Hoods, Snoods, Coifs oh my: OOC

The object of much debate: what should the well-dressed young woman of 1530 Calais/ Lightbridge wear on her head?

That would depend on several factors - first, how much do you care about historical accuracy?  second, what is your social class?  third, would your character wear hair-coverings with an English, French, Italian, or Spanish ancestry?  fourth, how much do you want to do for yourself, beyond fitting a piece of mesh?  fifth, and this is strictly hypothetical, how do you feel about Henry's proposal to have his marriage to Catherine (Spanish Caterina) annulled, so that he can try for heirs to connect England to stylish France?

Historically, women wore hair-coverings at this time.  Lice were rampant, and preventing socially transmitted diseases was about  prophylactic devices of all kinds. If you could afford to wash and have neat hair, it had become fashionable to drape the hair-covering back from the face and let the hairline show.

For instance, here's a picture of Catherine of Aragon, from the awesome website, Grand Ladies. It looks like Catherine sat for it at about the time of the death of her first husband, Arthur, Henry's brother.

The album of portraits from 1500-1559 on the Great Ladies website is a good collection for the study of fashion for this time.

Catherine would become famous for promoting the pious "Gable Hood," which is said to mimic the structure of a church roof.  So the English seem to be taking things square and straight.

The French meanwhile are rounding the edges of the head-covering to create soft shapes around the face.  The heart-shaped "Atifet" hood had appeared by around 1550.  Descended from the "French Hood," it became famous later as worn by Mary, Queen of Scots. (For a good general reference on the French Hood, see the FashionHistory Wikia page.)

The Italians had never really caught on to the "Hennin," that cone-shaped hat that most of us remember when we think about medieval ladies.  The Gable seems descended from the Hennin, so Italian head-coverings went a different direction, Their head-coverings seemed to have less structure; most women in portraits I've seen tend to wear snoods or even lighter hair nets, which may have become a marker of social class, usable only when your social circle--including the servants--is completely free of head bugs.  Anabella Wake has a nice page on 1520s Italian fashion on her larger Italian Renaissance historical fashion site, Realm of Venus.

Lady Jane Seymour was wearing a Gable hood again by the time of this portrait, around 1536-1537.

Lady Jane Seymour, c.1536

In a second post, Appropriate women's headgear of SL, I'll attempt to find and review headgear as I find it in SecondLife.

Beyond Sangatte

Emma followed the young girl, Bonita, to where a carriage was waiting on the main road.  They traveled for about two hours to Sangatte, where they stopped to refresh themselves.  Bonita explained that they were going on about another two miles beyond Sangatte, but that they should eat here, since the chaos of the court would likely result in no food for any of them until the following day.

They did indeed have a chaotic arrival, with the Lady NPC scanning the coach at first for the older woman, then looking disappointed at the young replacement.  After a few days, however, it was established that Emma could indeed work with fine fabrics, and she fit right in with the quickly arranged group of cloth-women, teaching a stitch to one, learning a stitch from another.

She enjoyed the work, and almost three weeks passed quickly.  With fifteen women working with every bit of sunlight every day and a few candles beyond, all of the dresses of the main court had been finished; bows and hair arrangements and shoes had been decorated, stitched, and glamorized.  As the days passed, Emma would say goodbye to one visiting seamstress after another, until finally only she and the Lady's own cloth-woman and her two helpers remained.  Notorious guests were beginning to arrive, and Emma's own clothing was becoming less presentable by the day.  A week before the wedding, the Lady called her in and offered her a full-time position as an apprentice to her own seamstress; the Lady would be losing the cloth-woman's first apprentice to her sister when she married, and she had been impressed by Emma's attitude, if not by her appearance or clothing.

The Lady offered Emma a custom-made court dress if she stayed, and the opportunity for a nice wardrobe as new events were planned.  In wages, the Lady offered her more than Emma had expected: 7 pence a day!  Emma knew that many guilds paid master workers 8 and up, so the amount offered showed her that her work would be considered of the highest value for her station.

