21878 tmta6

Fashionable gown

12. Fashionable gown, end 14th/early 15th century

This was the last common style before men's and women's gowns diverged into distinct garments. The high belt identifies this as a woman's gown. Men wore it with the belt at waist level.

The body is fuli and the folds round the waist need careful arrangement to achieve the correct look. The collar is very high and the short front opening is fastened by concealed hooks and eyes. This style of gown is later depicted on women with the collar falling onto the shoulders or lying fiat (Fig 13b).

The wide and extended open sleeves can be worn covering the hands, or folded back as a cuff as shown, revealing the circular cuff of the kirtle sleeve (Blocks Fig 26c). This style of gown was also worn with large bag sleeves (Fig 11).

13. Bodice and collars for Fig 12 -►

Bodice - Tracę the bodice Błock to waist only. For a woman enlarge the Błock as follows. Draw straight CF and CB lines starting 0.5-1 cm outside the Błock neckline. The CB linę should be vertical but the CF may slant out if it would otherwise be morę than 2 cm inside the Błock waist.

Draw straight side seam lines starting 1.5-2 cm outside and 1 cm down from UP. Redraw the armholes to match. Start the new back neckline at a, 2-5 cm below the Błock neck, and run it straight to the shoulder at b, 0.5-1 cm down from the neck. Lower the new front neckline by the same amount. For a man enlarge the Back and Front as in Fig 5.

Collars

a.    For the very high collar, follow Fig 9 and extend it upwards to form a funnel shape: try it out in spare fabric to check the shape. The top edge may need a wire sewn into it, to hołd its form.

b.    For this fiat collar plan a round back neck, instead of the V. Lay the Back and Front bodice so the shoulder seams touch at the neck and overlap 2-3 cm at SP. This produces a collar which rolls at the neck: for a completely fiat one omit the overlap.

Plan the round collar shape 10-15 cm deep, and tracę it off as a single pattern piece. Cut it as a 2-piece collar with a seam at CB. It may be faced with the gown fabric or a contrasting one (see Methods, Fig 14) .

A matching linen collar can sometimes be seen lying over it. Use the gown collar pattern to cut one. Attach it to a linen neck band, or to a smock with a high neckline (Linens, Fig 5c).