The Historical Closet
    The Flemish Harvester's Jacket

This is my favorite jacket. The original idea came from Breugels' painting titled 'The  Harvesters'. As you can see in the painting, a woman sitting down to picnic, is wearing a short jacket that ends just at the last rib.

A front view of this jacket, taken from an etching titled, "Summer" shows the same style of jacket.   There are no buttons or button holes visible on the front of the jacket. The fact that the neckline of the jacket in the etching is closed points to the use of hooks and eyes.  

One of the things that most intrigued me in the construction of this jacket was the evidence of a four part back.  Until I examined this painting closely,  I had thought that the use of four panels in the construction of a garment back was a 17th century invention.  This painting firmly places this style of construction in the 1560's.     

 

 

 

 

The jacket is constructed out of a yarn dyed blue wool. The effect of the yarn dye on the cloth is to give it a slightly heathered appearance. The weave of the cloth is a simple 1/1 twill. All construction on the jacket was executed by hand using linen thread.