Emma however wanted to return to Lightbridge; her mother had been proud of her work here, but wanted the young girl away from court until she was older.  The generous Lady then paid Emma 6 pence a day for her 15 full days of work, and she as well bestowed upon Emma one of her own dresses from her youth.  Although she pointed out that its design was outdated, she was sure that Emma could work it up into something more contemporary.  The Lady's seamstress cried at Emma's leaving, and she also packed up several spools of threads and scraps into Emma's bag that she knew would not be missed.

The Lady then put Emma onto a carriage and sent her back to Lightbridge.

Emma's travels continue

     In the morning that followed her arrival, Emma had indeed started to make herself "a Home," as Goody Seamstress, the absent NPC, had instructed her to do.  She had found good makings for a broth in the cupboard and had set about learning what each new drawer and cabinet contained, from the top of the private apartment to the door of the public shop.  But she did not feel confident to open the door and invite in the town as yet; she had been taught that nice young ladies are introduced to others, and she had badly stumbled in meeting Lord Lightbridge, addressing him as the casual "Thee" instead of the "You" or "Ye" that she had been taught to say to those above her station.  She desperately hoped that by the time she had straightened the shop and gotten her things in order, one of the older women would be there.

     But she had just finished a small lunch of peppered meat and cheese when she heard a loud banging on the front door.  She hurried downstairs to open it, finding a young woman in working maid's clothes standing before her.
     "We need Goody Seamstress!  My Lady's sister must marry in one month, and there be none other what can sew the satin and the lace like she!  I be sent for to fetch her thither!" the maid gushed.
     Emma had stepped backwards into the room as the young woman had pushed her way inside, looking from corner to corner in rushed anticipation.  Emma took a deep breath, not even knowing how her voice would sound after so long without speaking to another.
     "I be muchly sorrowful for thee," she started, then cleared her throat and spoke louder, "but Goody Seamstress bee away to her owne sister's," Emma explained.  The young woman began to panic.
     "But what shall we do?  She be with child, an my Lady's father hath put the date down t' th' minute for the wedding night to take place!  We must have more tha' 40 dresses finished by then, and we have nay skill nor maids to finish in such time!  What shall we do, what shall we do?"  She excitedly circled the cloth display, wringing her hands as she spoke more to herself than to Emma.
     "I can come with thee," Emma said, touching the young woman's arm.  "It be said I be good with the satin and lace, and I be the First Apprentice to Goody Seamstress," she offered, exaggerating her own title and place in the business, but only a bit, she told herself.  She felt confident with the work, even if she had not yet earned the title.  "My name is Emma -- Emma Archer."
     The girl's face changed completely, and she moved to hold Emma's arm even as she went into a small curtsy in front of her.
     "Oh, thanks be to the Virgin, Goody Archer!  My Lady will be so thankful if Ye come!"  Emma lifted the older girl's elbow, indicating that she should rise.  Emma was uncomfortable with such emotional displays from one more than five years older than herself, and had never been comfortable when others treated her with higher class respect.  Even though her father had served on the town council, she had never thought of herself above those girls who, every morning, had thrown the contents of another family's chamberpots out into the street.

     She sat the young woman down with a hot cup of the broth she had made for breakfast and was keeping warm for dinner, and went upstairs to gather her belongings, from where she had only recently stacked them, back up for another trip.  She carefully tied the sheath with her father's second best set of fishing knives, given to her as a going-away present, under her skirts around her right thigh.  She slipped the heavy outdoor travel overskirt over her head and pulled on her cloak.  She then picked up her sewing basket, heavy with all of the materials and needles and threads that her mother had packed for her, settled the hanging ropes onto one of her shoulders, and made her way back downstairs.
     The other young woman was surprised to see her ready to go so quickly, with such a prepared pack, and her eyes showed the surprise as Emma went over to stir the fire down to ash, indicating that she was ready and waiting for the other woman to get her own cloak back on.  As she did so and moved by Emma out the door, Emma stood in the doorway looking around at Lightbridge, the town that she had not yet even seen, but should be calling home.  She thought of the strange circumstances, and found herself saying under her breath, "Hello, Lightbridge, au revoir, Lightbridge!  I hope to get to know you on my return!"

     She stopped in at the stables across the way, to let them know both that she had arrived and appreciated the kindness of the fire, and that she would soon be back.
   

