Dawn costumes

Revision as of 19:26, 3 August 2012

Overview

Clothing in Dawn draws inspiration from the clothing of 12th-15th Century England and France, Pre-raphaelite artists such as Edmund Blair Leighton, Dante Gabriel Rosetti and John William Waterhouse, and fantasies such as Lord of the Rings, Merlin and Game of Thrones. On the battlefield, the Dawnish are a pageant of glittering armour, blazing heraldry and exquisite banners; at peace, they wear elegant and well cut tunics, houpellandes and surcotes. Women may also choose to wear gowns, usually with a long, smooth silhouette, full skirts and either tight sleeves to the wrist, or flowing trumpet sleeves that fall in folds from the elbow.

File:Belle.jpg

File:Banner.jpg

Fabrics

A guide to fabrics for kitmaking

Dawn is a country where you can really go wild with your fabrics and indulge yourself. For high status characters, rich wools, intensely coloured silks, fine linens and velvets are all a wonderful choice. Don't automatically assume that they're more expensive - like every fabric, there's a range, and if you shop carefully you can pick up some superb bargains. Ebay is always good. Try to stick to natural fabrics or natural/synethetic blends - pure synthetics are uncomfortable and wear badly, with very few exceptions.

Historically people tended to wear body linens - a soft white linen shift or shirt against their skin. This is a good idea not only because it's comfortable, but also because it protects your outer garments from sweat and stains. If you'd prefer not to use linen for reasons of expense or weight, a soft cotton muslin works beautifully for this. For outer garments, try fine wools, brocades, velvets and silks; for cloaks, cotton velvet and wool melton are ideal.

Similar nations

The Marches

Parts of the Marches were once Dawnish, so it should come as no surprise that there are significant similarities in the costume. Both draw their inspiration from medieval north-western europe, so the bulk of the difference is in the materials used. The Marches tend towards a palette of natural colours in wools and linens, less lavish designs and simpler construction. The Dawnish, by contrast, favour bright, heraldic colours, contrasting trims and fabrics and more flowing garments using more material. Accessories play a big part in making an outfit look Dawnish - a colourful long belt, a jewelled dagger sheath, an ornate leather purse or a crown can all make relatively simple and understated costume look regal.

Wintermark

Wintermark shares some basic similiarities in terms of garments and cut with Dawn, but it should be even less bright and less lavish than that Marches. Some very high status Steinr might wear something to the Senate that a Dawnish yeoman would wear in the fields - if you have a beautiful, simple tunic in drab colours, try accessorising it with a good belt, fine jewellery or a hood or mantle in a contrasting colour and suddenly it will look a lot more Dawnish.

The League

Though men's costumes should be fairly distinct, women's gowns, especially the Burgundian, can be similar in Dawn and the League. To keep the looks distinct, keep the lines of Dawnish costume clean and elegant, omitting any pinking or slashing, avoiding sleeve puffs and the very Italianate-looking Borgia-style gowns. As always a hat or headdress will help in keeping the look Dawnish.

Research

Historical/cultural inspiration (and how the nation differs/adheres to it), films, books, tv, google search terms

Google image search for burgundian gowns

In detail

Men

For male costume, there are a wealth of historical and fantasy looks for form the basics of your costume. The look should be dynamic, dramatic and exude power. As always, try to steer away from flimsy fabrics, drab colours and any look which obviously belongs in another nation - Dawnish clothes should demonstrate the wearer's exquisite taste, rank and nobility.

Bliaut and Surcote

A man's bliaut is a 12th century tunic, worn often with a sleeveless overtunic in heraldic or house colours. It's an easy look to achieve, either from off-the-peg reenactment kit or through making your own, and with a hood and cloak can look really splendid.

When worn over armour, a surcote is a great alternative to a tabard - unlike a flimsy cotton tabard a fitted surcote won't ride up, twist round your neck or tangle in your leg armour, and can look a lot more flash and substantial for relatively little extra work.

Robes, gowns and cotehardies

File:DawnSeeker.jpg

On men, a gown is a reasonably close fitting robe, usually buttoning down the front, with long close fitting sleeves to the wrist. It persists to this day as the cassock and in the clothes of choirsters and some very traditional public school uniforms, all of which means both patterns and off-the-peg versions are fairly readily available.

It's a very adaptable look - a fantasy treatment could take the basic silhouette and standing collar, and shorten the overall length, either with full length or half length sleeves, as worn by Boromir, Uther Pendragon and Jamie Lannister for a "warrior's coat". It looks good worn open over chainmail. A close-fitting variant of this is the cotehardie which usually has lots of closely spaced buttons down the front and the sleeves - try googling "cotehardie". It can be a tough look to pull off, but well worth it!

