Of projects and haircuts
Jun. 16th, 2006 10:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hel_anaI got a haircut last night; I was starting to have considerably more hair than face, and I figured it behooved me to reverse the trend. It's cute, and shorter, but still long enough to put up under a hat should the need arise (oh, say, at Summer A&S in two weeks).
Speaking of which, I completely broke the illusions of my hairdresser. She was showing me how to make the most of the natural curl in my hair, and remarking that it's perfect for that "renaissance" look. She remarked that by the time I went to the event in 2 weeks, I'd have the styling down perfectly. I was unfortunately compelled to explain that, generally speaking, tudor women didn't leave their hair uncovered -- they always wore hats. We had a small chat about the impact of certain pre-Raphaelites on the public conception of "Renaissance style".
Speaking of Renaissance style... I'm in the research phase for my next project. I was poking through Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion last night. The project is a re-creation of this dress.
A few days ago, I ran across documentation that an East Kingdom lady did when she created re-created it. Possibly the most interesting thing about her documentation is her comments about the mysterious white band.
She posits that the mysterious white band is a way to provide tension on the shoulders in front closing overgowns, so that they don't slip off the shoulders. And i have to say, it makes a certain amount of sense. I've been doing more poking around at portraits with this theory in mind, and most of the examples that I've seen where there is a white band do in fact have that front closing overgown, with a gap of about 3-4 inches between the two front edges. (Esp in the More family portrait) One could posit that the examples where there seems to be a solid front may in fact be front closers with a false front
Certainly if you look at the infamous Holbein "sketch with the back view", below, the white band is there, and the gown *isn't* a back closer, and the white band seems to go to the center back, as the author in the paper posits.
So that's one avenue that I've been looking at. I've also been spending a bunch of time at the Tudor Costume Page, which is the webpage of a regular participant of Kentwell. The construction notes she has are quite interesting, and they've sent me into an entirely different direction for bodice construction (a lot of which is borne out from Patterns of Fashion, though I'm still looking for some of the justification for the way she lines the garments.) The methods she uses are really geared towards hand-sewing, so.... I've also decided to try boning with reed.
I have Tudor Tailor: Techniques And Patterns for Making Historically Accurate Period Clothing on order from Amazon. This may or may not shed light on the lining technique. I've asked for Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd for Christmas, but I intend to be done this particular outfit before it arrives.
Currently, I have all the fabric I should need for this project (and that, ladies and gentlemen, was the sound of Ross weeping in joy) - I have some lovely worsted wools (two different colours, one for the kirtle, one for the gown) and linings for both. I have fabric that's suitable for the bodice interlining, and I have reeds. And I have linen for the hat, which is a fascinating little piece of millinery. The one thing I do want to get is some linen thread.
So that's what I've been doing.
Speaking of which, I completely broke the illusions of my hairdresser. She was showing me how to make the most of the natural curl in my hair, and remarking that it's perfect for that "renaissance" look. She remarked that by the time I went to the event in 2 weeks, I'd have the styling down perfectly. I was unfortunately compelled to explain that, generally speaking, tudor women didn't leave their hair uncovered -- they always wore hats. We had a small chat about the impact of certain pre-Raphaelites on the public conception of "Renaissance style".
Speaking of Renaissance style... I'm in the research phase for my next project. I was poking through Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion last night. The project is a re-creation of this dress.
A few days ago, I ran across documentation that an East Kingdom lady did when she created re-created it. Possibly the most interesting thing about her documentation is her comments about the mysterious white band.
She posits that the mysterious white band is a way to provide tension on the shoulders in front closing overgowns, so that they don't slip off the shoulders. And i have to say, it makes a certain amount of sense. I've been doing more poking around at portraits with this theory in mind, and most of the examples that I've seen where there is a white band do in fact have that front closing overgown, with a gap of about 3-4 inches between the two front edges. (Esp in the More family portrait) One could posit that the examples where there seems to be a solid front may in fact be front closers with a false front
Certainly if you look at the infamous Holbein "sketch with the back view", below, the white band is there, and the gown *isn't* a back closer, and the white band seems to go to the center back, as the author in the paper posits.
So that's one avenue that I've been looking at. I've also been spending a bunch of time at the Tudor Costume Page, which is the webpage of a regular participant of Kentwell. The construction notes she has are quite interesting, and they've sent me into an entirely different direction for bodice construction (a lot of which is borne out from Patterns of Fashion, though I'm still looking for some of the justification for the way she lines the garments.) The methods she uses are really geared towards hand-sewing, so.... I've also decided to try boning with reed.
I have Tudor Tailor: Techniques And Patterns for Making Historically Accurate Period Clothing on order from Amazon. This may or may not shed light on the lining technique. I've asked for Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd for Christmas, but I intend to be done this particular outfit before it arrives.
Currently, I have all the fabric I should need for this project (and that, ladies and gentlemen, was the sound of Ross weeping in joy) - I have some lovely worsted wools (two different colours, one for the kirtle, one for the gown) and linings for both. I have fabric that's suitable for the bodice interlining, and I have reeds. And I have linen for the hat, which is a fascinating little piece of millinery. The one thing I do want to get is some linen thread.
So that's what I've been doing.
