sister_raphael | Buttoned surcote!

My latest rabbit hole has been a bit of an in depth look at the clothing in the Ormesby Psalter, from the early 14th century and because there's a lot of cool stuff in there, namely cute hair nets, barbettes, a lady with a peaked cap AND a barbette and this very cool surcote with a buttoned shoulder, I am using it for my style guide for my personal kit. I had previously spent a lot of time in the later half of the 14th century, but an enormous amount of people do that same time period, and I really do love the whole barbette-and-net arrangement, so I'm going to wriggle back time-wise a little and stay there.

The manuscript isn't as comprehensive as others, like the Luttrell Psalter or the Bohun Psalter, which have both been style icons for me, but the missing bits of my impression can be filled with information from the Museum of London's great books on artifacts from archaeological excavations.

As much as possible, anyway.

So this week I finally finished the surcote.

It's red wool and although I thought the buttoned opening would be handy, I was surprised at how much more room there was when it came to removing the surcote whilst still wearing a headpiece with substantial wiggery.

I may still add a couched single line around the armholes since most of the clothing in the manuscript has either a single line of a line with a series of dots around arms and necklines, something I see repeated by many re-enactors far too much on later clothing when the style has disappeared.

Anyway. The buttons on the shoulder are really great. I've not seen them on clothing on the shoulder at this time, but have seen shoulder buttons on cloaks worn by men a little later on in the 14th century.

It's all a bit cool.