Discoveries

     Fourteen-year-old Emma had gone into a restless sleep beside the sputtering fire, waiting for one of the other seamstresses to wake her, to feed her, or to stumble over her on their way to open the shop the next morning.  She dreamt of ocean waves, the salty wet air, of the herring beneath them that her father would catch in large nets, and of the quick slash of his knife to open and de-bone their breakfast in one quick motion.  In her mind, she was eight years old, softly being rocked in her early-morning sleep under a blanket on her father's boat, having stolen from the house shortly after midnight in her father's old clothes that her mother had altered.
     "Henry Archer, it is my pleasure to tell you that you have a son," her mother had laughingly said to her father as she pulled the old workshirt down over Emma's head. Her father crossed the room contemplatively, then raised his eyebrows, pulling at Emma's blond braid hanging halfway down her back.
     Her mother had rolled her eyes as she had taken the braid and piled it up under the felted knitted cap that had finished drying only the night before.
     "Picky, picky!" she commented, and her father had burst out laughing when she twirled Emma, completely outfitted, around for display.
     The memories of her parents' voices faded slowly from her foggy head.  She was cold, and in her waking mind, she knew that the fire was going out.  From the set of the logs when she'd arrived, she knew that about four hours had passed.
     She roused herself for the job, holding her cloak up around her shoulders as she stoked the fire and raised it back to a comfortable height.  With no one around to tell her not to, she decided to keep warm in her sleep.
 
     She had been awoken the next morning again by the cold, but also by the light streaming in the window.  People outside hurried around to their tasks, but the Seamstress Shop remained closed and quiet.  She prepared the fire to stoke later for cooking and decided to look around.
     The stairs leading to the living quarters upstairs had seemed private and unapproachable to Emma when she had arrived last night, and now they seemed even moreso.  She imagined that the old seamstress who had known her mother for years might be dead in the bed above -- how old was she again?  What would she do, if she had to tell others before she had even met them about some emergency?  Her father's friend, the ship's captain, would not be coming back to Lightbridge for a month; he had made it clear that he would check on her upon his return.  Her godparents were often in Calais, but she did not know when they would be back through Lightbridge.  In her mind, she was truly on her own, with the world turning speedily around her.

     She timidly climbed the stairs, moving slower as she approached the line-of-sight landing.  But the room was empty, the bed made.  She walked slowly, touching the brocade fabrics, smelling the sweet potpourri pots scattered around the room that could be a Lady's, admiring the rich details that her parents had never brought into their home: a fancy mirror, and the chamber pot had its own seat.  Her eyes focused on various objects around the room, attempting to take it all in.  She noticed that there was, on a small fine table, a slip of paper that turned out to be a note for her.

"Deerest Emma -- Wee apologize that Wee ere not heer for thine Arival.  My Sister fell ill wi' th' Fever, an I musted leeve on a sydden.  Goody Talbot musted leeve too Days hence for personal Reesons, so I bee especial sorry that I could not heer bee for Thee.

"I asked th' yong Sohn of th' Stable owner cross th' Way to come inn an mayke thee a Fyre on th' Nyte of thine Arival, so I hop that Hee did this wyll for thee.  Mayke thyselfe a Home an Wee shud shortlee hither bee.

--  Sincerely, Goody Seamstress, NPC"

      Emma exhaled slowly, feeling as though she were breathing for the first time since she left the sea air of the port.  Thank the Virgin: no dead bodies to find.  She decided to wash herself up and look in the cupboards for some breakfast.



___________________________________


Sources
* Davies, A., R. Lipton, D. Richoux et al. "Thou, Thee, and Archaic Grammar: Pronoun Paradigms."  Alt-Usage-English.org List Website.
* Kent Coast Sea Fishing Compendium.  "Boat Fishing." Hagstone.net
* --  "Hythe, Dymchurch, St Mary's Bay, Littlestone, Greatstone & Lydd."
* "Kieser," "Sofya la Rus," SCA participant.  "Medieval Knitting Notes."
* Museum of London.  "Split-Brimmed Slashed Cap." Object description.
* Sweetinburgh, Sheila. _Later Medieval Kent, 1220-1540._  Preview at Google Books.

