Comments | sstormwatch: Brain proclamations

sstormwatch

Brain proclamations

Dec 25, 2008 18:24

Gotta love the mind when it is asleep, or just on the fringe of sleep... and how it wants to play with ideas that I've been pondering about a day or two ago, and then it spits out a "pronouncement" that I am supposed to take at full value, or so says my sleepy brain ( Read more... )

costume, research, tudor

Comments 5

peteyfrogboy December 26 2008, 03:39:55 UTC

I'd been thinking the same thing about that sleeve, though you'd only be able to have the huge armscye in the back.

sstormwatch December 26 2008, 04:21:02 UTC

That's where it is needed, tho. And it is a style, as seen in the earlier images, in use.

I need to study the time period better to understand this idea. Thankfully, Robin Netherton will be heading to LA in a few months, and maybe I can pick her brain for her thoughts.

sstormwatch December 26 2008, 04:26:36 UTC

Ok, looked over the g.a. images again, and I see what you are saying. The g.a. style is in both the front and the back, not just in the back. However, I think there is a way to have it mostly in the back, but that will take a mockup to test.

myladyswardrobe December 26 2008, 09:38:00 UTC

Ok - not sure exactly what the issue is here. Is it that when you raise your arm it wrinkles on the top of the arm? Because thats going to happen anyway whatever the pattern of the dress. It can't ever stay smooth.

Is it because you CAN'T raise your arms very high if at all? I would argue that the gentry/elite frocks this is exactly what is supposed to happen - after all the gentry aren't supposed to be doing very much at all.

Working class is different and I would say that Kass' research (so far on the link you posted) is quite useful. Add ease in the back and then you can do practical things like being able to raise the arms etc. But I would caution using that construction for the gentry style gown.
The portrait of Jane Seymour really shows how tight those 1530s sleeves get on the upper arm. Its smooth as anything across the shoulder but you can see tiny creases right in the arm pit. Same with this portraitI wonder if it would be better to look at the cotehardie rather than the grande assiette doublet for the way the sleeves are ( ... )

sstormwatch December 27 2008, 08:17:19 UTC

Oh, I understand that the ladies should not have to raise their arms, as that is why they have ladies maids, etc. for. But the odd idea I was working on with a mockup some time ago, actually allowed for the sleeve to fit rather snugly in that shoulder area, yet still allow the arms to raise a bit more, as the fabric opened up to the backside, which is hidden. In some ways, I was doing the Hunnisett thing Kass showed pics of, only not nearly as nicely, and I didn't have the tabs that became a part of the bodice, which Kass said wasn't needed. I just couldn't figure out how to make the back look like the Holbein drawing, or the V shape, so I gave up ( ... )