ithilwyn

Originally published at Historical Personality Disorder. Please leave any comments there.

(C) J. Leia Lima, 2012

Everyone should go check out my good friend Leia’s new blog, WearWhenWhy!  She’s even made a truly fabulous little video showcasing some of her work, and it looks SO GOOD!  She’s so talented and gorgeous, it’s hard to not be a teeny bit jealous. Thankfully, she’s a wonderful human being, and a ton of fun, so it’s really impossible not to love her.  ;)

Go now!

Originally published at Historical Personality Disorder. Please leave any comments there.

The original plan for Memorial Day Weekend was to go to an SCA event with some friends in Virginia, but due to a last minute cancelation because of illness, that plan altered considerably by the time that Francis arrived in D.C. on Thursday night.  We decided to call his parents up in Manhattan and see if they were available during the weekend, and by a stroke of luck, they were!  So, we drove the 250 miles or so up to New York City from D.C. on Friday and were treated to, according to F’s mother, was a nearly deserted Manhattan. Apparently the majority of people had left for the long holiday weekend, so there were hardly any crowds anywhere.

So, we decided to maximize our time that weekend by focusing on the two museums that packed the most punch: The Metropolitan Museum and the Cloisters.  On Saturday, we walked to the Met around noon and F&I spent the next eight hours in medieval nerd heaven.  Since this was essentially a last minute trip, we didn’t have time to ask for special access to anything, so we were basically just normal museum goers.  Still, what that museum puts on display is pretty incredible!

The highlights for me were the medieval statues of various saints.  Granted, you can’t take everything you see a saint wearing as realistic clothing, but you can extrapolate a lot of relevant information based on certain details in costume on these statues.  I got very excited about the statue of Saint Savina of Troyes, as you can see:

And why is that?  Because you can see her gown has been pinned closed at the front!

It’s the little things, truly.  :D

In fact, this trip was really all about closures on gowns, as far as I was concerned.  I kept coming across depictions of various ways to secure dresses, which is always one of those things that we costumers spend so much time angsting over. There were side lacing gowns, front lacing gowns (The Raising of the Cross by the Master of the Starck Triptych is actually at the National Gallery), and pinned gowns (see above).  No back lacing gowns, but I already found one depiction of a 16th c. back lacing gown in Westminster Abbey, so there’s that.

Another thing I spent a lot of time studying was headgear. Primarily late 15th and early 16th c. headgear:

Master of the Saint Godelieve Legend, The Life and Miracles of Saint Godelieve (Left Wing, Detail). c. 1480-90. The black velvet band wraps all the way around her head!

Rosary Terminal Bead with Lovers and a Death's Head, 1500-1525. A nice view of an early French Hood from behind!

Hans Suess von Kulmbach, "Girl Making a Garland", c. 1508. Ok, this is really just because of the kitty. Yay for kitties in art!

On Sunday, we trekked over to the Cloisters which was FABULOUS.  Again, there were more closures and headgear to examine up close and personal:

Episode from the Story of the Redemption of Man: Christ Is Born As Man's Redeemer, 1500-1520.

Honor Making a Chaplet of Roses, Netherlands, 1425-1540. Side lacing!

Three Reliquary Busts of Female Saints, 1520-1530. Some of my all time favorites, however they were behind ropes so we couldn't get close to them.

Base For A Statuette, early 16th century. Another of those "early French Hood from behind" shots!

"Thirty-Five Panels from the Passion of Christ: Christ and the Woman Taken In Adultery," French, early 16th century. Always useful to see a woman in her undies!

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend.  I couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome if I’d tried!  Francis and I made the trip back down to D.C. on Monday in record time, and we were home in San Jose by 9:30 PDT, full of new ideas for costumes and shoes.

Good times!