Toni Whyte

I am so impressed by people who make good middle-class garb, and Toni (a.k.a. Viscountess Genevieve de la Mer Bleue, OL) has my utmost admiration after seeing this wonderful gown! She also has been kind enough to give us a nice description of what she is wearing, which you can find beneath the photo, and if you would like to contact Toni, you can email her at tlwhyte(at)home.com. I also want to give a special thank-you to Kevin Connery for letting me use this picture--you can see a ton of other wonderful photographs at his site, Keradwc's Medieval Page.

The gown is a "petticoat-bodies" type underdress with tie-in sleeves worn with a separate doublet. Both dress and doublet are linen, the underdress is a coffee brown and the doublet is a darker, more chocolate brown with black piping. The ensemble was "inspired" (not exactly copied) from an early portrait of Sofonisba Anguissola seen here. Both layers being linen I realize is a matter of some historical compromise. But you must realize that it was meant as a tourney costume, to be worn at overnight camping events where the temperature is usually between 70-90º F. It is also washable, which is a good thing because we in the West tend to camp on undeveloped, dry, dusty sites. In addition to the dress and doublet, I'm wearing a linen high-necked chemise with attached ruffs. The ruffs interlined with 7/8 inch grosgrain ribbon and so are completely washable.