Cloak

This semi-circular cloak is decorated with slashing, pinking and embroidery. Now faded to oyster, the satin was once a blue-green shade, perhaps the colour known in Shakespeare’s time as ‘watchet’.

Slashing was a decorative technique that made regular, spaced cuts into the fabric of a garment, hat or shoe. In this cloak, the slashes have been crossed with smaller cuts or ‘pinks’. Each has been carefully placed between the embroidered motifs and the slashes grow larger in size moving from neck to hem. The embroidery pattern is worked in satin stitch, French knots and knotted chain stitch, and imitates the designs of woven silks.