1410s French Horned Headress
Spring 2017:
After creating a 1410s French Gown inspired by the works Christine de Pizan (a very cool medieval author) I realized I needed to make a headcovering to match! I decided on a horned headdress as I have a love of ridiculous hats!
I am very much not a hair-styling person so I love hat options which mean I don't have to try to braid/curl/whatever to make my hair fit an outfit. This piece was inspired by several manuscripts (see my Pinterest page for this project)
De Claris mulieribus. Giovanni Boccaccio; Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France MSS Français 598;115r. Apocalypse. France, Paris, ca. 1415 MS M.133 fol. 39v
I picked up some semi-wavy fake red hair extensions (similar to my own, and I have found wavy wigs seem to hold the styling better because of the texture) to use to create the hair bumps. I wear this over my St. Birgitta Cap and the headdress covers it for the most part but a little bit of my natural hair still shows so matching is nice.
I made a white linen tube as the base and then took some scraps to made a foundation for the hair bumps. I sewed the bumps onto the band and then sewed the fake hair on top so that the white linen band wouldn't show under the veil.
Next I braided the hair (and you can see in the pictures that I was not exaggerating how bad I am at hair - every other fiber I can work with but basic braids stretch my abilities somehow!)
I then stitched the hair onto the support structure until it seemed steady. Then I bent some wire from clothes hangers to a rough semi-circle shape and sewed to the midpoint of the linen support and tacked it to both braids. I ended up bending the wire back about two inches from what it is in these pictures as I thought the smaller size better matched a few of the manuscripts I had looked at. I had picked up a Styrofoam head to hold my Butterfly Henin which ended up being a lifesaver as I tried to play with fitting everything - I would highly recommend some form of fake head to use as a base if possible. I picked mine up very cheap at a craft store sale.
I then draped a square veil and pinned it in place both at the sides and the top.
The whole project start to finish was less than two hours and the only material not probably in your stash already is the fake hair extensions (which I got on ebay for about $3). It was a bit weird to make fit, but overall it is a very easy project with only basic sewing skills required.
The end result is a pretty solid option for easily recreating the visual seen in many manuscripts in the early 1400s and I love the way it looks with my 1410s French Gown seen at the top of the page. I wore it all day over my Birgitta cap and it was so comfortable I forgot I was wearing it several times until I almost poked people during hugs (warning, you also need to give yourself a bit extra space in doorways too!). I was also excited that many people thought that it was my real hair!