pisan

Why did I choose to wear a wimple when many images depicts Christine without one? Well, Christine became a widow around 1389 and she then wore the wimple for about ten years (so it was said). She returned to the wimple after the death of her son Jean de Castel and she finished her days in a convent at Poissy wearing it... We also have to keep in mind that in the XVth century even the most liberal "non-widow" married and independant ladies had to wear the wimple on some occasions ; To go to church for instance... And that was about 3 to 5 times a day! There's evidence that around that period (and earlier periods), the Catholic church imposed that women cover their face before God. In the fifteenth century, the Church was desperate to keep control over the now "out of hands" fashions. The Bishops would hold public speaches about Eve's sins and how women are a shame to God and so on...

Someone mentioned that my veil and wimple didn't quite look the same as the one in the illumination I've posted ; Christine wore "the butterfly" in many different ways and styles all through her life. I improvise the draping on my wimple everytime I put it on so, it never looks the same. Sometimes I wear it tucked in and saggy like shown above. Other times i wear it like a chin-band from ear to ear and i let it hang out, i also have one that is really tight and that molds the neck... The wimple is attached to the gown with little buttons, so the gown have little button-holes around the neckline to which it attaches. Although I've read somewhere that they used to make them out of bones or ivory, I decided to use pearls instead as it's legal and less costly!

I believe this type of loop to be made of brass, as such loops were found in excavations in the beginning of the 20th century but nobody knew what they were or what they were used for. I think that, prior to the imposing and very popular "Black loop" worn through out the second half of the century, this was the type of loop that was in style. The brass probably tarnished easily on skin contact so in time, they certainly realised that it was better to cover it in fabric or braided hair. I believe that their purpuse was the same as in later period, they were used to pull the headdress back in place without screwing the whole arrangement in the event that it sliped off. And believe me, it works very well, I've tried this and loved it. These people were geniuses. I used to have to go dig underneat the coif with my fingers to *try* to pull everything back in place, then the hair would start comming out, fabric would loosen, etc... Pulling the loop really does work like magic!!! So here are afew period exemples of this type of "uncovered loops". In the images below, except for the lady in red at the right in the central image, they are all wearing the loop, even the queen...

On this picture, I've pulled back the veil so that you can clearly see the horns and torsaded arrangement. The horns are made of wicker and are attached to a metal headband. Since my hair is verry long, I separate it in two braids and I roll them up as a bourrelet on each sides. I then cover them with gauze. The veil is also made of gauze and is attached to the coiffe with pins. It looks thick and heavy but it's very sheer. Though this type of headdress is sometimes reffered to as a butterfly, do not confuse with the actual "Butterfly-hennin" fashion that was in style a few decades later (see images on the right to compare)

Though the original dress was lined with white fur, I decided not to add fur on mine since I only wear it in the summer and since finding such a quantity of ermines would have costed a fortune :D I could have lined it with white linen or white wool but I decided to go with a small trim all-around instead as it looked too plain. So the white trim that you see on my gown isn't supposed to be there, usualy, it's the fur-lining of the sleeves that would show slightly from the outside. You may say that this sleeve design is also not tight enough but I've made this kind of sleeves before and I can tell you that if it's not wide enough around the elbow, it won't hang straight, it will roll around the fore-arm in an anoying way. So for the design of the main garment, I was inspired by a little graphic that can be found in most of Mary G. Houston's books (1939 edition).

Real life illumination of me and two of my friends. We were suposed to be 4 but unfortunatly one of them was missing so I stood up for one of the tree vertues too! I'm the one in the back... I don't think it shows that much though, since my own mother didn't recognize me. She mistook me for my friend Frédérique in red & white!!!

The book "La cité des dames" (city of ladies) was a big succes when it was first writen. Many copies of that manuscript were commissioned in the following decades so many different versions in various styles and translations still exist to this day. I wanted to reproduce the scene where the 3 virtues dictates the laws of a good house-wife so these are my source of inspiration. In the end, I had made 2 different versions of this gown, one out of synthetic fabric and a second one made of wool, after my allergies got a bit better. Though I'm way more knowledgeable now than I was when I fist made that gown so there's a lot of things that I would do better today, namely getting rid of the grommets !!! But hey, grommets aren't that bad when you think that my first attempt at that dress had a zipper in the back!!! Heheh! ...So here's how it goes...

The cotehardie's sleeves weren't quite as tight as they should have been. I didn't want buttons to ruin the look and since the fabric was 0% stretchable, I had no choice but to make them a little looser to be able to pass the hand through. This type of sleeve was stitched-closed daily directly on the lady's arm. Since I don't have a maid at home to do it for me, I didn't think it was such a great idea. So I've made the cote out of a very basic construction but you could very well go with a more complexe type such as the Herjolfsnes 38, 39 or 42.