Hello lovelies,

I have a few new projects coming up next year and I was deep into research the last couple of days. But what bugs me the most when searching is pinterest. It teases with nice pictures but as soon as you click on them, a random site with other pictures pop up and your picture is never to be found.
Second on the list is that when a suitable picture is found, it gets lost in all the different folders I have.
So, for now I want to do different lists with a description of the gown for easier access.

This is from Guiron le Courtois.

• The gowns are in green, red, blue and pale red. The belts are black and brown. 
• Three wear horned headdresses. 
• Three dresses have a V front and the red dress has a round front.

Country: ?
Time: c. 1420

This is a picture of Katheryn de Roet-Swynford, the Duchess of Lancaster.

• She wears a blue houppelande with big sleeves and a collar. 
• Her belt is golden.
• Her headdress looks like a padded roll with a coif at the back?

Place: England
Time: c. 1350-1403

• The colour of the gown and belt is unknown. 
• But there is fur on her sleeve and probably on her collar a well. 
• She wears a crown on her head.

Time: c. 1400
Country: France or Bohemia

• The gown is blue with a high neck and lined in white. 
• The belt is black with gold accents. 
• I am not sure if she wears a crown or a flower crown and if her hair is open or tied to the back.

Place: France
Time: 1410-1414

1. The dress is blue and has a deep round neckline. 
2. The sleeves are long and lined in white. There is a big white stripe on the hem, maybe made out of fur? 
3. A blue sleeve from the kirtle can be seen peeking out on the right side. 
4. She wears a padded roll on her head and her hair is open.

Place: France
Time: 1410-1414

This picture looks like the picture above but with a few differences.

• The fabric is blue but the fabric also has golden ornaments on it.
•  The stripe on the hem is significantly smaller.
• Also her black hair pad is now red. 
• The kirtle can not be seen anymore but if you look close enough you can see the white outline of her smock/chemise.

Place: France
Time: 1410-1414

This picture is called "The gift of the heart". It's not a painting but a tapestry.

• The woman wears a blue dress line with ermine and a very high collar. 
• She wears a black belt. Underneath the blue dress is a red kirtle with big sleeves. 
• Her hair is curly and her crown is red. It's decorated with a big black stone and pearls.

Place: France
Time: 1400-1410

• The gown is green with white fur at the big and long sleeve. 
• The collar is high and folded. 
• She wears a horned headdress in black and gold (?).

Place: Italy
Time: 1430-1440

The four gowns of these four ladies all have a different color; red, green, dark blue or black and blue. I will only concentrate on the green and the blue houppelande.

• The green houppelande has tight sleeves and a golden belt. 
• The collar is high and folded. 
• She wears a typical Christine de Pizan horned headdress.

• The blue dress has a white lining. 
• The sleeves are quare-formed and you can see tight red sleeves from her kirtle.
•  I am not sure if her smock/chemise reaches all the way up to her chin (because how should she get into it?) but she does wear something that reaches all the way up.

Place: France
Time: 1410-1414

Another great example of these square sleeves. It looks exactly the same like the gown above.

And yet another picture of that gown with the square sleeve.
The woman in red is Queen Isabeau of Bavaria.

• Her gown is lined with ermin and the outer fabric also has golden ornaments on it. 
• Her belt is green and gold (and if you look to her left you can see the long green band dangling down her back).
•  The kirtle she is wearing is dark, maybe black or dark blue.
•  The colours of the other dresses are dark blue, red, blue and green. 
• The belts vary in colour too, I see green, black and red. 
• The women wear horned headdresses in black with pearls or greyish one, wrapped in different coloured ribbons. (or something like that, I can't really figure it out).

This is the last picture of Christine de pizan and her square sleeves, I promise.

• She wears a greyish-greenish houppelande. 
• Underneath that she wears a kirtle in blue with fitted sleeves.

This picture caused me quite a headache because I couldn't figure out where it came from. My best guess that it is also from the Decameron.

• The houppelande in this picture is yellow or golden and has a white lining. 
• Her hose (socks) are black. 
• She wears a horned headdress and a black belt.

Place: Probably Italy
Time: Probably 1430-144

This picture is from Giovanni Boccaccio's "De claris mulieribus".

• It shows a blue houppelande. 
• It has a very high neckline and round big sleeves. 
• It is line with ermine. 
• The red belt is here closed on the front side and also has gold ornaments on it. 
• The headdress is white and covers the ears.

Time: 1403
Place: France

This is from "The book of the queens" written by Christine de Pizan.

• Her houppelande is red with round big sleeves and a high neckline. 
• The fur (or decoration?) on her sleeve and her collar is greyish. 
• The belt has a gold design on it.

Place: France
Time: c. 1410-1414

Two pictures in one!

• The left picture has a woman on it who wears a blue houppelande with a greyish-yellowish-brownish lining. 
• A kirtle with fitted sleeves peekes out underneath her left sleeve, although I couldn't say which colour it is. Brown prorbably? 
• She wears a ring on her ringfinger. 
• She wears a high padded roll on her head in red and gold.

On the right picture you see the back of the dress.

• The belt is in a knot, dangling from the back. 
• I am not sure what the green part is.

Time?
Place?

• Once again, blue houppelande, red belt and white lining. 
• The belt is tied at the back and she holds it to her front. 
• The belt has round gold ornaments on the whole length of it and ends with more gold decoration. 
• The horned headdress is black and gold and you can see the typical black loop on her forehead.

Time: ?
Place: ?

• The queen's dress is probably greyish in colour with flowers and ornaments.
• The dress is lined in ermine and the belt is gold.
• In this painting it is very clearly shown how the gown was opened, although it is unclear how it was fastened.

Time: 1400-1415
Place: France?

This picture is from the Très riches heures.

• The lady infront has a gown with a low and round neckline. 
• The houppelande is green and she wears it over another gown with big sleeves in blue and gold. 
• There is a tiny gray fur line on her hem. 
• She wears gold jewelry with green stones. 
• Her white horned headdress is covered in green leaves.

• The woman at the back also wears a green gown with a high collar. It definitely has a lot more folds than the other dress. 
• She wears a belt in gold and a gold necklace. 
• Her lining is also gray and probably fur.

Place: France
Time: 1410-1416

This is an excellent picture for everyone looking on how to shape the sleeves.

• The red dress is lined again in white and has a high collar too. 
• The belt is black and gold. 
• The kirtle underneat is blue with tight sleeves.

Place: France
Time: 1410-1414

Summary:

• Colours used: Blue, Red, sometimes green and rarely yellow.
• A higher neckline was more common than a round neckline.
• Most of the time the lining was white and/or made out of fur.

All the pictures and much more are on my Pinterest account.

All the best,

Aurîs Lothol

Hello lovelies,

no real update on anything sewing or cosplay related but I decided on a new project. This first project in 2015 will be a 1450s~1470s Burgundian court dress. During that time, Burgund was the court in Europe and everyone tried to follow their fashion.
For more information, this is an excellent paper: Burgundian Costume By Lady Lyonnete Vibert (Marie Vibbert)

This is how the medieval dresses were layered:

The Gown
I also want a red gown, with the above look: A dress with V shaped neckline and a long trail at the back. The trimming will be made out of black or gray fake fur.

As for the kirtle, it will be green/silver, as seen on the picture above. I also want to use the wide belt shown on that picture. The first picture of the belt was too small for my taste.

red fabric with golden ornaments

a very good ressource for medieval fabric and colour is Communitas Monacensis (German only)

All the best,

Aurîs☆