Thank you for responding. I have learned to take Wikipedia with a grain of salt. On one of the lists someone mentioned that he had found flaws with it as anyone can leave info on a subject. Be it w/scholarly research or not. They are doing it for Lilies War but I am not sure if it is for a war point or not.
Since she then describes the "undertunic" as being undyed linen, it sounds like she's using that term for the underwear (which would be a white linen shirt/tunic), and "outer tunic" for the main body garment. De: I was thinking more in the line of groin cover type of underwear. :) Were the leg hosen sewn together by this time? "Surcote" is a general term used for just about any overlayer that goes over the main body garment. "Cyclas" is one of those screwy costume terms that's used in umpteen different ways, but it always seems to mean an overtunic/surcote. De: Ah, the clear as mud terminology. :) > <The under garments should be made of linen that hasn't been dyed. The > outer garments would have been made of wool and have been of sober hues. Many period dyes make strong/deep colors, and these would have been preferred. Perhaps there was something specific to the Teutonic knights that required sober hues? The black cross on white surcote seems to have been their "uniform." De: I mostly was wondering about the regular male folk and not the knights. <Essentially every woman in Western Europe at this time would have been expected to wear a headcovering as a norm (exceptions being queens, young girls, brides, and even those not all the time). I wouldn't be at all surprised if headcoverings were the default for Eastern European women, and they certainly will make the overall look more "period." De: "Paganism" was still around in Lithuania and Samogitia so I do not think that covering the head was for religious reasons but I could see it as a scalp protector from the sun. <Since she's calling for an underdress that sounds like a chemise, and an outerdress over that that sounds like a main body garment, a sideless surcote would have been a third layer -- and very unlikely to be worn by any but the very highest classes (e.g. royalty) in 1410 anyway, so that's not an issue. The main dress (worn over the chemise, with or without a third layer over it) would very likely have had some degree of shaping/fitting, esp. set-in-sleeves, rather than being a plain "tunic dress," but the latter would certainly be acceptable for those who are not experienced in sewing in this period. Depends what you call "sober." Certainly the cheapest dyes were blues and browns, but madder red was quite accessible. --Robin De: I had thought that it was 3 layers. Chemise and a support under dress and then the form fitting dress. Is this not the standard? What I can find of the Lithuanians and Samogitians is that red is the favored color. Thank you for the information. I am waiting on her reply so that I can learn more. _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
