burgundian

This dress started out as a mantle. For once, i wanted to make a costume that i could wear more than one time and that would also be practical. I needed a coat but i was also dreaming of having a Burgundian dress some day. I didn't want to spend money on such a dress since the society i was with back then was only reenacting the XIIth & XIIIth century. So, i thought of this... A burgundian gown covered with a chaperon (hood). Nobody ever noticed !!! And here's what it looked like...

I found the inspiration for the gown and headdress from this illumination... Though i didn't want that type of textile since i already had a dress with similar paterned fabric...

The dress is made of a heavy relief jacquard fabric with 3 shades of rust disposed in lozenge shapes, edged with black fur. The large sleeves were worn in Spain and Portugal while the tight ones were in France and England. The fact that the sleeves are this wide also permits me to wear a fur coat underneath for the cold Canadian winters when it's -30 outside ! The underdress is made of black velvet. The sleeves cover half of the hand.The veil is made of muslin. The poulaines are twice my foot length. The loop is black braided horsehair. The belt is made of leather and is buttoned in the front with 6 stones. I know some of you are thinking that the belt and waistline is too low, so i verry easily found a few illuminations and paintings of that period that shows low waistlines...

Here's a close-up of the hennin...

I hope this as help answer some of your questions about this costume.
You can also visit...

Portinari Triptych (right panel)

Margaret of York

Isabel of Portugal
(Isabelle de Castille)

Histoire de Renaud de Montauban

La vision du chevalier Tondal

For those who are sceptical about the sleeves...
Althought wide sleeves or oversleeves were seldom illustrated in that era ('cause they were out of style i presume), they were still worn. You'll find here some historical evidence of that fact.

Le roman de la table ronde

Fleur des histoires

Les grandes chroniques d'Angleterre
(Mariage du Roy Jean du Portugal)

Though it was uncommun, there's also evidence that regular sleeves were worn in different colors than the gown itself. I didn't have much time to do a research on it, but i've seen some illuminations of it in the past. I was quite stuned about it too ! As you can see in the painting below, sometimes the sleeves were attached to the dress instead of being sewn.