Patterns:

The Houpellande

This is a loose robe-like garment which can be knee or ankle length, with a variety of sleeves and necklines, which can be worn belted or loose. It's different from the style above as the waist isn't fitted - a great choice to show off lots and lots of thick and heavy fabric. It has the major advantage that you can just throw it over anything at all underneath and not worry about your under-kit being revealed. However, it really needs to be in fairly heavy cloth to look right, ideally wool, and can get a bit stuffy in hot weather. Team it with a chaperon hat for a really resplendent look!

Women

There is absolutely nothing to stop women wearing any of the styles above - the Empire doesn't require long skirts to be worn for modesty any more than it requires your hair to be covered. However, there's fun to be had in resplendent gowns - and you can be as historically inspired as you like without needing to choose an "authentic" but unflattering style.

Fantasy and "historically inspired" gowns

The blue dress made of two contrasting fabrics - a gold brocade and a blue fabric which you could replicate with a richly coloured fine wool, silk or linen. Use Simplicity Pattern 4940 (http://www.simplicity.com/p-2201-costumes.aspx) view C (without the corselet/vest), and cut your centre front piece and lower sleeves out of the brocade to contrast with the blue. The pattern will give you a slightly thicker band of brocade at the neck, which you could easily trim down, and will sit on your shoulders rather than off (which is much more practical for active wearing). I'd suggest replacing the zip down the back with lacing - it's just as easy and lacing never jams or breaks in a field.

Add some dangly earrings and a crown and you're set.

You could use Butterick 4377 for the cream dress from Braveheart and the blue cloak (http://butterick.mccall.com/b4377-products-5145.php?page_id=385) To replicate the soft, lush look of the dress, you could choose a soft silk velvet or, if you chose carefully, a synthetic stretch velvet, but please choose a good one with a nice thick pile! If you use a good heavy stretch velvet, you could omit the lacing down the back and just wear it as a pullover dress. For a different look you could use silk, lightweight wool or linen - just choose a lush, rich colour. For the neckline, you could cut a piece of brocade to match the curve of your neckline and carefully sew it on by hand, or you could get some fancy trim or ribbon. For the belt, try looking for a charity shop chain link belt, or make one out of a strip of silk and an old buckle, or use some fancy trim. eBay is a great source of trim - for some really splendid beaded trim at very reasonable prices I use this eBay shop - http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Heritage-Trading/Sewing-Trims-/_i.html?_fsub=2&_sid=47896792&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322 . About 2m would do a great jewelled belt, they also sell shaped pieces designed to go on the necklines of dresses. For the cloak trim, the same ebay shop is good, or you could try searching for damask trim or brocade trim.

Lord of the Rings is a great source of inspiration for women's dresses. Simplicity 4940 is a good place to start, as is McCall's 4491. http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr breaks down every costume in the movie, and is a fantastic resource for choosing the right pattern, fabrics, trim and accessories - even if you don't want to exactly duplicate a film costume, it's full of useful information. A word of warning - while many of Arwen's gowns are ideal for Dawn, avoid the more oriental looking ones as they are probably better suited to Urizen. Eowyn's White Gown, Coronation Gown, Green Gown and Victory Gown are all ideal, but many of the others belong in Wintermark or the Marches.

Historical gowns

Houpellandes and Burgundian gowns

Houpellandes are great on women, too. It's not the easiest look in the book, but it looks very striking. The one in the picture is velvet lined in fur, which gives it tremendous bulk and body - an alternative would be to line most of it in thick blanket wool, saving your fur or fake fur for the edges.

Pic:

The Burgundian gown is a later development of the Houpellande, usually closer-fitting with a deep v neck and and a broad belt just under the bust.

Links:

=Bliaut and Corsage

The Bliaut is a variant on the T-tunic, which in the 12th century was worn by men and women. A look which inspired the pre-raphaelite look was the Bliaut and corsage - a close-fitting gown with a broad cincher or a vest called a corsage. Two ways of getting the look are below:

Drafting instructions for a Bliaut

Simplicity 9891

A Bliaut on its own can look a bit basic, so it might be a look to leave to the Wintermark...

Cotehardie and Sideless Surcote

The cotehardie is a close fitting supportive gown, also known as the gothic fitted dress, usually buttoning down the front and the sleeves, and worn with a leather or metal belt around the hips. It's simple in construction, though needs a little fitting. One lovely historical example is the Moy Gown, which has a unique construction pattern for the sleeves, and makes a lovely intermediate to advanced project. You can easily fake the look of a cotehardie with a modern princess seamed dress.

