Dona Janssen

I've really been hoping to find some more good Germans to showcase here (it's a style that we don't see nearly often enough!) so Dona's amazing outfit was exactly the thing that I was looking for. This really has to be one of the most beautiful and fun styles of costuming out there. I love the floppy hat and the wonderful slashed sleeves. But most of all, I'm amazed by all of the gold couched embroidery that she did for the plastron and guards. That adds such a huge "Wow!" factor to the whole outfit. You can read more about the gown below the picture, and you can contact Dona at Dona(dot)Janssen(at)hudson(dot)com. And special thanks goes to Kevin Connery, who took these beautiful pictures and posted them on his West Kingdom 12th Night page for us all to enjoy.

The dress is made from a teal colored wool gabardine.Ê The wool was to light weight so the skirt is lined with an old curtain I found at the thrift store, shiny side towards me so that the skirt slides smoothly past the smock.Ê The guards are black cotton velveteen embellished with couched gold cord.Ê You can't see it in this pic, but the bottom most skirt guard has gold cording as well. The plastron is a separate piece that is hook and eyed in to the dress. The bodice on this is fitted incorrectly through the back resulting in the shoulders constantly falling down.Ê I am wearing a corded corset and cotton batiste draw stringed smock.Ê I will be making a true smock for this outfit out of linen sometime down the road.Ê I also have other theories on how to do the plastron bit... I think it wasn't actually a separate piece but a white under kirtle with a fancy bust band tied on by way of the shoulders... so I will probably be remaking that sometime in the near future as well.Ê The hat is made from cotton upholstery velvet and has a lot of baubles and stuff on the top side.Ê I think it is a bit big for me and is a bit to floppy.Ê Again another item in line to be remade.