The Lord Mayor photoshoot

The faire has been asking me for photos of my Lord Mayor, and I finally have enough of the costume done to take some character photos.  Today, we took advantage of the nice weather to do a proper photoshoot with props and all.

"Our Lord Mayor, the Right Honorable, Sir James Winterbottom likes to style himself as the consummate Elizabethan gentleman adventurer. Never mind that the Elizabethan adventurer is generally brave, stalwart, and daring, whilst Sir James is generally agreed to be devious, scheming, and greedy. Being an educated man, Sir James knows that being rich allows him to pay people to say he's those other things rather than go to the bother of being any of them. The passage of Her Majesty's court through his town is the perfect opportunity for Sir James to advance his fortunes and possibly buy his way into a proper title.

Do you solemnly swear you are up to no good? The Lord Mayor is always looking for minions! Visit him and as long as they promise to say nice things about him to the queen, he will induct thy children as members of the city watch, instructing them in the ancient arts of villainy and mischief."

Looking slightly perturbed at being interrupted as he counts his money...

A little too friendly for such a scoundrel...

More scoundrel!

MMmmmmmmm... pointy!

Just enough scoundrel! This is the one that will appear on the faire's website.

So you would like a loan, would you?

Reasonable interest rates!

I loved this one, but again, it's a bit too friendly.

The photographer said "Look more diabolical! Twirl your mustache or something!"

Going Dutch II: More Pattern Pondering

Here is an extant cloak that belonged to Don Garcia d'Medici. Known as a "capotto" (a term still used in Italian to refer to an overcoat, see my earlier point about being the pea coat of it's day) it is of essentially the same style and shape as a so-called "Dutch" cloak.

For another costumer's thoughts on the making of a cloak like this, I encourage you to check out Katerina's Purple Files for a much more ornate cloak than I intend to make here.  I especially admire her handmade frog closures: http://katerina.purplefiles.net/Dafydd/DFL_Capotto1.html

Going Dutch :: Any shelter in a storm...

Pouring down rain, but still shouting. That's how I roll.

Not to tempt fate, but our faire has had several years of uniformly excellent weather. Which means it's been awhile since I've had to think about a wet weather option for costuming.

The show, after all, must go on.

My old fallback has been my beloved old parti-coloured "Tolkien Cloak" (seen at right) with it's overcape and voluminous hood. The hood is so deep that the nose of my mask was protected except in the most determined downpour.

All well and good. But it's a fantasy piece, not a period one. Fine enough for a fool, I guess, but I'm a gentleman now and should dress the part.

Oh, and I want something that doesn't drag in the mud.

After a lot of poking around and looking at what everyone else wears at our faire, I've decided to replace it with something not often seen at faires in these parts: a Dutch Cloak.

Looking at some of the paintings and drawings from the age, it's hard to escape the idea that the Dutch cloak was the pea coat of its age. Usually shown worn like a cloak, it nevertheless has sleeves that are usually decorated with stripes of trim either diagonally or horizontally arranged as in the image below.

Below is the pattern for a ropa (a type of robe -- click to biggie-size it) from Juan de Alcega's pattern book. The Dutch Cloak seems to be a halfway point between the ropa and a circle cloak. The shape and arrangement of the standing collar, epaulets, shoulder seams and sleeves are similar to the ropa, grafted onto a circle cloak. 

Note that the upper body in the pattern is nearly identical in proportions and arrangement of elements to a doublet pattern.  I based the pattern I'll be using on the pattern I use for a doublet, sized up in the body and drawing out a line from the bottom of the armscrye to the edge of the wool to give maximum drape and flow to the cape.

More soon!