Q: Does anybody know how to make the sleeves to
this gown?, meaning the
famous “accolade gown”. I’ve researched and have
found nothing.
A: Hehehehe, don’t get me started on the Accolade gown! It’s incorrect for 12th century. The accolade gown has a set in sleeve (not period) the part above the trim is too poofy, the lower part should really be tighter above the elbow.
That said, you can find details about making these “angel-wing” sleeves in Herbert Norris.
~ Rowena / Brenda Sibly
Message #735, January 19, 2003
Patterns for Theatrical Costumes by Katherine Strand Holkboer has
such a pattern.
~ Katrine / Katherine Barich
Message #737, January 19, 2003
Like so many others, I
absolutely adore the Accolade Gown. However, as so many have stated, it is not period-accurate.
I was wondering what kind of alterations people
here think would need to be made to the
design in order to make a similar gown that is
period-accurate.
~ Donna
Message #750, January 23, 2003
My biggest complaints about the Accolade gown is all come above the waist. The skirt seems fine to me, but the sleeves and neckline are what aren’t period.
If you wanted to make a dress similar to this in a more period fashion, you wouldn’t set in the sleeves. They shouldn’t be puffed out at the shoulder.
The bodice is incredible form-fitting with no evidence of any lacing. In order to be this close fitting, the
dress would have to be laced somewhere, and that would probably be on the sides. The dress in the picture could be laced in the back, but I am of the opinion that bliauts were either laced on the sides or not at all. (I believe it wasn’t one way or the other, I am very much of the opinion that there were many, many ways to make this dress. But that’s a topic for another day.) Anyway, my point is that dress couldn’t fit so tightly without some kind of closing (i.e. lacings).
The trim at the arm wouldn’t be so wide (most trim was not more than an inch to an inch and a half wide) and the metal plaque belt is wrong.
Necklines of the bliaut *usually* are simple circles, not at all low cut (I cut my necklines to lay on my collar bone and if I have a specific underdress that’s pretty for the dress, Ill cut in a 3″ keyhole). The neckline of this dress appears to be a deep V showing the underdress beneath (either that or its a chunky necklace giving that appearance). So, in short, don’t set in the sleeves, add lacings to the sides (or go without them for a somewhat looser fit), go for the simple rounded neckline, and forget the metal plaque belt.
As for the fabric of the dress…I haven’t seen an example of a bliaut so highly decorated. That doesn’t mean they aren’t out there, but *I* haven’t seen it.
Just my thoughts on the subject; I’m curious about what other people’s thoughts are….
Pax
~ Melisent / Kim McGuire
Message #751, January 23, 2003
I also like the accolade gown, and have a poster of it hanging in my living room. I took a nice close look at it this morning and came away with these impressions:
I have not yet seen any period justification for the gathered/puffed upper arm area. In this piece of art, they almost seem to be smocked by the gold embroidery in this area. The artwork seems to suggest that the upperarm seam was covered by a band (ophrey, which, as I have been reading implies the use of gold in weaving or perhaps embroidery). The width of the upper arm band does vary from small to about the size shown on the accolade dress, but it would look different, raised above the fabric, rather than sewn in to it. Nancy, what sort of width ranges did you see on your research on tablet woven bands of the 12th century?
Again, the trimming at the bottom of the dress and the edge of the sleeves would be more common on a separate band attched to the garment. The extant coronation shirts clearly show additions of different colored bands on the sleeve ends, upper arm bands, necklines and hems. I should think a case could be made for embroidering the garment itself, but if you think in terms of the value of the gold and jewels used, you would want to be able to easily detach these valuable items for use on other garb without destroying the garment itself.
So far I have seen one example of a period silk weave as fine as the accolade gown, so I think you might be able to do something in this type of fabric, but I imagine you would be quite wealthy to afford to do so. It is also possible that the silk could have been woven with gold, but on this particular weight of fabric, the gold probably would have been rather heavy for this type of weave.
The v neck on the bodice is debatable, as I have seen some in period illuminations. It does seem more common to have a round neckline though. The gown does need lacing of some sort to achieve the tight fit, and so far the evidence is that the lacings were on the side(s). We are all searching for evidence of back lacing right?
The belt could have been a band with metal fittings, as was documented at least in the start of the 13th century, if you really wanted to duplicate that sort of look. I think this belt looks more in line with the cotehardie than a bliaut though, but you could decorate a band belt with jewels to achieve a similar, yet more period look with smaller fittings and jewels.
The gown is a lovely thing, but if you look at Waterhouse’s Lady of Shalott, it might be a closer version of a period bliaut sleeves done in a Pre-Raphaelite style, although I can’t quite remember if the sleeves are set in or not. It has a lovely argent/or checky pattern beloved by An Tirians!
One of my best friends says that we should start a group called the society for creative art eras. I giggled, but I really like pre-raphaelite art, and she called one of my bliauts ‘the Erte style’ – it goes with my Stevie Nicks Tudor, I guess. 😉
~ Katrine / Katherine Barich
Message #753, January 23, 2003
I concur, with the addition that I’ve never seen evidence of this sort of embroidery on a hem.
One of the statues at Chartres does have a deep v-neck, but it’s not trimed with a wide braid, just a few dots.
~ Rowena / Brenda Sibly
Message #754, January 23, 2003
I love discussing this gown. I don’t want to rehash what others have said, since much of it is pretty clear. However, I did want to interject a couple of things –
1) From what I’ve found, the v-neck isn’t a Victorian fantasy, just the way it’s done in the painting.
V-necks *are* documentable for *some* bliauts, but not a fitted, smooth 1890’s-style v-neck as is shown in the Accolade. They were most likely a slit that opened into a v when worn (like the Kragelund Tunic has), as evidenced by shoulder wrinkles that can be seen on statuary examples with such a neckline. These slit-type v-necks do seem to always have been worn over an undergown with a decorated keyhole
(round neck, with a slit) type neckline.
While this is the neckline I like to use on most of the bliauts I make (I like to show off my decorated undergowns), it seems to have been no more common than a plain or decorated keyhole neckline, and may even have been less common. It is certainly probably a later style (i’d say latter half of the twelfth century, possibly even exclusive to France).
2) The skirt decoration isn’t *completely* fantastic, just partly 🙂
It looks to me like it’s meant to be a woven in pattern, rather than an applied decoration. I completely agree that any applied decorative bands would have stayed close to the hem, not wandered all the way up to her hips…
Decorated fabrics were at least sometimes used, as is evidenced by some surviving polychromy on statuary, some surviving fabric fragments, and some textual descriptions. However, the patterning
would have been significantly different. The skirt fabric in the painting looks like an Indian sari fabric, rather than a 12th century brocaded samite, which would have had regular all-over medallions. That
sort of decoration would have been all over the gown, anyway, not just on the skirt. Normans didn’t use border prints… If you were going to show off, you SHOWED OFF. None of this halfway stuff.
IMO, the gown may actually have been a borrowed theatre costume, just from its cut and clearly Victorian styling.
I would like to make a ‘more period” version of this gown, but not so much as I’d like to do a copy of the gown Guinevere is wearing in this painting (period or no, I WANT this dress…):
http://www.artmagick.com/paintings/painting1631.aspx – link broken
Anyway, if I did, I’d just spill food down the front…White is a bad color for me 😉
~ Marguerie de Jauncourt / Maura Folsom
Message #755, January 23, 2003