An Italian 1330s outfit striped in red and purple

 

This outfit is a step sideways from my Cocharelli Project  - an idea that I have to make all outits from a leaf from the Cocharelli Treatise on Vices, a Genoese manuscript from c. 1330. A fabulous high resolution photo of the manuscript page can be found at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The first link explains about the general idea, and that I have already made two outfits based on the manuscript.

I am still looking for the perfect brocades, but until then I decided to make a wool version of the early 14th century italian gowns with a seam over the bust. I have written a lot about this style here. and here.

The fabric is a very thin wool in rather obnoxious stripes. It is a vintage fabric, and the only decade that I can imaginte that this was fashionable is the 1980s.

The outfit consists of a kirtle, very much the standard 14th century kirtle made from straight pieces and side gores, and a surcoat/gown with a very short bodice and a skirt in four pieces. It is open at the sides, in the front and back.

The kirtle looks like this. I had planned to make it a little narrower fit, but instead it turned out so big that I had to take in it a lot. This photo is from the Year's Medieval week in Gotland.

I was initially planning to make both the cotte; the undertunic, with vertical stripes. But I changed my mind because horisontal stripes are much more common in the 13th and 14th centuries, which would make it much more versatile, since I could wear it on its own. And looking at the image source I noticed that the only thing you can see of the undergown. At least when not moving. 

In these photos you see it. 

So what am I wearing on my head?

In the manuscript illustration you see that all the women wearing this type of gown have both a crown, and another circular orament draped over the crown, and hanging down to the neck.

Some of them look like another crown, with tines, some like an ornamented band. I haven't made one of those yet, so I used a gold band with faux pearls and green glass beads sewn it. But this may be my next small project.