Emma gets to Lightbridge

[10:15] Eric Cadwallader is arguing civilly with the harbor master over some discrepancy in the shipment.

[10:16] Emma Archer looks around nervously, expecting to be met by the new seamstress.  She notices a fine looking gentleman, but when he sees her looking, she quickly looks away.  Emma smells the wood smoke of the fires and wonders if she should approach the well-dressed Noble man

[10:21] : Harbor Master:  "The manifest says 5 barrels of wine, and 3 barrels of salted port, and that's what was on the ship, mi'lord."

[10:22] Eric Cadwallader snatches the manifest from the harbor master with a frown, looking it over carefully, his frown growing.  He hands the sheet back to the harbor master, then looks over at the new arrival.  "You didn't eat two barrels of salted pork, did you?"

[10:23] Emma stammers: “My Lord, good Den, mayest I speak with thou?”  She is so nervous that she misses his joke.  She looks nervously at the tall gentleman and curtseys deeply

[10:24] Eric Cadwallader nods, "You may."  *he studies the woman, his missing pork barrels temporarily forgotten.*

[10:24] Emma sees the Captain, her father's friend, looking at her from the dock, and she turns to wave.  Then she turns back to the tall man in red.

[10:25] Emma says, “I bee the new seamstress helper here Sire, and the Good woman who was to come for to collect me seems not to be herarounds.  Couldst Thou direct me mayhaps to the Goodwoman…”  --she fumbles with her belongings -- “Good Woman Amphelisia Talbot, the new seamstress?”  [Anyone can see that the girl, about 14, is exhausted and confused.]

[10:28] Eric Cadwallader thought about it.  surely there was a seamstress in town, though he didn't know where. "I can take you into town.  What is your name?  I'm Lord Cadwallader."

[10:29] Emma curtsies again deeply, almost falling with the weight of the pack. “Sorry, M'Lord!  I am Emma -- er, Margaret Archer.  My father is the owner of the Archer Fisheries by Dover.  My Godfather, Sir Eton Green, is often in Lightbridge for his business as a trader. My family calls me Emma, but it is really my baby name.”

[10:31] Emma looks to the ground, hot from embarrassment that she has spoken too freely to his Lordship.

[10:32] Emma Archer: “I am sorry, Sire, my mother says that my tongue is often too loose. I will look to find the Good woman.  She backs away nervously, stumbling over a barrel and backing into the Harbor master.

[10:34] Eric Cadwallader didn't deal in fish, so had never heard of her father, and having recently arrived in Lightbridge himself, hadn't heard of her Godfather.  but it didn't matter.  he nodded.  "I can show you up into the town.  I'm heading back myself.  BOY!"  *he shouts to a nearby idle lad*  "Carry the good woman's bags."  *he tosses the boy a coin*

[10:35] Emma looks surprised at the young boy who comes behind her so quickly from nowhere. He had a handsome look, and he smelled slightly of cheese, which Emma liked.  Then she looks back to the important-looking fine gentleman.

[10:36] Eric Cadwallader "They follow me around just in case," *he says casually*

[10:36] Emma: “Thank Thee So much, my Lord! Thou art obviously a very important man, and I shouldst not distract Thee from business.”  She notices the fine material of his clothes.

[10:38] Eric Cadwallader waves a hand dismissively.  "My business is concluded," he says as two men load up a cart with his goods.  "Come, the gate is up the hill."  *he heads out of the building*

[10:38] Emma Archer curtsies deeply again

[10:39] Eric Cadwallader watches with some amusement the boy lugging her possessions up the steep hill.

[10:39] Emma Archer rushes to catch up after taking the wrong turn

[10:40] Eric Cadwallader is delighted to see that the seamstress shop is the first building in the gate, as is the boy.  "I believe this is your destination, Goodwoman Margaret?"

[10:40] Emma Archer: “Oooo Thank thee, m’Lord!  and a good Eventide to Thee,” Emma says as she makes her way to the door.

[10:41] Emma knocks.

[10:42] Emma: “Mayhaps the seamstress has been delayed? I knowest true that she expects me hither.”  She pushes the door to find it open.

