The Elizabethan lady's traveling coat.

2010 Project: The Traveling Dress

An Elizabethan Lady's Traveling Coat???

I love fashion that is logical but seldom thought about. Last year at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, we experienced mud. Tons of mud. The year before, we went to the Houston Fair and when I returned home my dress was covered in dust.

I've had the idea germinating in the back of my mind to create a traveling coat. It actually seems logical. When someone attends a Renaissance Festival in which they are not employed it stands to reason that the character in question must have traveled to get to the faire. Since there is no way I could ever audition or be a part of the Minnesota or the Houston fairs :( (I live in Utah and come for one weekend a season) I am logically a traveler. I love my new character- Catherine De Foix is most enjoyable...despite being a French noble. This led to an interesting bit of research: What did a noble woman wear when she traveled on horseback?

It is illogical to believe that a woman would simply wear her dress without some protective over layer. Even in a carriage unpaved roads are exceedingly dusty and on horseback they are a nightmare. The research was also a nightmare. In the end I found one picture that could plausibly be used to define some sort of traveling wear:

Elizabeth Hunting

This wood cut print of Elizabeth I hunting is about the only picture of ladies hunting fashion that exists. If anyone reading this blog knows another picture during the Henry VIII or Elizabeth I era let me know. I’d love to look at it. Now, this picture, to me, looks like a dress with no discernible coat. This brings up two questions: 1) Did women not travel or have specific traveling wear. I find this implausible. There are very specific records of the entire court packing up and moving to the country when the plague struck, and as I pointed out above- not everyone had the voluminous wardrobes of the royalty. I find it illogical that a woman wouldn’t try and protect her gown, even if it wasn’t her court dress.

I did come across this picture of a coat in the danish fashions, but it almost looks as if it doesn't fit. At least now I have proof that there was a coat concept in the era for women.

I have a marvelous regard for Sandy Powell’s work as a costumer. Her designs in “Shakespeare in Love” are while in some cases spanning several decades are amazing. I also loved some of her work in “The Other Boleyn Girl,” specifically the riding habit Anne wears when trying to impress Henry during his visit. It is gorgeous and has a wonderful flow. She used a separate design on Viola’s riding habit in Shakespeare in Love. This piece is only a jacket covering the bodice rather than it being a complete over dress. I have decided to go full length on this project, mostly because of one facinating image in "Boleyn" where Ann swings up on the horse and the skirt steals the shot.

Of Inspiration and Design:

The Coat:

Deciding the design of this dress wasn’t easy. I knew I wanted the coat to show the kirdle, but look as if it could be buttoned to protect the whole skirt. I would also like to maintain the thinning quality of my other dresses- not easy with two layers. The wood print of Elizabeth did strike me with the horizontal lines in the kirdle, so I did a bit more research and found this painting by Paolo Veronese (1560-70).

It struck me that I could use this design to create my coat. I love the collar, the neck line, and the rolls on the sleeves. I also fell in love with the chevron sleeves. My plan coming together- I determined that the sleeves and the kirdle would be a part of the gown. The blue aspects of the dress above would be the coat and would be closed in the front with decorative clasps. While the sleeves look intimidating, I’m also planning on using the chevron in the kirdle as well. (Cutting should be a trick but if I succeed it will be amazing.)

My next piece of inspiration came from the picture of Marie De Medici by Alessandro Allori

I ran across this when looking for the stripes and fell in love with the lace on the collar. It is beautiful. If I have time, I will try to embroider the lining of the coat as well. My second inspiration with this picture and others that I have seen is to create a cap sleeve on my coat rather than having two rolls- using the same lace for the neckline on the edge of the cap. I’m also making it pointed, matching the chevron angles on the sleeve to repeat the triangle pattern throughout the dress.

The main gown I designed around the chevron pattern. Since I loved the yellow in the DeMedici dress, and was lucky enough to find a striped off-white and yellow material, I’ve set the colors in fall tones.

The Hat:

I do have to admit that I stole shamelessly from Sandra Powell’s “Shakespeare in Love” costume. I almost made the dress green because I love the look from the waist up. In the end I could find no better design than the flat cap in the picture below. I already have a picture from the time period in a previous blog entry where I talk about the need to wear a hat, so I'm not posting it again. Check out the blog: And the hat goes on... :)

The Gown:

Because of the need to put the riding coat over the actual gown, I had to do quite a bit of research. Shoulder rolls couldn’t be used which limited me as far as French fashion. I did find this painting by Durer which inspired me to try a very soft fashion- meant for a spring or early fall day.

I am choosing also to use a lighter fabric in the center of my bodice similar to this painting by Paolo Veronese. It is my opinion that having a lighter center piece draws the eye in and causes the waist to look narrow even though it is actually more bulky because of the folds of fabric. Of course I plan to have a traditionally split over skirt and lighter kirdle matching the sleeves and the center of the bodice.

The over all look of the gown will be a bit later in the time line (1590-1600) than the average Renaissance faire, but still within in the Elizabethan period in England. I am choosing to go more french than English, simply because I really hate the shape of the Cartwheel Elizabeth was so fond of... This sketch is very similar to my concept for this gown.

Because, I’m creating an extra layer on an already bulky renaissance dress, I’ve decided that this dress is going to be a French garden style dress—Lighter fabrics, movement, and a definite flow was my desire in creating this design. I’ve even decided to add an extra (possibly two) petticoats over my farthingale. Yes I have done my research- Petticoats were acceptable and widely used both over and under the farthingale. In the picture below, you can see the lady lifting both her kirdle and her overskirt to reveal the pettycoat below. According to the websites, most pettycoats were as widly decorated as the overskirt. Interesting...

The dress itself is silk-- a rich burnt orange almost a rust in color. As you can see I’m lightly decorating this dress. I may go crazy with the beading when it is finished, there are more than enough places to really go wild with the needle and thread, but for now it is a simple, elegant, yet challenging design.

FINAL DESIGNS:

Riding Coat:

Gown: