EARLY MODERN EUROPE
1680 - 1740 CE

The cut of this linen shirt is typical of that in Western Europe around the turn of the 18th century, but the pattern is more representative of the stripes and checks seen in working men’s garments of the period. Hand-sewn in striped blue and white linen, this reconstruction features a narrow collar and cuffs fastened with hand-worked Dorset cartwheel buttons. Folded triangular gussets reinforce the seams at the neck and sleeve head, where the garment features fine gathers to shape the otherwise rectilinear cut of the shirt.