OMG! -Tartan!

[elegentry]

 

This is a pic that I took of my favourite extant garment fragment from the MOL. I have stared at images of this for hours. Even seen the real thing under glass but somehow I never realised before tonight that it is made from TARTAN fabric! It is not terribly obvious but is visible. Even faintly visible in the London finds book "Textiles and Clothing". So why did I never see it before? Now I want a tartan gown. Hmm, I may even already have the fabric!

Comments

[celsa.livejournal.com]

It certainly looks tartan to me, and a tartan gown for you sounds like a lot of fun! Are the buttons covered beads or some other means of button making?

Meanwhile, if you have any suggestions what I might be able to do with some 100% silk (feels like a dupion but lighter weight and without slubs) in an apple green and white "gingham" style check, I'd be fascinated to hear them. Spotlight reduced it to half-price and I couldn't resist, but now I'm entirely flummoxed by it. Can it be made into anything SCA suitable, or do I have to consign it to the "fabric for the mundane clothing I'm never going to make" pile?

[quatrefoil.livejournal.com]

Giotto (from memory, though it might be Piero della Francesca and I can't be bothered standing up to look) painted at least one tartan/check frock.

[villana.livejournal.com]

perhaps one of these?

http://sca-garb.freeservers.com/articles/plaidcote.html

*evil grin*

[(Anonymous)]

No, I eventually had to stand up, so I checked the book that was three feet away - it is Giotto, and it's San Francesco himself, in glory on the ceiling of the Basilica inferiore di San Francesco in Assisi (which explains why I was wondering if it was P de la F). Unfortunately that may well mean it's a pile of pieces of plaster three inches big now. There's at least one more Italian checky frock out there on a woman though, and numerous checky bedspreads, some of which are also Giotto.

[quatrefoil.livejournal.com]

PS, replying to myself: the fact that this is a picture of St. F. in glory means that it is by definition not a real garment, but rather a representation of the heavenly robes he wears after he dies - in contrast to the tattered robes he wore when alive. Nonetheless the fact that the artist can conceive of such a checky garment means that there may well have been such things - although, I'd suggest, not necessarily made of gold.