Thoughts about women in the tross, again.

In the event of late I got reminded of my interest for the camp women of 16th century Germany again. So many are fascinated by them, and so am I and has been, for a very long time. But it is really important to me to make something as authentic as possible and to always question why I do things a certain way. It is so easy seeing someone doing something and just follow, even though you know nothing about their research. Its common to see people online referring to woodcuts of nobility calling it "bumla" or landsknecht. Again, German 16th century where not a country with a population of only military...doing German 16th century does not mean campwomen or landsknechts only.

Landsknecht and camp women. 

Early modern armies traveled with a large number of noncombatants, the number where extremely high in relation to the number of troops. And according to John A Lynn II in Women, Armies and Warfare in early modern Europe most of these people where women and children. 

So, who where they? 

It was not uncommon for young couples to leave low paying jobs to go with the army, not for the honor to fight for the country but for the money. When I started doing clothing for a 16th century camp woman I got told that they plundered the battlefield after the war. Doing work that was consider female shamed the masculinity of a soldier and therefore such duties were reserved for women, even during campaign.The task of the women was to carry and to plunder. The metaphor of the women being her partners "mule" appears in military commentaries. Charming, right... But the view on the different tasks of men and women were also connected to clothing. When I started doing 16th century clothing I was told that the women plundered the battlefiled and used items like clothing that they took from dying men. And maybe they did take items that could be altered into something else but they did not use a jacket for example, for themselfs, if they found one they could not change they sold it. 

The same book mentioned above covers to story of the woodcut The cobbler and his girl, Erhard Schön, 1568. She worked as a spinner to go with him to the war. He left the job as a cobbler. Making shoes might not have been the most profitable job, or just not fun enough? But the information tells us that she was just anybody, a women working with the craft of spinning, unmarried. I really like her clothing. Is she representative for most camp women? I dont know. But she is not wearing the extravagant outfits that we are used to seeing in the world of reenactment today.

She is wearing a rock, gown, with long sleeves. If she is wearing a unterrock, a kirtle, is not possible to determine. Her dress has guards on the bodies but no slits. On top of her gown she is wearing a gollar in form of a little vest with what could be a smocked collar. Gollars in linen with smocked collars can be seen in the woodcuts of dancing farmers and seems to be a garment used for time of partying. I think I have only seen them on dancing farmers, if you find one elsewhere please let me know. I find it interesting that she is wearing such a garment in camp. Was that a way to try to look fancier, like the wife of an officer, or just artistic freedom? 

She is also wearing an apron that looks like the kind that covering the entire skirt, a schurz. If you look closely you can see that it has a smock around her waist. Her skirt and the apron is tucked up under the belt like we are used to see on camp women. She has sewn hose, that appear like they could be in different colours, or just the interpretation of seams. I know that striped hose are used among the reenactment people but I have not find any sources saying they where actually striped. It suppose to be to show of that the person wearing them could by a lot of fabric, but I dont really buying it. Prove me wrong...please. She is wearing an oxmule shoe and has a walking stick and a backpack. 

On her head she has the typical german stuchlein and a tellerbarett with small feathers around the brim. 

I mean, look at this. The lines in the hose. If this would have been in black and white we would have interpreted it as stripes. The women beside him, women in the tross has pale colours, and no slits in their clothing. Even thought they are not that visibly in this exakt part of the painting. 

Women of the tross came from simple backgrunds, most of them came from te bauren class, the farmer class. According to the sumptuary laws from the time they could not wear whatever they liked. There is this saying that landsknechts could wear whatever they liked because they had such hard lives. Maximilian I was the one that should have said this. And this is what you always get when trying to say that everybody cant wear brocade. Yes, I know about these words. But I dont think that just because of these everybody, that grew up controlled by the sumptuary laws, after joining the army started to buy whatever they could get hold on, to put what ever money they got, on jewels and brocade. If the soldiers had the money to, their woman could, but far from everybody had. Rich clothing is also indicative of exalted position within the regiment. The flamboyance of dress was a formal insignia of rank. Not everybody had it.The first thing that is stated is that they needed to wear clothing made out of fabrics from the German countries, nothing that was imported. Except for some finer wool for a gollar. But no silk! The only exception is their daughters, they could wear a thin silk hairband. They were not allowed to use embroidered collars, maybe exept from whitework, its not stated. So no smock with different colours than white. 

