Ruff (clothing)

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Ruff of c. 1575. Detail from the Darnley Portrait of Elizabeth I.

Dutchwoman's ruff of 1630. Detail from Family Making Music by Jan Miense Molenaer.

A ruff is an item of clothing worn in Western Europe from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century.

The ruff evolved from the small fabric ruffle at the drawstring neck of the shirt or chemise. They served as changeable pieces of cloth that could themselves be laundered while keeping the wearer's doublet from becoming soiled at the neckline.

The discovery of starch allowed ruffs to be made wider without losing their shape. Later ruffs were separate garments that could be washed, starched, and set into elaborate figure-of-eight folds by the use of heated cone-shaped goffering irons.

At their most extreme, ruffs were a foot or more wide; these cartwheel ruffs such as the the one in the portrait to the right required a wire frame called a supportasse or underpropper to hold them at the fashionable angle.

By the end of the sixteenth century, ruffs were falling out of fashion in favor of wing collars and falling bands. The fashion lingered longest in Holland, where ruffs can be seen in portraits well into the seventeenth century. It also stayed on as part of the ceremonial dress of city councillors (Senatoren) in North German Hanseatic cities and of Lutheran clergy in those cities and in Denmark.