Tuesday, February 3, 2015

14th Century Suit: A start

This is a (almost) completely new period for me--I have a suit of 14th century Russian, but it bears little resemblance to the clothing being worn by the rest of Europe at the time--and have done a couple of odd pieces, but not the full outfit I've been dreaming of for years.  Recent posts by the blog Exploring the Medieval Hunt have inspired me to make my own outdoors ready outfit (it was mainly that awesome square hood style)...with winter ready layers and accessories.

While I started out by looking through medieval huntbooks, I soon moved away from them--the ones I could find were either too late, or too early for the style I had envisioned...a close fitting cotte (I eventually went through every image I could find from my chosen time of 1370).  In addition to the required hosen (either red or brown), I want one or two hoods.  The first, a simple pull over liripipe hood, and the second as a square mantled, fur lined hood.


Sources:

For the cotte, I went back to an older plan and decided to base it off of the 1370 Gentleman Effigy, at St. Bartholomeus Cathedral in Germany, along with a miniature (122r) in BNF Nouvelle acquisition française 15939 Miroir Historial (Vol 1)--which also has the hood I want.  The cotte will be made in blue wool flannel, lined with linen, and sewn with period correct techniques (based on the Greenland and London finds).  Hopefully, I will finish it in time as an entry into February's Blue challenge for the Historical Sew Monthly.

Gentleman Effigy, 1370

Hosen:  The first pair will be hopefully in a cotton flannel--not period accurate, but they will be a working mockup--either red or brown. Both colours can be documented, although red is the more common.  Eventually, I'll remake them in an appropriate wool.  I intend to pattern them off of the extant pair found in Greenland (lengthened, if needed).

The hoods:  The first hood will be a pull over, without buttons, and unlined--patterned on one of the Greenland hoods (Norlund 88).
As for the second, the square mantled hood, I will have to draft my own pattern, but I do not anticipate that being too difficult.  The patterning will be based on the illuminations from period of soldiers and hunters wearing the style.  I want to sew it out of a lighter weight, green plaid, wool--lined with sheepskin.

122r
Rather than the low shoes seem in my two illuminations, some form of boot from the period will be used--most likely based on an extant example.

For cold weather wear, rather than a cloak, a second cotte or a coat will be worn (most likely my G63).  Fur mittens would also be required.  How the medieval outdoorsman dealt with keeping his feet warm is something I will have to look in to, for sure.






© John Frey, 2015. The Author of this work retains full copyright for this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial private research or educational purposes provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.  Photographs of my work may not be duplicated.

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