So, what about the plunder? The main plunder did not occur on the battlefield but in the cities close by. It was not uncommon that the armies did not get paid in time or at all. These shortages in pay was a problem because the soldiers were expected to pay for their own food. They also did not stay in barracks but in tent and in civilian homes which could put the civilians in danger of theft and bullying. According to the book The Landsknechts by Douglas Miller the men and woman of the army were often left to find shelter on their own. Shelter in form of a simple tent or a hut made of branches. This was the normality for the bigger part of the army, except for higher ranked officers and their women. There was also the opportunity to seek shelter in a near by city, in the houses of common people of the city. The lives they lived tend to be glorified in the reenactment of today, but life on campaign was not easy.

Just some thoughts from my way of reenactment. Again. 

Medieval week 2024

The week, the one and only week, the Medievalweek in Visby. The highlight of the year. And it is over! But the memories are still there. Every time I go home from that week I think about all of those who only have that week, who dont do anything medieval for the rest of the year. And that breaks my heart a little, imagine to only have one week a year to do the best thing in the world. What a horrible thought! My next event is a market in two weeks and a tournament in three. Anyhow...

The week was a little bit different for me though. I stayed with my tent in a new camp. And they took such good care of me. Made me feel like one of them from the start. The camp was open for tourists during the day, with activities for them to try. I was sewing the entire time, making a pair of pants for a friend. What I do every day anyway, right!

I brought my new tent this time. I bought it as a market-tent but after realizing it was waterproof I thought, better safe than sorry. Last medievalweek was so wet and windy that it was more a question about surviving than anything else. And I didnt feel like doing that again. And I had only used it ones, for a market in july, so I thought I needed to try it with all my furniture. Could have been done better... next time! But I did have new curtains to hide modern stuff behind and it look quite cosy like this, doesn't it?!

And this is the main part of camp. During medieval week in Visby there are a couple of small camps and the big medieval/SCA-camp where I have stayed before. In the big camp anyone can stay but in this small one you need an invite to join. I think we where about 40 people in it this year. 

I was fortunate to also have two very talented photographers close by, Sarah, that took the pictures from Doublewars and Nancy, a new friend of mine. Both took some amazing photos of me and my clothing during the week. 

Nancy Coste took this photo. Im wearing a  dress I thought I would never wear again. This dress where made 10 years ago, when I still did clothing for a woman of the tross. The inspiration for this came from a painting in the Triumphs of Maximilian-series, ordered by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The dress in the painting was pink with red guards, that is the only difference. Anyhow...noticing Im not wearing a smocked shirt, an oxmule-shoe or the typical headgear for a trossfrau? I know, it was on purpose. Most women of the tross came from a farmer background and wore clothing from that social class. So Im simply a farmers wife in this...or a trossfrau, both works. Something to think about when doing "landsknecht". I like it a lot.  

Nancy took this one too. This dress where made for medieval week. Or at least finished in time for it. My thought with this dress is to represent a kirtle for a wealthier city dweller or maybe even low nobility. I wanted something to wear when it was nice weather that I could wear my sca jewellery with. It does not feel proper to wear jewellery with my farmers outfit for example. Im wearing my new green kirtle with a white shirt and a silk hairnet.  

This is the same outfit, but with my Schurz, an apron surrounding the whole skirt. Two examples of this kind of apron can be seen in a painting by Hans Wertinger, The Labors of the month, from 1525. One woman in the painting is actually wearing it like this, on top of a sleeveless kirtle. She is also wearing a white shirt underneath.

This photo is take by Sarah Rosenquist.

And, at last, my favorite, the farmers outfit. This is probably the outfit I feel most like myself in. You cant really see but Im wearing a kirtle in undyed wool on top of an undyed shirt. On top of the kirtle Im wearing the same apron, the schurz, and a gollar in linen. I need to make more undyed shirts. It would not be proper to have a white shirt with this clothing. Is undyed the right word? Unbleached? Not white, you get it. I only have two, and that wont work for a week in the middle of summer. I did not, however, by any more linen, what was I thinking?! Well, the long events are done for the year, only weekend-events left. But for next year!

Sarah took this photo too. The city wall in the background is just magical.

German workingclass outfit....again...but with a rock!

The farmer-outfit has quickly become my favorite, German 16th century of course. I feel so like myself in it. And I have all the different layers that one might need, kirtle and gown, and a couple of different headwear and of course, my jacket.

At Doublewars this year me and the brilliant Sarah Rosenquist got a chance to take picture of the entire outfit. The light was beautiful.

We had great fun and even though I have not been in front of her camera before she made me comfortable and the pictures came out great.

Im wearing a shirt, a hemd in german, in natural linen, hand sewn with waxed linen thread. On top of that the sleeveless kirtle, a unterrock in german, in undyed wool. Also handsewn, with waxed linen thread. Its closed by eyelets at the front. And a smocked apron. Its not uncommon to see farmers working in this kind of outfit, without all the proper layers. As you see here for example! I really like showing of my inspiration like this, like a before- and after picture...

