Home page

A German kleid in the Nuremburg fashion

June 19, 2007

I didn't think that I'd be writing another diary any time soon, but I got trucked with ideas & theories and I needed to shere this with some of my knowledgeable costumer friends, so here I am!

I've actualy started this diary 3 years ago but never got to make this gown in the end. After reading my old theries & construction plans from back then, I realised that it didn't make sense at all, so I've decided to delete everything and to start over with fresh ideas. As many people, I first thought that the pleats under the breastline were decorative and some sort of regional tradition. But after seeing the finished gown that one of my friends made, I realised that this doesn't make sense at all. Medieval people were logical & practicle, they didn't do stuff for no reason so, even if at some point this became ornemental, it had to have a purpuse at some point in time. Thanks to my dear friend Myra whom has done extensive research in that specific region & style, and who has generously & freely published her findings online for us to enjoy, this reseach was made relatively easy & effortless  for me. So thank you sweetie for sharring all your wonderful sources with us :)

Though later styles such as these obviously shows that the gowns open at the front ;

All earlier styles and some later models show no sign of front opening. And since there's no evidence of back opening anywhere, so I can only presume that these were simply passed over the head...

Now being so extremely fitted, the only way of passing these over the head would be if they open or stretch somehow. So my theory is that these pleats aren't sewn in place, they're only gathered and tied in place, possibly from the inside.
How do I come-up with this conclusin you ask? Well it comes from these other german exemples where there's obviously no waistseam and yet, something's gathering the skirt such as a draw-string front the inside and it's pretty clear that this isn't due to any sort of belt. Check this out...

So because of these other exemples which clearly shows the pleats wide open and ungathered, I think that this is the way to go...

So to my knowledge, there are exemples of this typical style of gown being worn from as early as 1465 to about 1520. It also appear that it was just as fashionable for the peasant wife of a cook as it was suited for a queen, as you can see from the 2 images here where there's hardly any difference in both classe's style except for a skin used as a cape for the peasant and a crown for the queen, and these two were sketched 15 to 20 years appart. Dürer's cook & wife was done around 1497 while Thurocz's engraving of the Queen of Hungary was done around 1480...

After giving this much thought, I've decided to use the dirty puple wool from HELL that I was supposed to use for a burgundian 'V" neck gown a couple years ago. Those who read my personal LJ will remember what a joy & adventure it was to dye that wool in the bath-tub. I've put 7 meters of beautiful premium wool in there and it came out less than 3.5 meters long and all plushy & inflated... Sheesh!

So more than 2 years after the facts... I present to you the dirty purple wool...

Now I don't think that there's a good or a bad way to go with this. The necklines are obviously pretty variable from roundish to triangular to stylised forms, the can have waist-seams or not, the sleeves can be fitted, extremely wide or slit-opened & laced. The skirt can be flush to the grown or have a long draging train, etc... Here are some variations of neck openings ;

I'm a bit puzzled about the pleats however, it seems like there was various ways to go about this, even in period. Some images shows something that appears to be similar to cord boning, others shows an obvious sewn-in pannel of uneven pleats and others show pleats that seems to appear out of nowhere...

The images that makes me believe the most in this "string-gathered" theory are these. There's an obvious tention point at the waistline that either forces the pleats to crease or that manages to fit the bodice enough in order to create a line at the waste, even though there's obviously no waistseam there ;