Wearing vs Styling: Cost Effective (Part 2)

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PART 2: COST EFFECTIVE

(Previous post: Part 1 Elevative)

Welcome to a Part 2 of a recent talk I gave at the Westcoast Elizabethan Clothing Symposium entitled: "Wearing vs Styling: Accessorizing to Create a Period Look".

~ Cost Effective

By their very nature accessories are an extra expense; either in money, labour, or resources.
And some pieces (like weapons, hats and shoes) can end up representing a significant percentage of the final cost of an outfit.

However...

The right accessories can also be extremely value-added without breaking the bank.

Because in most cases the primary pieces of your outfit (your gown, kirtle and/or petticoat) are going to represent the greatest outlay in terms of material cost and construction time, and therefore building a capsule wardrobe around these foundational pieces can be an extremely cost-effective way of getting the most out of the time and money you’ve already invested into your clothing.

As an example, let’s start with a basic red kirtle: the backbone of 16th century women’s clothing.







This is the sort of exercise that I like to do when I’m planning a new project. I collect as many period sources as I can and then play a game of compare and contrast.
What features do the images have in common?
What differences make one variation stand out from the others?

Not only do you get a better feel for the style you’re trying to recreate, but you quickly get a sense of how easy it would be to create a few additional pieces that will really give you a very different look.

And this is something they definitely exploited in the period as well.

For example, I love this…



Here the artist has cheekily used the same pose and kirtle (right down to the folds on the smock) and just swapped out a few accessories to create a whole new painting.

And we're going to do the same thing.

Sort of.

Instead of re-creating multiple paintings, we're going to use this red kirtle as a base...



...and create multiple different looks from one painting.

This painting.

Specifically, we’re going to zoom into the bottom right hand corner...

...which is where we find these gals:



All of them appear to be wearing red-ish kirtles.

Three are wearing white shoulder squares and large round caps.
Two are wearing white aprons, two are wearing black aprons.
One appears to be wearing a black partlet over a white collared smock or partlet.
And all are wearing different colour sleeves.

So, let's jump in and start adding on accessories.

First, we have a white, round knit cap by Sally Pointer.

Next, we have a split linen veil which ties on top of the head.

As an aside, this was part of my experiment for my Dutch Veil.  I don’t think this construction correct (mostly because it’s a very inefficient use of fabric) but it does achieve the very obvious ties on top of the head that you see in the painting. So we're going to go with it! 

Moving on!

Next we have the two aprons: one white and one black. 

Both aprons are rectangles which are hemmed all around and whipped to a waistband, leaving the ends free.

Then we have our shoulder coverings.

First is a black partlet. 

We don’t see the back of the partlet in the image, but I always wanted to make one with the classic Brueghel deep "V" in the back. The dress hook from The Tudor Tailor keeps the point of the partlet secure and in place.

Then we have a simple linen partlet and a white linen shoulder square.

Finally, we have our 4 sleeves. All are ¾ length. They are made of wool and lined in linen.

So these are the collected accessories...



...and here are the final looks.

Again, in terms of labour and cost, the kirtle remains the star. 

The sleeves are just simple tapered tubes that are made up of less than a ½ yard of fabric and can be assembled in less than an hour. 

The aprons depending on how fast you sew can be hemmed and made up in a day.

The only item that represents a more significant monetary investment is the beautiful knit cap by Sally Pointer. 

But just in this one experiment I’ve already used it for three different outfits. 

So if you’re going to spend more on accessories, picking a few key pieces (especially from talented artisans like Sally) will allow you to get the most out of your money.

And finally, here they are…populating our 16th century crowd scene.

Okay, so that was a nifty visual exercise...but how about something for you number crunchers? 

Yes, now we're getting to the really fun bit: MATH!

Around the same time that I made my red kirtle I also made a nearly identical blue kirtle, as well as several pairs of sleeves from scrap fabric I had in my stash.

The above photo (assuming you already have a smock or shirt) represents 24 different outfits.

Throw in a partlet, an apron or two, maybe two or three different hats or coifs....

...and suddenly you are looking at in excess of 430 different outfits.

And that number increases exponentially with each accessory you add.

Again, from just two kirtles and a handful of accessories. 

Which in terms of value for money you really can’t beat!

(NOTE: Additional photographs of these iterations on the red kirtle can be found HERE. The blue kirtle can be found HERE)

Up next: 

PART 3: TRANSFORMATIVE