I really like this headwear, its something else from the ordinary steuchlein with the wulsthaube and sleier. I use a false braid that I place far back on my head and secure it with pins...a lot of pins. After that I tie on the headband and wrap a sleier on the top of the braid. It stays on fairly well. Its the pins and headband together. Young ladies were allowed to have a thin headband in silk, even as farmers. And I think that this headwear were used by newlyweds, still showing of their silk headband but covering a little more of the hair as married women. Its comfy and not to warm, even though the veil is actually made out of a thin wool fabric in this case. I have pictures of the woodcut used as inspiration for this headwear in other posts here on the blog.

The monochrome expression reminds me of harvest-outfits that are preserved from some of the parishes in Sweden used during the 19th century.  It says something about how old some of the folkcostumes really are.

On top of the kirtle, the unterrock, Im using my gown, the rock, in German. I didnt like the colour of it at first, I thought it was a bit to strong, but it do look good together. As you can see, both the unterrock and rock are quite short, to be able to work in them. And the shoe is not a oxmule shoe, they did actually use other kinds of shoes in Germany during the 16th century. Its a quite plain shoe, practical.

Its the same apron that Im wearing in the first picture, just on top of the rock this time. Im also wearing a simple narrow leather belt.

And the shirt has a rounded neckline, not to deep. Did you know that it was against sumptuary law to have a neckline to deep? You would get a fine if you had. Sometimes I wear a linen gollar on top of the shirt to cover up a bit more. You can also wear a linen gollar on top of the unterrock, between the two dresses. Or on top of the gown. A lot of uses for a linen gollar...

I really like this picture above!

And at last, the jacket. In southern Germany the jacket was called Brüstlein or Brüstla. And there is a lot of ways to make jackets, but this particular kind is very common for a farmers wife. With a little longer "skirt" on it. And remember, no shoulderwings on german jackets.

I really like this colour-combo actually...

The only thing I dont like about this outfit is the neckline of the jacket. Its to low. Totally historical, but it gets cold. I could use a wool gollar on top, but it does not feel right, this outfit is done like this. So I might do another jacket. But it works fine to use a kerchief like this too. I might just use a bigger thicker scarf if I need it to be even warmer. I have another rock, the pink one if you remember it, that actually is big enough to go on top of all this. During medievalweek in Visby last year I used it on top quite a lot, it was so rainy and cold. It was not the plan from the beginning, I simply made it to big...

Photo: Sarah Rosenquist.

Embroidered shirt - silk on linen

A lot of the post lately has started with me saying that I havent been writing in a long time, and so will this one. I have been working on orders for others, a lot of sprang actually, and that is always fun. But I have already posted a lot of info on the Lengberg sprang here, and doing the same pattern again and again does not make a good post... But while doing orders I have been working on something new for myself on the side. A shirt with embroideries, something that takes a long time to make and therefore is suitable for a project to do meanwhile. 

Embroideries nowadays is something I do to relaxe, that has changed during the years sense I made the big cap with embroideries, able to see here. Something that I found difficult is now something I almost dont want to finish because its so relaxing while going on. 

 

 

I chose to make a shirt with a separate embroidered worked collar. The fabric is gathered into the collar after the embroidery was finished. I also made a little ruffle. The cuffs are made the same way. The bodies consists of the whole wide of the fabric, 150 cm, folded and with shoulderseams. That is one way of making a shirt if you dont want to gather the entire amount of fabric into the collar. The cuffs and collar are closed with a string and worked bars. They are made with a white silk thread. The fabric is bought from Medeltidsmode and found here. The shirt is handsewn with waxed linen thread.

 

The pattern has a quite gotic feel to it, very symmetrical but were printed in both Schönsperger and Quentel´s patternbooks, 1529 and 1532/1544. It might be older than that and reused in the patternbooks. The pattern is available with and without pointy edges. I used the one with straight edges. And I worked with cross stitch in silk directly on the fabric of the shirt. I used the same colour as for the embroidered cap which is three different colours of silk put together. Why make things simple?!

 

 

 

 

 

The patternbooks is now at The Metropolitan museum of Art in New York. This page here is from Quentels book and show the pattern as I used it, without the pointy edges. Its the second pattern from the top. Here you can look at it yourself. 

 

 

 

There is a lot of inspiration out there and here are some of mine used for this project. All from the same period of time as the printed pattern. 

Working class...or?

When I posted about my kirtle for the working class outfit I talked about the gown for that same outfit, a garment I was still working on. Read about that here. And it was finished in time for medieval week. But...