For formal occasions, a great way to dress up a cotehardie is by putting a Sideless surcote over the top, ideally in house colours and bearing your heraldry. Make a full length version of the pattern above, either adding lacing down the sides or cutting a little more away to reveal the gown underneath.

Burgundian gowns

Simplicity 9058
Reconstructing History 007
Houppelande and Burgundian drafting instructions

Something that can be worn over the tunic or doublet, or on its own is the men's Houppelande, also called a Gown. This is a robe like garment that is cut very wide, and can be belted at the waist or worn loose. There are a lot of variations of the gown, as it was popular for most of the medieval period and changed throughout the era. The sleeves can be very large in the middle, but narrow at the shoulder and cuff (called bagged sleeves), narrow all the way down or wide and flowing. For higher status gowns, the sleeves can be split from cuff to shoulder and allowed to hang freely, leaving the arms free. The length varies from on the hip, to floor length.

Costuming high, middle and low status character

Men/Women/children in each category?

What you can achieve at different price brackets? (thinking of doing something along the lines of the Odyssey £30 kit challenge maybe Daisy and Jude!)

Hats and outerwear

Hats, crowns and headdresses

Although not a required part of costume, a headdress, crown or hat can be the finishing touch that pushes a costume from good to fantastic. Men have a few options - a crown, either metal or a good substitute, can look fabulously regal on a noble or earl. A less formal look which still adds stature and majesty is the Chaperon, which was initially a hood worn sideways on the head and gradually developed into a more structured hat. Hoods are also good, particularly for yeoman characters, with particolouring, dagging and buttons helping to keep the look from sliding towards the Marches.

For women, looks are virtually limitless. Historical inspiration can be drawn from royalty of the 11th century (crown and veil), through the ever changing noble fashion of Templars, padded roll and veil, through to the elaborate steeple hennins of 15th century France, and the English butterfly headdresses of the same time. Even a simple padded roll, ren-fest style, can look good with a lower status costume.

Unsuitable hats - French hoods are a 16th century look and fall outwith Empire's inspiration period, as do cocked hats, tricornes and very structured gable hoods (early Elizabeth Woodville styled hoods are acceptable). Remember, headwear is for display and not for modesty, so consider rich, bright colours, and leave the white linen coifs to the Marches.

Cloaks

A cloak is a near-essential part of your costume, and a great opportunity to give your kit a finishing touch and keep you cosy. For light fabrics, you can make a gathered-neck cloak with a drawstring for ease of construction- with heavy wools and velvet, a semicircular or circular mantle works best to reduce bulk at the neck and drapes beautifully. Try edging or lining your cloak in good fake fur for a really regal look, or adding a pelt around the shoulders (charity shops often won't sell fur coats up front, but store them in their back room and will allow you to make a donation in exchange for taking them away. If they don't have any, leave your details and get them to call you if they are donated any.) Patterns-

Jewellery

Armour

Weapons

The classic Dawnish weapons of long sword and heater shield are fortunately widely available from LRP weapons makers. For swords, a classic cruciform shape is ideal, and detailing on the hilt can look as superb as the clean lines of unadorned quillions. If you're not fortunate enough to be commissioning a custom shield painted with your heraldry, consider making a cloth cover for your shield and appliquéing or painting your heraldic device onto it.

Heraldry

Heraldry is a huge part of Dawnish identity, and any member of a noble house or weaver cabal should define their group and personal heraldry, and consider working it into their costume. Even if a house isn't dressed identically, there's no doubt that using their heraldic colours in part of each member's kit makes a strong unified statement on and off the battlefield, and looks damn amazing too.

Here's a project showing you how to work a heraldic device into your costume: See also [How to make a surcote]

Bibliography

Both an online “would you like to know more!” and a guide to the amazing books you can get on amazon.

Nation specific garment

Possibly – if we can think of something suitable for each nation!

@@ Line 131: / Line 131: @@
 A Bliaut on its own can look a bit basic, so it might be a look to leave to the Wintermark...
-====Cotehardie and Sideless Surcote===
+====Cotehardie and Sideless Surcote====
 The cotehardie is a close fitting supportive gown, also known as the gothic fitted dress, usually buttoning down the front and the sleeves, and worn with a leather or metal belt around the hips.  It's simple in construction, though needs a little fitting. One lovely historical example is the Moy Gown, which has a unique construction pattern for the sleeves, and makes a lovely intermediate to advanced project. You can easily fake the look of a cotehardie with a modern princess seamed dress.