Get Ready With Me in The 15th Century, OR: Would You Wear All This??? 

She really is quite excellent! And good company as well! ☺

Yeah that sounds right! But it's funny how gestures suddenly make much less sense without the voice-over to Define them! 😅

Thank you! I have an extended series on this ensemble with info-packed narration. Here is part one. 😊 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YaDr7HrP-4s.html

Hi, Sara! Nice to "hear" from you! Let us go in order of your most excellent questions (thank you for such a great comment!)! The hood in this video is indeed the silk velvet hood, version 1.0. Already planning a slightly different version with different shaping, but I am actually happy with this one as well - it captures the look in several of the portraits of ladies influenced by Burgundian fashions. But I loove variety, so more shall be forthcoming! The placket is not discussed in the book on haut atours, nor are the hoods, at least not that I found. I based the placket off of several portraits, religious paintings, and even an illlumination series found in the 1470s edition of Roi Rene's Book of the Love-Smitten Heart (Le Cueuer d'Amours Espris), which depicts two ladies in one scene fully attired, and then in the next without their gowns and just their kirtles, complete with placket overtop of the lacing, which is also partially unlaced and gapping pretty heavily. And then of course all of those kirtles in which young ladies are depicted in the artwork with the plackets/stomachers under the frontlacing, which gaps very heavily (Feels like the next step in fashion evolution - placket overtop of the lacing, then fashionable velvet stomacher under the lacing, which all eventually become the breastband seen in Flemish and German fashions in the early 16th century). Which is not to say that this is the only option that 1460s-80s ladies may have chosen for undergown arrangement. I feel like a side-lacing kirtle with no placket and a front-lacing kirtle with placket could have both been used by ladies, perhaps with the sidelacing option being more of a winter choice or a choice for ladies going through the riptide of pregnancies. I actually have two more variants on this video plannde - one with voiceover providing historic details of all the layers, and another I am calling Dressing the Burgundian Comtesse: LIES, in which I discuss details that are not quite "right", or where I had to make compromises that are not necessarily documentable. So stay tuned, and please feel free to share this video with everyone who might even be vaguely interested. 😀

BTW, I have just found hard primary source documentary evidence for the "placket" for women - it is called a "stomok" - stomacher! The details will be included in the narrated version of this film thaat I hope ot release in the next couple of days! So excit"e! 😀

Thank you so much! As a claustrophone, I can empathize about the tightfitting sleeves, albeit from a different standpoint. Happily, there are, um, more "mature" dress options from this era in which the overgown sleeves need to not be skin tight, and in fact may have a bit of volume to them. But yeah, these sleeves in particular are practically molded to my arm musculature! 😀

I will openly admit that graceful door-ducking is a fine art I have mastered after years of wearing this ensemble. Feels a music-less form of dance!😅

Louis XIV capitalized on the complexity of this process and turned it into a very official daily event - the levee - during which the peers of the realm and nobles on whom he wished to keep a close eye were each assigned a role in helping him dress. It was one of the many ways he kept his nobles literally occupied so that they had no time to foment rebellion or cause other problems for him!

As for me, at events, I like to invite ladies to come and join me and keep me company during my morning dressing ritual. We engage in philosophical discussions on topics such as "What is the definition of Justice?" and other light fare perfect for people freshly roused from bed! 😀

Aww, thank you, Jost! 😊 As to your point - indeed, in the 15th century, whether France, Burgundy, Holy Roman Empire, England, Portugal, or the Italies, men's and women's fashions are pretty much equally ornate, complex, layered, and HEAVY with all of the silk and fur linings that are a mark of the aristocracy (and nobility-wannabees, aka the merchants). I am planning to do a Dressing the 15th Century Condottiero video soon as well, along with making a suitably ornate Burgundian outfit for my man-at-arms. Just have to finish all the other projects we have first. 🤣

Thank you for that great question - I was hoping someone would bring it up! That item is variously referred to as a placket or a stomacher (in English, at any rate), and it is somewhat conjectural in the sense that I have not found documentary evidence for it per se. That being said, this approach is based on visual visual evidence during and after this period (and even in other parts of Europe at the same time), and the fact that it creates the absolutely correct look found in the portraits with very little struggle. I will be addressing it directly with the follow-up version of this vide,o in which I discuss the historical underpinnings of everything (no pun intended!). And probably also the "LIES" director's commentary version in which I discuss fumbles, mistakes and historical inaccuracies in the various items depicted, in the name of complete intellectual honesty!😅

@@thecreativecontessa Thank you! I was thinking it was something like a stomacher or a just-across-the-front-not-over-the-shoulders-partlet. I made a faux Burgundian last winter with two layers, the linen shift & the entire rest of the dress as one piece. Yup - gown, stomacher, collar, attached belt (made of the same material as the stomacher), all out of suedecloth. The dress has a zipper because I don't have servants (& my husband is patient enough). Honestly , I wouldn't wear a shift with it at all except suedecloth is basically plastic, so I would end up freezing or sweating, but the linen shift deals with that. I don't have a grande corne (aka. not a hennin 😂) to go with it because it functions as regular clothes I can wear to teach in. Someday, I'll take the time to make a real Burgundian out of nicer materials. So yes, I think we're all curious about the layers. Don't worry about the oopsies. I've lost track of all my sewing bloopers over the years. The first & only pair of pants I made would've been OK on a 🐧! I somehow sewed the two legs together down the center front! 🤣

He's a good friend, colleague and my household minstrel. 😀

And a shorter hat is always an option! I dream of being surrounded by a bevy of ladies attired in a similar fashion, sweeping across the field together like my own personal army of dashingly attired amazons! 😀

@@thecreativecontessa I shall have to save up for linen then... I doubt I would be allowed the lavender silk I have some of.

It is based on multiple sets of imagery from this era, portraits included, that show a sort of placket either over or under the lacing of the kirtle. I wish I could insert pictures here, but I cannot, so I will probably make a post including some of the imagery.

That is a girdle book, and it actually functions as the case for my smartphone. The woman who made it sadly no longer produces them

@@thecreativecontessa thank you for the quick answer Is there any chance thath i can have a contact with her. These type of books are in my mind for so long and i may would like to try and make one on my own

I do get the impression from the chronicles that great ladies such as Margaret of York probably did dress this way everyday when any sort of public appearances were involved, whether great state occasion or not. Having worn such ensembles for multiple days in a row, I will say that one simply gets used to it. Of course, there is a certain sense of relief at the end of the day when the heavy overgown is removed! 😅

@@thecreativecontessa Given the nature of the position, I regard that as a work outfit and not casual wear.

Yeah, I suppose we ladies are accustomed to being accosted in that manner, epecially we American women...

Master Albrecht is my household Minstrel and a very dear friend. And for some reason, it's not particularly difficult to convince him to play music when I'm getting dressed from the skin out!🤣