I realized its to fancy when it comes to colour. The blue colour of the fabric is to bright, to strong, to be low class. I used this painting as referens for working people in an earlier post but I realized I was lazy doing so. I did not look closely enough. She has embroideries on her apron and on her collar, so, not low class. They where not allowed to wear silk embroideries by law. During the 16^th century silk gradually became available to other social classes than the nobility, first as small items, like sleeves and caps. In the period the towns were prospering through new fortunes and that made the German middle class able to dress more richly. So, she could be middle class. The silk embroideries are quite small. But not working class. 

So, what to do? I know I could wear it the way it is, but it does not feel right. Its too short for anything else than working class. So, Im going to remake my so called working class gown. I could add black trim to the bodice and remove the guards in the skirt and make it longer by adding a wider guard, also in black. Its quite short the way it is now.

And it would turn into something like this. Painted in the first part of the 16th century by Barthel Bemham "Portrait of a young noblewoman".

It might not need to be patrician, but a few steps up the social ladder, maybe something for a townsperson? If I chose any other colour than black. In this, rater bad picture, I could be dressed in everyday townspeople clothing. Simple but well dressed. 

Does this make sense? To re-do a dress that was just finished? I dont know, but I do know that when I got the thought of the little bit to bright blue colour in my head I cant overlook it. If you dont have anything to do you make yourself something to do...

Smocked linen gollar - Sebald Beham 1547

In portraits gollars can be found during the first third of the 16th century. Most people think about the round type of gollars that you wear on top of you clothing when they hear the term. But there are another type that is common too, the undergollar, made of linen, I have been writing about it before. Often you might dont even understand that its what you are seeing in a portrait, it might look like her shirt. But to few pleats might be a sign, or in this case, to many...or something like that... 

In a woodcut made by Sebald Beham in 1547 we see farmers dancing. They dressed up and went to a dance. She is wearing a hemd (shirt), maybe an unterrock (kirtle), a rock (gown) with borders in a different colour at the bodies and a lacing partly visible, an apron with smock, a headcloth and a linen gollar with smock. If she would have wore it underneath her dress we would not have know it was gollar, we would have thought it was a shirt, a smocked shirt. If I would have seen this garment I would have said that it were used underneath the dress, and it might have been wore that way too, but she is wearing it on top, showing it of.

Was this a fancy garment? For everyone today wearing smocked shirts it might seem like a everyday thing back then, but maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was what this women wore when she was going to be pretty, when she was going to look nice, when she was going to the dance. Maybe we have to rethink the meaning of the smocked shirt. Maybe it was not for everybody. Most farmers or workingpeople in woodcuts and painting dont seem to wear them. And when it look like they do, what says its not just a gollar? I dont know, Im just thinking out loud here.

Anyhow...

 

I made the smocked gollar!

Its perfect to make things like this if you have small pieces of fabric left. You cant really see if you dont know it but its made of pieces in different kinds of white even. I took what I had and didnt want to cut into larger pieces. I have not had a chance to take proper pictures of me wearing it yet. But it will come, later. 

I thought when I looked at the woodcut that it had a slight curve over the shoulder and that it covered her from the neck to below the bust. So that is what I did too, when it comes to sizing. I didnt see any closing, so I chose to use strings underneath the arm to close it with. I also thought it was closed at the front, no opening or seam there, so you put it over your head to get it on. 

The smock is made before I sewed everything else together. I smocked all the pieces, one frontpiece, one backpiece and two shoulderpieces, separate. All the pieces are squared pieces, the shoulderpieces are only slightly smaller.

 

 

And I added a strip of linen to the backside of the smock to get the right size for my neck. If you dont have this backpiece the smock will loose its shape over time.

 

I thought I could see bindings around the arms and waist in the woodcut and while working on it that became clear, its a must. Otherwise the piece of fabric on the shoulders wont lay flat, its to many pleats from the collar. The seams are backstitched and the seam allowance folded and whip stitched. In this picture one of the shoulderseams are visible. 

 

 

 

 

 

I love smock, especially on linen, its so crisp and beautiful.

In the woodcut I could not see how she closed it in the front, just that the smock has no gap. So I made worked bars and will close it with a string, that I have not made yet. Hopefully I will remember that before my next event...

 

Next time I see a farmer or working woman with a smock I will look twice, maybe she is wearing a gollar, and not a complete shirt? To see and understand what we are looking at is crucial to be able to recreate fashion in a proper way. And we all learn and develop all the time, and by this garment I certainly did. And that is the most fun thing with this hobby according to me.

Thoughts about German headwear.

