I'm about to make the kind of 14th-15th century dress that usually comes up in discussions as the "Gothic fitted dress" (after Robin Netherton, I believe), and the problem I'm facing is that the neckline for such dresses tend to be rather open. Now, the friend I'm making the dress for is a devout-but-moderate Muslim you'd normally see wearing a business suit (you know, tailored coat and trousers) and a headscarf, so she has no issues with the rather figure-hugging profile of the dress, but she needs a way to cover her bosom and her hair without making her look like a spinster when she wants to wear the dress outside her house. We're both convinced that there _is_ a way, but we're not sure which options would have been realistically used by the women back then. The first thing that came to our minds was a button-up hood like the London hood (as in this example: http://tinyurl.com/6kbvprq ), and if it's indeed a good option then most of our problems would just go away instantly. Still, we can't help wondering if there's also some other option available, such as covering the chest with a fichu (would the 18th-century style still be kosher _four_ centuries earlier?) or partlet (which, after all, must have come from somewhere) when she's in the mood to wear the dress with a separate hat or to stick the hood on her head as a chaperon.
So, any opinions? And thanks beforehand! _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
