Golden Egg Progress
In July 2022, I set myself a challenge. In the course of one year, I would make hand-sew a complete “skin-out” outfit of a wealthy Burgundian of the 1450s-70s.
Completing this challenge would make me a member of the Society of the Golden Egg, a challenge household in the Kingdom of Drachenwald. The goal of the household is to encourage those interested in the Arts and Sciences to challenge continually their abilities and skills through the use of period techniques and materials. Completing a challenge only grants you membership for three years - to remain a member, you must complete a new challenge.
I wanted to make, at minimum:
one linen undershirt
one pair of woollen joined footed hose
one doublet
I wanted to use it as an excuse to gather together (and write up!) a body of research on noble men’s fashion for this specific time period and locale. It would be my first dedicated attempt at the speculative reconstruction of clothing using my own research.
Annoyingly, my health got in the way and I had to extend my deadline, which is now early December 2023. Two and a half months to go!
So far I’ve made the shirt, the braies, and one pair of hose. The hose were originally intended as a “wearable mock-up” for the real thing, but unless I can complete the doublet in record time I think they’ll have to be the ones I submit… so watch this space, I guess!
I’m going to make individual posts for each of these items, detailing my research and the making process, which will be linked above as I write them up.
