I’ve had the idea of recreating the outfit of Salome in Rogier van der Weyden’s St Johns Altarpiece for a while. I love the whole outfit, but i am particularly enamoured of the hat.. So very silly and awesome.
I put this project on hold as I hadn’t been able to source the fabric for the brocade kirtle component of the dress, which is really the main part of the whole project as I see it now. I will do the sideless surcoat here as well, but I’m starting with the rest of the layers first.
What I wanted was a same colour on same colour brocade with smallish repetition of a flowery motif and possible some sort of cross pattern as to me that’s what the picture looks like it is. And some light silk chiffon, in a greeny colour would have been perfect, for the sleeves. And some cloth of gold or perhaps a gold silk dupion as a reasonable alternative to do the trim on the sleeves, hem and hat.
I searched the web from Sartor to Renaissance Fabrics, from asian silk importers to pure silks online and I just couldn’t find what I was looking for for the Brocade and the amount I needed vs postage prices were too expensive for the chiffon or dupion for me to contemplate purchasing any online. But in the post Christmas sales I came across some lilac purple chiffon at half price in Lincraft, no green so I decided that I wasn’t going to try for an accurate replica, but to go for a heraldic mix of colours for my SCA persona.
I was pretty excited to get started, but I was still without the brocade so really thought I’d just be putting the project away again pretty quickly. But then, I was talking to the wonderful Ursula who suggested she might just have a purple brocade in her stash that might work, and even a purple shot dupion that also might be appropriate. And boy did she deliver!
And here is the resulting combo:
The brocade looks a bit more blue in the picture than the nice purple it actually is.
I am so super excited!!
I have some purple linen/cotton that I think that I’ll use for lining (if I end up lining it, which I think I will) and I’ll need to source some red, perhaps velveteen, for some sleeves and some black velveteen for the hat.
So, I can actually begin!
I’ve had a bit of a look at this before, but have started looking in earnest and so have come up with many more questions than answers to date.
Here are a few that I’m starting to answer:
- Is this a style of dress that would have been worn or is in anachronistic?
Kirtle
I think that while some facets of this dress might be anachronistic, there are examples in pictures of very similar side laced dresses in other images from the period. Some also anachronistic, but others where it was possibly a donor sitting for a portrait.
Here are some examples:
Here’s a Pinterest link to another one that has elements of similarity – https://au.pinterest.com/pin/7248049376247448/
- Is the kirtle side or back lacing?
I haven’t seen any examples (pictorial or otherwise) of back lacing anything in this period. I have seen a number of pictures of side-lacing ones, one of which is above, so I think it’s side-lacing and I’m intending to make the pattern for a side-lacing one.
And a few more for later:
- Is the kirtle 4 panels or more complicated?
- Does the kirtle have a waist seam?
- Is their another kirtle underneath?
- Is there a chemise under all that?
- Are the silk sleeves attached to the outer kirtle sleeves?
- Is there a silk/linen neck piece showing from the neckline of the surcoat?
- How is that hat constructed?!?
Anyway, enough for now. Super squee excitement must be constrained by needing to do all the other things and finish off some other more pressing projects.
Alesia du Cheval Blanc 