After the sacking of Antwerp in 1585, the Northern Netherlands became the centre of manufacture and trade of high quality linen and of bleaching linen fabrics from at home and abroad. This colloquium will take place but without Bianca du Mortier who had to cancel due to circumstances beyond her control. Melanie Braun of The School of Historical Dress will demonstrate the importance of reconstructions of surviving historical garments and show some of her own reconstructions of seventeenth-century ruffs. Braun: “We started our work in the late 1990s and early 2000s in the costume department of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. Our priority was historical accuracy, which we achieved by researching the techniques and working methods of tailors and seamstresses in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. On stage, our reconstructions were put to the test. After 30 performances, the newly made garments showed the same signs of use as the extant garments we examined. Our collaboration with the V&A Museum led to our first publications. We founded The School of Historical Dress to share our experience and research. This involves not only the cut and construction of garments, but also their care, such as washing, starching and setting ruffs.” Judith Noorman, director of the Amsterdam Centre, will speak briefly about the ruff as an iconic image of the seventeenth century.