, after them. Tudor houses usually had windows with mullions (stone dividing bars) to hold the glass. Sometimes the larger windows had horizontal bars as well, called transoms.

Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire

St Botolph’s Priory, Colchester

Chiswick House in west London

Belsay Hall in Northumberland

What’s the best way to get a Greek architect to design a house for you?

Column!

The Regency is the name given to the years from 1811 to 1820, when King George III was ill and his eldest son had to rule in his place as Prince Regent. England was becoming richer and more people wanted their homes to look stylish. Regency houses in towns often had balconies made of cast iron, which was a new technology at the time.

Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 until 1901. In her time, England became a rich industrial nation in which more than half the population lived in towns and cities. Lots of new buildings went up and a lot of English families still live in Victorian houses. One popular feature of Victorian houses was bay windows, which were designed to let in more light.

Check out these very unusual properties

In the 1920s–30s, many people wanted a simpler, more modern look for their homes than Victorian houses had. A new style was invented called art deco. It has strong patterns based on straight lines and shapes like triangles and rays of sun. Art deco houses often have windows with horizontal glazing bars.

verythi g

Everything in this triangular lodge is arranged in groups of three. Its owner, Sir Thomas Tresham, was a rich landowner and a Catholic, who built the lodge in 1594–95 as a secret symbol of the Holy Trinity.

was a big brick house, built around 1670. In 1809 its owner, Henry Drummond, wanted to make it look like a Greek temple. To do this, his architect blocked up the servants’ bedroom windows!

Wellington Arch was originally designed as an approach to Buckingham Palace. In the 1880s it was taken down and moved a short distance to make room for a new road. It was also used as a tiny police station!

The Grange

Rushton Triangular Lodge he Gr ge b i k

The Grange, Hampshire

el ngton

Wellington Arch

Victorian house in Bristol

Art deco house in Southgate, London

Regency house on Brighton seafront

LOL! Whywerecastles goodplacesfor Theydiscos?werefull ofknightlife!

Look inside…

Belsay Castle’s Great Chamber

1 Wild thing

The Wild Man, a hairy naked man usually shown carrying an uprooted tree, was the emblem of the Middleton family. Here he stands opposite the entrance to the room, carrying a shield.

2 Looking up

Richly decorated ceilings like this were very fashionable in the 15th century. They were made from wooden planks that were often painted with heraldic shields or repeating patterns.

3 Ship shapes

The top of the wall painting at the south end of the room shows ships and rowing boats, celebrating the naval exploits of Sir John Middleton VII, who commanded royal fleets.

4 Wall paintings

The walls of the Great Chamber are covered with fashionable painted murals, which are made to look like tapestries. The design consists of heraldic shields hanging from trees.

5 Room with a view

This large window shows that the castle was built more for status than defence, as glass was very expensive. The benches provided a comfortable spot to look at the view.

6 Heating up

The large fireplace ensured the room stayed warm, even during the cold winter months. It lies towards the north end of the room, as this is where Sir John and his family had dinner.

Learn more about Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens at www.english-heritage.org.uk/belsay

wholet inthat lemur?!

Could you make it as aN

architect?

Architects Seely and Paget transformed Eltham Palace into a state-of-the-art home for Stephen and Virginia Courtauld in the 1930s. Take our quiz to see if you’d have done the same…

LOL!

1 You add a new house to the medieval hall. What style of architecture do you use?

A Modernist concrete and glass

B Restrained classical style to fit in with the hall

C Anything goes, just be creative

2The Courtaulds want to include the latest technology. What do you suggest?

A Solar panels on the roof

B Wi-Fi in every room

C Electric fires and underfloor heating

3How do you make sure the Courtaulds’ lemur Mah-Jongg feels at home?

A Paint his living quarters with forest scenes

B Play lemur sounds

C Give him a widescreen TV

4Virginia Courtauld wants her bathroom to be exotic. What would you suggest?

A A games console in the bath

B Gold-plated taps and a statue of a classical goddess

C Mirrors with precious gems

5You’ve been asked to make the grounds suitable for sport. What do you create?

A A tennis court and outdoor swimming pool

B A running track

C Outdoor gym equipment

Design briefs Design briefs

Now take on our extra design challenges!

BED HEAD

6The Courtaulds love having guests stay. What facilities do you lay on?

A A television in every bedroom

B Taxi service to the airport

C En-suite bathrooms for all guest bedrooms

7What will you use to provide hot water for the new house?

A A cauldron over a fire

B A modern gas-fired boiler in the basement

C A small nuclear reactor in the garden

how many did you get right?

4-5 You didn’t get the job!

Why not try designing your own perfect bedroom including all the mod cons you would like to make your life easier. These could be design features to make the room more comfortable, more colourful or to keep out uninvited visitors.

TOP BOSS

The Great Hall at Eltham Palace includes a number of bosses (round decorative carved stones) in the ceiling. One of them depicts the Courtaulds’ beloved pet lemur Mah-Jongg. Have a go at designing your own boss. You could base it on someone in your family or a pet.

SUPER MARQUETRY

1-3 1-3 Rookie! Try again!

6-7 -7 You’ve got the X factor!

The design- The designometer ometer

The entrance hall at Eltham is decorated using a technique called marquetry, where different coloured woods are inlaid into a base panel to create the design. Have a go at creating your own marquetry using different coloured playdough or plasticine.