It's not that crazy for models to walk the runway practically naked today in some of the more avant garde shows. I have no reason to believe the fashion industry was any more sane back in the 16th century.
That said, there may be extenuating circumstances for those two outfits. There isn't a lot of context on that page.
It would make sense if these are more like your example, straight up models for crazy fashion ideas.... that aren't used.
I was thinking these were more along the lines of styles that people actually wore at the upper levels of society, but at least were still styles that most of those folks wore at that time.
Apparently the woodcuts are from a tailor’s pattern
book, and the nudes are intended to show a sampling of
women’s body shapes, allowing the tailor to match
a set of dress styles to a customer’s own shape.
If anyone is interested in serious recreation of
clothing from the Middle Ages, a good start would be
with the series begun by Janet Arnold, “Patterns
of Fashion” vols. 1-5; Jenny Tiramani’s “17th Century
Women’s Dress Patterns”, and “The Tudor Tailor” series,
by Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davies. None of
those are specific to 16th century Switzerland,
but all of them are thoroughly well-researched.
Yes. Breasts really weren't considered in the same way for different times in history. A lot of what we perceive about modesty in those times was really a Victorian view of the past, imprinting their morals on the past. Some of the constructs we still might consider rude, at least before the churches started blaming women for so much ill.
