36 Hour Mughal

Created 09/15/05 through 09/17/05

One Thursday I posted:

"Let's just say I heard that Crown on Saturday was going to be a bit chilly.

Let's just say I don't really own warm garb.

Let's say I got this really bright idea to do a complete Mughal outfit.

Just for the Hell of it."

I had been doing a little bit of research in to Northern Indian, later period fashions, and been really intrigued by some of the earlier Mughal images, where the Persian influence was the most pronounced. I also happened to have collected quite a lot of yardage of floral and figured fabrics which weren't particularly appropriate to my typical 13th/14th century South Indian fashions, but would be perfect for something late period North Indian. In particular I had a piece of cut silk velvet that I'd scored for a particularly amazing price that was simply begging to be made in to something fabulous.

With less than two days to go, I leapt in to the project.

The Inspiration Images:

I have long been a devotee of a rectangular pattern construction technique introduced to me by Marquessa Laurellen's Rectangular Constructed Coats page, and used this technique for all layers of the outfit. The long floral undertunic and more fitted gold silk coat are cut with both under arms and side gores, and the velvet overcoat consists of back and front panels with long gores that extend from the underarm to the hem.

The Completed Outfit on Saturday:

The outfit was wearable by Saturday and I received many compliments. As it turned out, the weather was nicer than expected and I ended up getting rather warm. As can be seen in this pictures, I did have some difficulty keeping my veil on my head, but later managed to devise a method of securing it to short forelock braids. I also did not have time to completely finish the seams on the overcoat, but was able to easily remedy this later on.

I created a second undertunic out of red cotton at a later date, to function as an additional layer or an alternative to the floral undertunic.