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.