I know the answer to this question has to be simple, but I've gotta ask anyway.

What on earth is that goofy looking skirt thing?!?! :wtf: :eek: :wtf:
It looks like the good king Henry VIII was going too fast, lost control, and vaulted through time and an old sheet metal shack. :lol: Either that or they found Hawaii earlier than I thought :D .

[ Linked Image ]

Henry VIII, Milanese armor, 1514 (from Therion Arms website)

Nate its callet a tonlet . It was fashionable in the first third of the 16th century and simply mimicked the civilian fashion of the day ( if you look at period illustarions you'll notice the fabric garments look like this ) . The center of the metal skirting could be removed ( held in place by sneck hooks ) if the user was going to be on horse back . The style was also called
armour with bases ( refering to its correlary in civilain fashion ) .

once again, period armour emulates (and with success!) period fashion, much to the amusment of us modern folks :D

In case there are any aspiring Fashionistas out there, the name of the garment this Armor emulates is a Woffenroch (Voff-en-rock), it's a German War Coat. It found it's way into fashion from the German Landsknechts, many of which found employment with Henry. You'll also find Italian Zimarra's with a similar skirt arrangement, and they slid out of fashion by the 1540's or so.

Thanks Matthew; I actually write a fashion column, so that's good to know. ;) Woffenroch would apparently be Waffenrock lit. 'weapon/war skirt' in modern German.