Damned By My Own Sense of Fair Play

[hsifeng]

Well crap.

The hubby pointed out last night that I am not really following my own rules about dress “design” when it comes to this placard fronted dress project. I tend to pick a dress from a specific image and then reproduce it as closely as possible. At the very least, if I make a dress that is not from a specific source I work to ensure that the

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[kass_rants]

And a word of caution: my biggest costuming frustrations have come from when I invented something that wasn't there. Do as they did and it works. Do something different and it breaks and you spend hours on a dress that you'll never wear.

They really knew a lot more about being them than we do. Seriously.

[hsifeng]

I hear you. I do. And besides, the hubby caught the brunt of my fussy reaction last night (so I am in a much more reasonable and listening-type mood now). The issue for me is not that I think they didn’t potentially do construction in this method, it’s that I am playing mix-n-match with design details.

And honestly, that will drive me nuts in the end. Besides, I like my historical high horse and I am not looking to trade in for a My Pretty Pony; I just a damn fine example of an unusual Pretty Princess (with a high neck).

And I think femkederoas may have just handed me some ammunition on that front….*evil grin*

[kass_rants]

Those are some good images she's shown you. I think I'm just not seeing where the placket comes into any of them. These are Cranach-type gowns that are open in front to the waist, held closed by being pinned (or hooked or sewn) to the Brustfleck. People seem to want to put a stomacher under the Brustfleck or even a corset-type thing, but the bodice doesn't make a shape that indicates that.

You see this construction very clearly in the "Christ and the Adulterous Woman" paintings that Cranach and his followers did. Also I think there's one of some Biblical woman stabbing herself that shows how the dress looks with the Hemd pulled down and the Brustfleck off.

[hsifeng]

This all goes back to femkederoas's research on the wide variety of 'Saxon Princess' gowns: The high collared-with-Brustfleck/Brusttuck* variety is the most commonly recreated, but not the only type shown in the art of the period. In addition to the one described in the last sentence, there are also those without standing collars, with lower U-shaped fronts (also filled with Brusttucks) as well as a number of other ‘sub-varieties’ in this genre.

It just seems I have picked on of the least common types

[kass_rants]

You are most certainly not an idiot... unless "idiot" translates somehow to "individualist who doesn't like the common denominator". =)

Now then. I think I'm making my bloomer in that I didn't see the inspiration pictures you were using and (although I couldn't imagine you were doing this) assumed you were kinda making a hybrid of a Cranach gown and a Jane Seymour dress. Really, I don't know why I thought you'd do something that would be so unjustifiable and just... hard to reconcile. If you want to make a gown that doesn't lace in front, then nothing I've said helps at all (except that "do as they did" thing, because really, it'll make your life easier, but you know this already).

PS -- I knew "Brustfleck" was he name for the man's chest thing when I typed it. But I didn't bother to look it up. I mean the narrower female thingie.

[hsifeng]

*chuckle*

See, your faith in me is yet another goad to actually justify my decision with research. Sometimes I wish I just made pretty German clothes without a thought in the world to the historical significance of what I was doing.

It would sure make things easier sometimes.

Who am I kidding. I would hate that.

*grin*

Sadly, other than the general bodice shape the sketches above really are just hybrids of various Cranachian (is that a word?) styles. Specifically, the sleeves are rip offs of other ‘Saxon Princess’ dresses, with no real basis for being used with this style of bodice front.

Therefore, back to the drawing board! (Literally.)

My husband will be most amused by this turn of events. Last night, when he was making suggestions for the type of sleeve to use, the style he described (plain, with no bell-cuff) is the closest thing to accurate I have been able to come up with

[kass_rants]

Seriously, I find it *so* much easier just to copy something exactly. But then again, I really am not an artist. I'm a technician through and through. The new employee does costume renderings like she learned in school. I use a photo of the original. Sometimes I even match the colour. *snore* My favourite compliment is "I know what portrait that's from!"

I'm not just taking your word for it. I *know* Brustfleck means the placket on the front of a Waffenrock. I just couldn't remember the word for the Brust-thingie for women wearing Cranach gowns. I knew if I said "Brustfleck" to you, at least you'd get what kind of thing I was talking about. I suppose I should have said "Brust-thingie", you know, for effect. ;)

[insert favourite anthromorphisation of the life force] bless jillwheezul and her translation of TH!

[hsifeng]

I'm a technician through and through.

You and me both BB. I am OK at doing color matchy stuff, but god forbid someone tell me my life depended on doing brilliant original design work. *chuckle* Your favorite compliment is mine as well. ;)

Brust-thingie is definitely the new technical term for any decorative, boob-area, Germanic costume pieces. I am certain that I can convince everyone of this. *nods with confidence*

[insert favourite anthromorphisation of the life force] bless jillwheezul and her translation of TH!

I think if jillwheezul hears me talk about the altar that I have built in her honor, she is going to start suspecting that said-altar actually exists. And that might make her nervous. So I won’t mention lighting another candle and adding a stuffed ferret toy to the…um…non-existent altar.

*wink wink* *nudge nudge*