#banyans

A FREE virtual symposium on Saturday, 28 October from 2PM-3PM EST! Zach Pinsent hosts "Elegance or Comfort: A Closer Look at Gentlemen’s Banyans." Registration information in the link. If you can't make it, I believe it will be uploaded to History Symposium's YouTube channel later.

i also thought it was a banyan and i'm not clear on what the difference is, would you possibly be able to elaborate?

Sure! First I should mention that while I said banyan in the other post for convenience, as far as I know banyan actually refers to the more fitted kind of at-home robe, like this one.

(c. 1760's, The Met)

and I think it's the looser fitting, geometric ones are called wrappers.

(c. 1750-75, V&A)

I see people call both kinds banyans all the time though, and am not too fussed about it.

Stede's yellow robe is pretty darn close to an 18th century wrapper. There are some differences in the cut though - the sleeves are wider than is normal for 18th century ones, the sides have those little slits at the bottom which I haven't seen on any extant ones, and the front edges and neck are bound with a big rectangle instead of having one of those little inset collars.

It's also got shoulder and sleeve seams, whereas 18th century wrappers seem to typically be cut in one piece like the pattern diagram in the above linked post shows. They'd piece on extra width where necessary, because 18th century fabrics were pretty narrow, but depending on the wearer's armspan & how long you want the sleeves you might be able to get it all in one piece with some modern fabric widths. (An actual 18th century wrapper would also be made of a stiffer fabric, and wouldn't have soutache embroidery on it, but I love the yellow robe and think it fits the show and the character very well. And I'm still calling it a wrapper because it's close enough.)

The velvet one still has a fairly similar shape overall, but the kimono style sleeves are pretty different looking, and the neck binding stops halfway down and has tassels on the corners, and there are tassels on the sleeves too. (I've also never seen a wrapper made of velvet, but they did have patterned velvet in the 18th century so I won't entirely write off the possibility)

I can see why they'd want to cut it with shoulder seams for this one, if they did it all in one piece half the birds would be upside down.

I know of two patterns! One is on page 83 of The Cut of Men’s Clothes (link is to a free pdf) and LACMA’s pattern project also has one.

banyan appreciation post! 

OBVIOUSLY I would love the costumer to do the plaid one with bottle green silk lining but sadly it’s from 1800. 

Some great banyan info: 

Banyan Dressing Gowns, Jane Austen’s World