nuka-rockit: Ah yes, Landsknechte. Ever heard of Pluderhose? I’ve seen the word misspelled in Englis
nuka-rockit: Ah yes, Landsknechte. Ever heard of Pluderhose? I’ve seen the word misspelled in English-language military pop-history books as “Plunderhose” and explained as “baggy pants with lots of room for plunder” or “baggy pants made of various expensive plundered fabrics” - both of which are a good explanation though both are wrong, as the briefest look at a good German dictionary would have proved.They were an actual civilian fashion, an extravagant * version of Trunk Hose called (in English) “slops” or “galligaskins”; the OTT Landsknecht versions had (in English) the wondrous names “pansied galligaskins” or “paned slops”, due to having huge holes like windowpanes in the outer layer so the eye-catching contrasting inner layer could be more easily seen.****** Extravagant not just in the visual sense; they were condemned in-period - by the sort of busybodies who condemn such things - because of their wasteful over-use of fabric. They were of course doubly condemned when worn by Landsknechts, because these were mere punks dressing above their station, and they were ungodly mercenaries, and… You get the gist. However such condemnations were spoken more softly when actual ungodly mercenaries were within earshot, since their response to being insulted might involve shoving something pointy and painful wo die Sonne scheint nicht. It was the period version of PETA not getting in the faces of people wearing animal hides if those people happen to be a biker gang in leather jackets…*****So, here are slutty combat short-shorts, whose specific English or German names I don’t know but are probably a kind of trunk-hose which in civilian form would have leggings covering the thighs…Here’s a man wearing what looks like half-and-half pants: trunk hose on one side, full hip-to-knee on the other. There’s a colour version further down which makes the difference even clearer, as well as other pics showing that half-and-half colour schemes were apparently quite popular. They were certainly eye-catching… These, on the other hand (or leg) are typical Pluderhosen, or combat pleats-and-pelmets…This one includes an optional peg-leg, the option being did you dodge that cannonball or not?This coloured image (from „Geschichte des Kostüms“ 1905) shows that the Pluderhosen style could be combined both with armour, and with the bare-legged style, because Of Course It Could.The colours are spot-on, because that 1905 book was referring back to art by one Erhard Schön, who did his colouring in the early 1500s and must have seen the real thing swaggering past……armed to the teeth with all manner of choppity-stabbity-cutty accessories… …and dressed like a head-on collision between a draper’s shop and a dye-store… …but looking Absolutely Faaabulous. -- source link
#landsknechts#german