Resource needed - Gerry Embleton's "Medieval Military Costume"

[janestarz]

My boyfriend will be participating in a medieval archery contest this Sunday, and I still need to make his costume. He has his mind set on a 14th century Welsh archer costume (picture below) but I have finally located the book that depicts it properly and I don't own it yet. Even if I were to order it online today it would take 4 days to get to me, and that is too late.

So, I'm reaching out to the power of community and am desperate for your help. I need to find someone who owns Gerry Embleton's Medieval Military Costume and can send me information on this garb:







I am pretty sure a pair of braies, a T-tunic and a chaperon with liripipe will do it, but I would like to be sure before I cut my (waayyyy too expensive) wool.
I can be reached on this livejournal ID or janestarz @ yahoo dotcom.

Thanks for your help!

(And for those of you who wonder why I haven't started on this costume earlier: I've been frantically putting my very own stays and mantua together for last week's last-minute event!)

Cross-posted on my journal, advanced_sewing and several forums

Comments

[steelweaver.livejournal.com]

To be perfectly honest, I was mostly wondering why he hadn't put it together yet:P

(meet up on Fri or will you be too busy?)

[steelweaver.livejournal.com]

Also, is the pic a redrawing or an original pic and from which bit of the 14th c? If it lists a source, you may increase your chances of finding the pic by including it in your plea for help.

FWIW, it looks like a fairly standard jobby, although some good tailoring in the lower arms will most likely be more period and more comfy combined with archery implements. You can get fairly tigh sleeves where you can still fit through your hand and they save you from getting stuck in stuff. You can borrow my reference books if you need to approximate it from contemporary sources.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

I'll be working on this costume tomorrow, the painters are coming over for the outside stuff, and I need to pick up stuff for the picknick so I'd rather meet up next week, to be honest.

As far as I know, this outfit is one some English king or other ordered for his welsh archers, so the entire regiment was dressed in it. I saw the merchant of Fairbow in one as well as a customer of mine - he and his friend wore both green-white and blue-white varieties of this costume. The green-white is very recognizable, I think, especially if an entire regiment was dressed in it.

It does look like a standard job, and I might get a final fitting on NoKey once he gets home from work at night, but for the hood and its scallops I can do a fairly decent job during the day when he's not here. He can wear his brown chaps and loincloth with it, but I'd like some more piccies to determine the proper length (I've seen calf-length on my customer, knee-length on the Fairbow merchant and mid-thigh length from the above pictures) and cut.

[esther-reeves.livejournal.com]

I don't have that book thought I do have the 15th century one which is full of people I know. I do live roleplay rather than re-enactment these days but used to make re-enactment costume for a living at one point.

My normal advice when going to an event is if the group running it wear costume as them for their guildlines on what is suitable because there is always a lot of interpretation and even guesswork when talking about lower class clothing because there just isn't that much remaining evidence to work on.

That said your current plans sound reasonable if you are trying to do the outfits shown. The part of the outfit you didn't mention was leg wear, You only mention braies which are basically underpants. If anything legwear is the hardest part to get right as hoes are nothing like normal trousers. Oh and he will need a shirt under the tunic too.

While trying to find a good site with pictures for you I came across this one. I wouldn't normally post retail sites I didn't know but their pictures are very good and include how the garment is cut on many of them including the tunics. I don't think you will go far wrong if you work off those.
www.historicenterprises.com

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Hi Esther, thanks for replying!

The archery event is in a parc that is like a museum. Many participants wear their own costumes (http://www.scutterie.nl/fotosschutters/index.htm) but gothic gowns are also seen. My S.O. (NoKey) would like to wear as historically correct as possible and he's not part of any group. He and I also do live roleplay, so getting a basic undershirt shouldn't be too hard to find and if not I can whip one up in about an hour - I have a huge cloth cupboard! - so that is not the problem.

As for legwear, he's made himself several pairs of chaps and loincloth, and depending on the length of the overtunic these will work really well. One reproduction of this costume I've seen had the tunic mid-calf length, and that looked really well (he has the body for it too), but knee-length is probably more correct. The main problem he will have is that he hasn't yet got any medieval shoes, though there should be a pair for him in the mail soon.

I am very curious to any pictures I can find. The tunic and hood are both in two colours, but I don't know if the hood should be the same as the tunic or if the colours should be switched around!

As for time pressure, I have the entire day off tomorrow and if I only have to make a tunic (and undershirt) and hood, I can do this! I might even have enough time to hem the tunic by hand, but I'm not making him any promises.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

NoKey's report on last year's contest can be found here. (http://nokey.livejournal.com/11827.html)

[esther-reeves.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I don't have access to that post I expect he locked it. Having looked at some of your work since replying I don't think you will have any problems doing the outfit.

In reply to your mention of it being a possible uniform that is quite possible most nobles and even some cities like Coventry where i live would have troops, and at times supply them to the crown when they needed them in fact it was required. Most they would supply them with livery which is clothing in specific colours and often with a badge however this was often supplied as fabric for the person to get made up themselves so even if there was a set way it was meant to be made up the actual garments would vary. Also a lot of evidence is written and those documents tend not to detail exactly how garments were made or even looked they had their priorities wrong:) thing is you don't note something you all know well even the Coventry city record only note the colours our liveries were when more were ordered not how they were layed out.

The two coloured look is called parti-coloured and I seen it done both with the hood match and with it swapped over so if the garment isn't to be part of a group do it which ever way appeals to you. If you make the hood with a fairly narrow face opening or buttons doing up the neck then it both stays up better if it is cold and you can turn it over and wear it as a hat which is fun and is the fore-runner of that hat with a big padded brim cockscomb and a long liripipe the name of which I've totally forgotten currently.

I would love to see how it turns out and the roleplay event you went to recently sounds very intriguing indeed. I have a six month old so haven't done anything much this year but the main system we play currently is a sort of alternative fantasy version of going to america vaguely 18th century. you can see the system below and my blog with costume on as well.
www.profounddecisions.co.uk
http://esther-reeves.blogspot.com/

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Hi Esther!
We were just discussing the costume as he will take some last minute practice tonight and I'll work on his costume.

We've settled on a T-tunic with keyhole neckline that is slightly longer than his knees. It will be blue-white (I bought the fabric eons ago) with white on the right and blue on the left. The hood will be reversed and have scallops, which are much fun to do (http://pics.livejournal.com/janestarz/pic/0005dpd4/g39)!

I distinctly remember someone telling me about this particular costume. It's not done to death - which is good and not good because it makes it hard to find references. What the good man told me was that some English King or other ordered these made for his archers specifically because he wanted a uniform look. Maybe that's where the term comes from, eh?

I'll link to the pictures from his post here:
Close-up (http://www.jaixa-imaging.net/Archeon/images/jxi-archeon07_IGP9778.jpg)
Aim.... (http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1235/1398184484_bf73f89d06.jpg)
His costume from last year (http://pics.livejournal.com/janestarz/pic/00014xwt/g14).

And lastly: these nice people are the reason why I wanted to make this costume!


Thank you so much for your help! I'm sure I'll post pictures soon (If I get everything done in time!)

[esther-reeves.livejournal.com]

Good luck I'm sure you will manage it. he pictures from last year look good and I notice the two gentleman in your picture have the parti-colouring both ways ie same side and opposite side :)

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

's a toothpick!
Really!