Awards
Costume Con 29 Workmanship Award: Best in Show
Costume Con 29 Presentation Award: Best in Master Class – Historical Dress
The Plunderhose and Doublet are inspired by woodcuts from 1570 and patterned on extant clothing from 1567. Plunderhose were fashionable in Central Europe and even Scandinavia from 1560-1580 and images depict members of all classes wearing them. This would have been an upper class civilian version. The doublet and panes of the plunderhose are made of brownish-purple cotton velvet and lined with linen and silk. The plunderhose have a fitted set of foundation breeches made of heavy black linen and six yards of dusky blue silk gathered and spilling out between the velvet panes.
This costume began years ago when I was involved in a Historical European Martial Arts group and we were working to interpret Joachim Meyer’s 1570 fechtbuch “Gründtliche Beschreibung der kunst des Fechten” (Thorough Descriptions of the Art of Fencing). The fashion found in this martial textbook was one of the reasons I began sewing. Janet Arnold’s precise documentation of extant plunderhosen from Upsala Castle, Sweden was exceptionally helpful in creating this costume.
In spite of being several years old now, the plunderhosen are still in my regular costume rotation. It’s remarkably comfortable and cool, in spite of appearances though laundering is an issue so it’s not something I take to outdoor events.
November 2017: The hat is a new addition to the costume, a scholar’s cap patterned by www.trulyhat.net though I chose to make it out of mint colored wool instead of the traditional black. Mint was far more festive though I didn’t actually make the coif to go under it (yet).
