In Transition

Hello my lovely readers!  I thought today we would wander through one of the rabbit holes that has had my interest of late, so that I can share some of the fun things I have found.

Example of 1530s Tudor gown.

Since I started in the SCA, my persona has been 16th century Scottish.  I placed myself around 1530, as I love Anne Boleyn's style of dress.  It's more fashionable than the Katherine of Aragon era, but not as extreme as the later wives.  Having now created two gowns in that fashion I have mixed feelings about them.  While I still love those styles, I have found that they are complex to make, complex to wear, and that if you change size at all, they will no longer fit or wear properly.  The basic style can be simplified a little to make it appropriate for a more working class persona, therefore making it a little simpler to make and definitely easier to wear.  I have one of these gowns, and I do really like it.  It still requires a little more in the way of proper underpinnings, so if you want something 'no fuss', this probably isn't your cup of tea.

Now it should be noted that I very rarely dress as my persona, as in general it is not at all practical for me at events.  While I don't run around as much as I used to, I still tend to end up moving chairs or carrying something around at some point.  For this reason I've been looking for a more practical style so that I can be in persona more frequently.  That is an area that I'm very much wanting to improve in, and wearing appropriate clothing can go a long way towards making you feel the part.

If you are familiar with Tudor garb, then you are probably aware of the book The Tudor Tailor.  One of the people who helped the creators of that book came out with one of her own, titled The Queen's Servants. A friend of mine loaned me her copy to peruse, since she is an expert at enabling research rabbit holes.  In it were styles that royal servants were wearing during the time of Henry VII. (Remember that royal servants tended to be minor nobles, so this was much nicer than what you might find a merchant's servant wearing, but was still clothing that you could be functional in.)  Since my persona is somewhat equivalent to a minor noble, I thought this might be a good area of research.  My thoughts were rewarded, as I found (in my opinion) the most marvelous dress!

This is a whole style of dresses that sort of look like they are from the 14th century, but not quite.  The shape is very similar to cotehardies / gothic fitted gowns, but they have various cool necklines and cuffs!  There are also really cute pointy hats!!!  There seems to be a few different sleeve styles, so that you can have gowns to work in and gowns to just be pretty in.  Perfect!

I have completely fallen in love with this transitional style.  It seems to have existed from about 1480-1520.  I've even been working on research to move my persona earlier to match this style.  I've obtained a copy of The Queen's Servants for myself, and have fabric to pattern with.  On the agenda this summer: creating a pattern for my new gowns!

Images from The Queen's Servants.