[10:44] Emma sees a warm fire in the back of the room with no one else inside, and goes to it to warm her hands.

[10:58] Emma looks around the seamstress shop: so many familiar things, but some newer than she'd imagined to find. She looked forward to running her hands across the harsh woolen fabrics, kept lower and closer to the front of the store here as at her mother's shop as well, for the everyday needs of the local peasants. But she knew that she would find some fine silks and brocades near the back of the shop. Her eyes drooped heavily from the 15-hour day since she had left her parents at Dover's dock, them turning her over to her father's friend and the ship's captain. "Keep an eye on my girl," her father had said, hugging her one last time. "You're my big girl," her mother had said, straightening the pack on her back as she had kissed her nose. Emma wished now only to unroll the bed roll that she had under her cloak and get into it for the night.

[11:31] Emma struggled to take her bags back up from where the boy had left them, hurrying along after Baron Cadwallader as he walked swiftly away. She walked back to the fire and dropped the bags beside it.  "Hello?" she called out again, thinking that maybe the Goodwoman Talbot might be asleep upstairs, but was too afraid to look.

[12:17] Emma decided to wait by the fire to see if Goody Talbot came home soon. She took off her coat and bags, and unrolled her bedroll by the fire behind the dressing curtain. It had started to get dark outside as the ship was landing, and by now, the reflections of the chimney fire were the only light in the room. She lay down on the bedroll and, before she realized it, was fast asleep.

What you know about Emma

Emma's Godfather, Sir Eton Green -- at present, NPC -- is a great friend and visitor of Lightbridge, and is often seen in the best companies of lower royalty and middle powers.

He/she has arranged for the journey and placement of Goddaughter Emma Archer with the local seamstress (also currently NPC), an aging widow woman who does not travel easily (and whom, it has been agreed upon with the Lightbridge Admin, will die off if a viable PC tailor or seamstress arrives in the area).

Citizens of Lightbridge are likely to know a few things about Emma, if they care to listen to talk, as her Godparent has attempted to soften Emma's way as much as possible, leaning here and there on others to "keep an eye out" on the girl.

• Emma, at almost 15, is the eldest of three sisters.  Her parents appear to be middle-class merchants: her father, until recently, owner of Archer Fisheries, a small fishing enterprise, and her mother, the area's best seamstress.
• The family lives between Hythe and Dover.
• Her family has not been touched by disease, which can seem suspicious to uneducated outsiders at times.  Her mother has served as a midwife, and knows something about herbs and diseases, but don't tell anyone.
• Her mother just can't make it into the sewing guilds around Dover, which are protected from outsiders by the Royals own tailors circle.  (this is my paranoid imagination; I have no idea of such things existed. But this is gossip, y'know?)
• Her father's business has begun to suffer (silting of the areas he fishes?), and with three daughters, he is seeing less opportunity to expand his business in favorable ways, without arranged marriages.

Emma involved as always with her needlework.

If you know the family better, you will know that

• Emma had caught the eye of a young noble man whose mother is a client of Emma's mother.  The young man had started coming to every fitting, and he was finding more than a few opportunities to be alone with young Emma.  Her mother began to worry that her normally distracted daughter might begin paying attention to the handsome noble.  When Emma's godparent suggested that Emma might be sent to Lightbridge to continue to build her sewing skills, it seemed to her mother to be a good way to handle several challenges at once.
• An  additional challenge that the family is having concerns the fishing enterprise that Emma's father is involved in.  As a middle-class business owner, his shipyard has been tapped hard by the crown, and he's finding it difficult to do enough work to support his business and family.  The channel is silting up in some areas that he's been fishing for years, and the guilds have strict policies about the areas he can move into now.  Emma's father doesn't say it often out loud, but he's glad of his wife's contribution to the household income.
• It's getting more difficult to apprentice a daughter in the home, in sewing skills.  When the second daughter of the family, at 11, began to also show evidence of having a talent for needlework, Emma wanted to make way for her little sister to learn as much as possible at home.  She also recognized that she would never be taken seriously in any of the finer houses and homes if she had only apprenticed to her own mother, even though in Dover her mother's name is almost as well known as the queen's.  So Emma decided that Lightbridge would be a good move for her as well as for her family.