Cuff (clothing)

Muff and muffs are two types of clothing accessories with notable differences. The cylindrical muff of leather or similar material used to keep hands warm and associated with clothing feminine, although it is not exclusive to ladies; and the cloth sleeves that covered the forearms that appeared from the 15th century, as a complement to the sleeveless female clothing common in that and later times. While the leather garment has lost the importance it had in the century XIX and part of the XX, the "cuffs" They have been recovered in the design of sleeves in sports such as cycling.

History

Handwarmer sleeve

With iconographic precedents dating back to China during the Han dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD), the cylindrical muff, as a remedy for warming the hands, was identified in Roman times with the "manicae". Du Cange associates the term "muffulae" (medieval Latin) with the construction "chirothecae pellitae et hibernae", mentioned in a cartulary from the year 817, regarding an expedition in which the monks used sheepskins to cover their hands in winter. (although the aforementioned cartulary also distinguishes the summer glove from the winter "muffulae"). That seems to be the root of the French "moufle", a very thick mitten or glove.

With the Crusades, the fur trade evolved in Western Europe. Thus, precedents for the cuff - made with two rectangles of skin - appear in the XV century, when "the courtesans famous and noble ladies already used them as tiny little dog houses. From the end of the XVI, the sophisticated luxury garment is located in the Republic of Venice, and soon its fashion spread throughout almost the entire Italian Peninsula. It did not take long for it to travel to France, becoming an essential element in the court of Henry III, where it was made of silk, satin and velvet, lined with fur and matching the dress of the lady who wore it. It is also documented that Elizabeth I of England, apparently very cold, considered the muff as her favorite piece. Although its use has been traditionally associated with women, it is also recorded in the men's wardrobe, although with differences in the way to show it off, although in the case of men it was usual to wear it tied at the waist.

In the Versailles of the 18th century, the ladies of the Louis XV court wore muffs made of cat, dog, beaver and even leopard; and more frequently those made of ermine skin between 1810 and 1814. All that ostentation would almost disappear after the French Revolution, whose egalitarian ideology was obviously at odds with an object of excessive luxury. However, shortly after, in the European 19th century, the muff reached its greatest apogee as a symbol of social status and classic accessory. of women's outerwear,

The arrival of the XX century and the textile evolution in favor of the glove and its wide range of models and materials, made that the use of the sleeve became something exceptional, although it remained valid on international catwalks. This was the case, for example, in the presentation of the season for autumn-winter 2013/2014, with innovative Parisian designs by Phoebe Philo for one hand, "like a kind of 'supersized mitten' collected on the arm. On that same catwalk, Haider Ackermann presented 'XL mitten' models, and Givenchy wrist-sleeves that covered from the torso of the hand to the upper part of the arm. The most classic models were made by brands such as BCBG Max Azria and Balenciaga. In that same season, the American designer Tory Burch presented muffs attached to the neck with a leather strap in New York.

Also in the twilight of the 20th century, the primitive 'bag-sleeves' They were resurrected by Alicia Silverstone and Stacey Dash in the 90s television series Clueless (in which their characters Cher and Dionne create a line of arm warmers with pockets to carry the precedent of cell phones and makeup, after see them in a photograph of the Russian Revolution. That same idea of the bag sleeve, luxurious, snobbish and at the same time practical, was already picked up at the beginning of the century XXI by brands such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Alexandre Herchcovitch and the aforementioned BCBG Max Azria.

Iconography

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  Chinese ceramic statuette of a lady of the Han dynasty (206 B.C. to 220 AD).

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  The Russian count Pavel Fersen, with a manguito (hacia 1852).

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  Jennie Jerome Churchill, mother of Sir Winston, with manguite (about 1884).

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  Russian squirrel skin cuff (about 1920).

Forearm cuff

In the context of the European court costume of the XV century, sleeves or " appear in the 1480s;cuffs" to cover the forearms as a complement to the skirt and brial that, when the cords that joined the sleeves to the shoulders were removed, had left the inner shirt visible. These sleeves, by virtue of the luxury they represented, were brocaded, embroidered or decorated following the same pattern as the rest of the costume.

Enlightened French fashion, which had banished the use of the luxurious and ostentatious fur muff to warm the hands (and keep all kinds of more or less secret objects), however gave special attention to the "cuffs&# 3. 4; that were attached to the arm by means of ties, as a complement to the classicist fashion costumes, cutting off the long glove at the wrist (which at the other end rose above the elbow). Also in the field of women's clothing in Spain, but already in the middle of the XIX century, wide sleeves were made to accompany the overcoat, were these "manteletas" or cashmere shawls.

Iconography

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  Johann Zoffany, Sophia Dumergue (1780). Open gloves.

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  Francisco de Goya. Portrait of Gumersinda Goicoechea de Goya, daughter of the painter (1806). Fine gauze cuffs.

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  Camille Corot, The painter's studio (1870). Smoothed with ties.

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  The Gisele Bundchen model on the walkway with Gothic line sleeves.

Cuffs and visor

The development throughout the 19th century of the printing industry and the progressive bureaucratization of administrative management and Their organization endangered the immaculate white shirts of typographers and officials. To remedy this, the use of a type of battle cuff was imposed, generally black or gray and strong enough to withstand many washings. These men's muffs were fitted to the shirt with very tight elastics at the wrists and above the elbow. Abundant documentation from the time, both graphic and literary, gives a broad description of their use. As a humorous example, we can mention some common types in Quino's graphic humor, the episodes created by Pablo San José García in his work The Sinister Office and some costumbrista films from Spanish cinema from the 1950s and 1960, as Atraco a las tres, by José María Forqué with the actor José Luis López Vázquez as champion of the 'chupatintas' of immemorial banking.