Little has been found when it comes to German headwear. There are some hairnets, and also a wulst or two, but no complete wulsthaube. We dont know how they are made. Little do we know also absout what they would have called the different headwears and layers in headwear back in the 16th century German countries. 

This spring I got this amazing gift. A copy of Textiler Hausrat - Kleidung und haustextilien In Nurnberg von 1500-1650 by Jutta Zander-Seidel. And while turning its pages I started reading the little text beneath the pictures in the book. They are most of the time short and very informative about what we see in each picture. A despriction about what the person in it are wearing. And I got stuck on the headwear. 

Most of the time we talk about the Steuchlein as the complete headwear for 16th century Germany. But that might be to simplify it a bit. So I thought I was going to make a simple picture/description-thing here...I dont know the answeres...I just thought that it would be interesting to look at the terminology in Jutta Zandler-Seidel´s book when it comes to headwear.

Lets start..

This is a painting by Albrecht Durer showing a Patrician woman from Nurnberg dressed for church. On her head she is wearing what is called a Sturz. Its a wire and linen headwear in different layers that women wore to church, mostly older women. In Textiler Hausrat its also called a Kirchenhaube. 

This is also Durer and she is dressed for a dance. She is wearng what is, in the book, called a Haube, or just Schleier (veil). I think that what we are looking at here are a wulsthaube and one or two different linen veils. Th folded part over her forehead might be a part of the rest of the veil or it might be a loose seperat piece. 

Both of these two paintings are early, from 1500-1501 so the wulst is really big still, as it was in the beginning of the century. It changed later. 

This one, also Durer, show a lady in her housedress, her home-clothing. According to Zandler-Sediel she is the first one of these ladies wearing a Steuchlein. It looks like a wulsthaube and a veil that is hanging down in the back. The haube is also decorated with some kind of stripes. 

This painting is made by Hans Burgkmair 1505 and the lady in the painting is Barbara Schellenberger. She is wearing a goldhaube. It semse like a goldhaube is the same as a haarhaube but in a finer material. If I understand the writing proparly it semse like she is referering to hairnets, and it certainly look like it in this painting, but I do know that many have interpreted the term goldhaube as a headwear made of goldcloth. It might had been both, I dont know. 

A fun thing with this painting is that it has been x-rayed and from the beginning she was actually wearing a linencap on top of her wulsthaube. The goldhaube must have been much fancier and how she wanted to be seen in her painting. 

This portrait is made by Wolf Traut 1510. This headwear is also a steuchlein according to Zandler-Seidel. A wulsthaube with a veil that is hanging down, just like the last time the term were used. The dark part is not hair, its a decoraton, most likely an embroidery. 

This is also Durer, and it is a bit earlier, its from 1499. And she is also wearing what Zandler-Seidel is calling a steuchlein. A wulsthaube and a loose veil, hanging down. 

This is made by Hans von Kulmbach in 1518. The wulst is slowly getting smaller. She is wearing a haube. Probably a wulsthaube underneath and a haube on top, a haube that is not a veil, probably more of a cap sewn to this shape and attached with a drawstring or pins. She is also covering her very expensive embroidery with a thin fabric, a very common way of protecting something as valuable as this. 

This one is interesting. Its made by Durer 1503 and is called Frau mit Wulsthaube. She is actually just wearing her wulsthaube, with nothing on top of it. I think this is in a homelike enviroment and nothing she walked out it, but that is just a guess. 

Here we see the sturz again, on the older woman. The younger one is wearing what is called a Bundlein. Its a haube with what I think is a loose piece of linen that she puts on when she is going to church. This woodcut is made by Georg Pencz 1531.

This is Barbara Schedel in her haarhaube with a berett on top. Its from 1532 and we do no longer see any trace of the big wulst from the beginning if the century. The painter of this is not known. Is this a hairnet or a haube made by cloth? There is a string visibly in the painting, in the middle of her head, so Im guessing its some kind of drawstring that is knotted around her head. The fabric looks rater solid so if this is a net it must be with tiny holes. It could be an embroidered net. There are nets like that found, that has almost no space left without embrodery on, beautiful. 

Does a steuchlein need to consist of a wulsthaube and a veil that is hanging down to be a steuchlein? I dont know but it is easy to belive so after going through the descriptions in the book and look at all the pictures. I do think it is to easy to with certainty call German female headwear steuchlein just because it has a wulsthaube and some kind of covering. What do you think?

The book is possible to read online if you want to look for yourself. You find it here: http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/artdok/3451/1/Zander_Seidel_Textiler_Hausrat_1990_Teil1.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2GgiwW_2dyq_fKIQXuKrMG8neSqbRKsFWLd33NH6z_vUp2HyPin6BOhPU