Q: If I participate in the medieval fair in May, I should probably wear some
kind of head covering since I have short hair and I don’t think that is very period.
A: I guess for head coverings, it’s veils, hats and occasionally something different like a turban.
Veils are not often the full wimple, rather are simpler and diverse in style. I’ve seen a few different suggestions on how to make a veil (see some on our website, and also Cynthia virtue’s page. see links section).
(I think this is slightly later period, but not out of place).
There seem to be plenty of styles of veil depicted in illustrations, so there are plenty more ways of wearing veils. Veils were often white, but some coloured and even printed veils appear in illustrations. The one tip I’d give is, make sure you wear some kind of soft fillet under the veil and pin the veil to it – just jamming a metal band on your head does not keep your veil on neatly. The fillet can be just a headband, piece of ribbon (not too satiny/slippery), a strip of linen/other fabric, or a piece of tablet weaving lends a nice period grace to it). To hide short hair, I’ve seen my baroness make a fillet with braid cases (or it could be sets of fake hair) sewn to it. A light veil pinned to this fillet (with a crown over the top of it, also holding it down) safely conceals her quite short hair.
I’ve seen a few pictures of turbans worn by ladies, some quite over the top. They all look like strips of white fabric wound around the head in some fashion. Experiment.
There are not so many period hats for our period as others, especially for women. I’m not sure I can name one that I’ve seen ladies wearing, but I’m sure there’s some out there. The one exception is straw hats — they are the kind of peasant dress or dress of a lady working, that is not often illustrated. i think someone on this list had some documentation that straw hats are 12th C period?, but I’m not sure if anyone can document them being worn with court dress. I don’t care; I’m not fond of sunburn and sunstroke. It was 35+ degree Celsius here on the weekend, and everyone was wearing sunhats, without regard to what garb they were wearing.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen pictures of guys wearing hoods; I’m not sure about girls.
For warmth a veil can be pretty good, and can keep light drizzle off, also your can wear a wrapped cloak and wrap part of the cloak about the head veilwise, like a hood.
Sorry for the lack of illustration yet.
~ Teffania / Tiffany Brown
Message #709, January 12, 2003
What time period? What else would you be wearing? Things seem to change depending on not only fashions of the time, but on what gown you are wearing. I don’t think, for example, that I’ve ever seen a period depiction of a wimple and a bliaut being worn at the same time. I could be wrong, of course, and please let me know if I am!
~ Brangwayna
Message #714, January 13, 2003
My web page has examples. I have short hair; I keep it hidden in a snood, then wear barbettes and veils over it, or just veils.
A barbette is a thin strip that goes under the chin and pins to the top of the head. a round or oval veil folded in half over this with straight edge over forehead, and a circlet of any kind over that is a good 12th c. early 14thc. style.
Also a long rectangle veil thrown over the head and around the shoulders is always an easy and attractive way to wear a veil.
Lots more where those came from!
www.angevintreasures.com/aenor — link broken
~ Aénor d’Anjou / Kirsten Wienand Vaughan
Message #721, January 14, 2003
Q: What kind of fabric do you use for a veil? There is only 1 fabric
store near me so I hope they have something for my clothing and head
covering.
You’ll be able to find something
suitable there. For cheap veils (which is all I have at the moment) I’m using cotton voile –
that’s a kind of fairly fine woven white
cotton, quite thin (see through, far too thin to use as an underdress, but not expensive like other finer fabrics). For
one of my veils I use it doubled. It’s pretty
warm here most of the time, so I don’t
use anything thicker, but you could, try to get a fabric that drapes well. Remember that natural fibres breathe
better, and probably the flashest veil
you could get would be of silk (the nice fine silk scarf stuff, not raw silk), so you could use a synthetic
fibre if it looked
fairly much like silk, but beware, it will be
hotter.
Remember to look in the offcuts bin too for scraps of nice fabrics. about 1m square (3 yards) will make most veil types,
1/2m will make several types. I’m still
experimenting with shaping veils, so i’m happy to buy the cheap cotton voile until i work out the perfect shape for a
veil to be, then i’ll think about buying a nicer
fabric.
~ Teffania / Tiffany Brown
Message #717, January 13, 2003
A circlet is any band you put on your head- metal or strip of trim or whatever. I use the filet (that’s what this style is
called) for myself mainly because
I am not tall and have a smallish head! it helps!
A skinny band of metal or trim is sort of an earlier style-
11th C. or earlier. We were
getting started on the hat track in later 12th c.
The filet looks most appropriate with the barbette (the chin
strap) under the veil. If you
don’t want to wear a barbette, you don’t have to though. You can make the filet narrower as well.
Mine I make out of stiff upholstory fabric. If you use
thinner fabric, use a heavy
interfacing on lining and outer fabric both to make it stand up stiffly. They are reversible this way as well.
If you have trouble with the shape, I sell my pattern for
them ($6).
~ Aénor d’Anjou / Kirsten Wienand Vaughan
Message #732, January 17, 2003