A new hat for an old dress

​“Some hats can only be worn if you're willing to be jaunty, to set them at an angle and to walk beneath them with a spring in your stride as if you're only a step away from dancing. They demand a lot of you.”
― Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys

There's nothing like a new accessory to liven up an old outfit, and at The Great Plains Renaissance Festival this fall we planned to wear an old favorite - our Always Winter Never Christmas dresses. These dresses have an Italian/Venetian influence, and we've struggled since the beginning to find some kind of head-wear to go with the dresses. 

As the September dates of the festival almost always bring the heat of the last gasp of summer saying "and another thing!" before Kansas's brief fall sets in, this was also an excuse to make a head piece that was a little lighter than the winter turbans. After consulting a few reference pictures, I sketched a design (spoiler - the design evolved before the project was done).

From The Mode in Hats and Headdress by R. Turner Wilcox

The head piece is supposed to remind one of a sunrise or halo around the head. We added a hair covering, both to cover our modern hair, and to make things look more period-appropriate.

Historically, these hats would have been stuffed with wool or reed, but I opted for cushion foam, both because it's easier to use, and because it's what I had on hand. I used E6000 glue to glue the pieces to wide headbands, and then the leftover linen from H's Viking tunic to cover the foam. It was easier to sew the linen closed on the underside of the headband than glue it.

Sitting on the worktable, I will admit these head pieces looked a little ridiculous. And even trying them on in the mirror with modern clothes didn't help. But, looking back at the reference pictures, if anything they looked a little understated. On to the hair covering!

I had found some thin off-white knit. Maybe not strictly historically accurate (linen or silk netting would have been better), but it was at hand, and was the appropriately sheer. Rachel had some questions about how it would look on our heads, so I sent her a reference photo to reassure her (see photo at right).

To give it more of a netting look, and to keep it from stretching too much, I stitched down matching ribbon in a grid pattern. The hair covering goes on a little like cap on the back of the head, and is clipped into the hair at the top, and gathered into a bag-shape at the neck.

​After all that work, the back hair coverings didn't make it into any of the photos with the head pieces! But what did make it into a photo was the cutest little dragon visitor to the festival that we've ever seen! (The dragon is the child of another couple who volunteers with the court)

All in all, I think the hats were a success. No one batted an eye at their ridiculousness, which really makes me question what some of our current fashion trends will look like to people 600 years in the future.

​I did manage to take a selfie with Rachel right before the festival opened in the morning. We barely sat still long enough to think about taking pictures the rest of the day. It was a dusty, busy day that ended with a lot of stickers, dust, and grit in our skirt hems. The best kind of day!

Also, once again, this should serve as proof we are twins. I think we're gaining a reputation at the fair. Or at least we're recognizable as those twin court ladies. No matter how ostentatious the outfit, the fact that we're twins will probably always overrule it.

A post-script! We were surprised with the honor of receiving titles! We are now Barron and Baronesses of the court. What this means in practical terms is that we're allowed to wear a tiara/circlet (as long as it doesn't outshine our betters on the court), we can be addressed as Lord or Lady, and we can officially represent the crown by occupying the thrones while the Royals are out shopping or attending a joust.

Of course Rachel just happened to have ordered some tiaras direct from a Chinese distributor. They came broken, but she had pieced enough of them back into two tiaras to go with our outfits, just in case.

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