History's Runway: The Margaret Layton Jacket, 1610



This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum




This jacket with long, close-fitting sleeves features narrow shoulder wings, semi-circular cuffs and a small curved collar at the back neck. The whole garment is embroidered in its entirety with a pattern of scrolling vines in silver-gilt braid and a variety of flowers, fruits and insects worked in colored silks and silver-gilt thread.

The jacket was made around 1610. About ten years later, an edging of spangled silver-gilt bobbin lace was added. At the same time, the closures of pink silk ribbon were replaced with hook and eye closures.

The piece is shown being worn in the “Portrait of Margaret Layton” which is part of the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. The painting is attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (1561-1636). Both jacket and painting are displayed together.

Margaret Layton (or Margaret Layton) was a prominent member of the Layton family of Rawdon, Yorkshire. She is pictured in the jacket with an Italian needle-lace collar and cuffs, a black velvet gown, a red silk petticoat and a white-work apron. Little else is known about this mysterious woman, but her image and her beautiful jacket speak volumes about her position in society.  For a woman in Yorkshire to have owned such an important article of clothing, imported from Italy, she had to have been special indeed.