gained in translation

[anotheranon]

Still plugging away at the Spanish-English translation of last month's Spanish costume photocopies and I think I've figured out:

• What things are: saya = bodice with skirt attached; jubón = doublet; basquiña = closed skirt; cuerpa = bodice; ropa = gown (all one piece - kirtle?); faldilla and manteo = semi-circular underskirt
  
• In all times and places, there are always some yo-yos complaining about the immorality/vanity of one kind of clothing or another: I'm reading quotes from satirists who thought stays ("cardboards of the chest") were dishonest and writers who thought platform shoes ("chapines") were excessive. Some things never change :P
  

Comments

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

I was reading _A Perfect Fit_ (Jenna Weissman Joselit) which is mostly about when "proper" clothing was seen as a way to "fit in". Once chapter that discusses home-made clothing has a quote from the 1896 about pattern instructions that "none but students of higher mathematics could possibly master them", and complaints from 1926 about ready-to-wear sizes not fitting realistic women. How little things have changed!