1476-79, detail of the donor’s wife Maria Portinari & her elder daughter Margherita with Saints Margaret and Mary Magdalene from the Portinari Triptych by Hugo van der Goes of Ghent/Bruxelles
1475, detail of the donor’s wife Elizabeth and their oldest child, Anne, from the Donne Triptych by Hans Memling of Seligenstadt/Bruges
Complete with the pointy hennin, of course. But I wasn’t interested in historical accuracy, I had no plans to wear this in the SCA or anywhere that pretended to give a damn about documentation. I just wanted a fantasy princess gown. Thus…
I slapped together a Butterick pattern and added fairy-tale sleeves (probably from an old Arwen pattern), loading the whole thing up with silver trims.
The gown itself is something of a hot mess, but it did fulfill the brief of being a silly fantasy princess thing. But it needed an equally ridiculous hennin, which I made from a pizza box.
I finally had a chance to wear it at Costume College 2024, at the Thursday night party which had a royals theme! A little breeze kicked up, which showed off the black silk veil I added to the hennin.
