Once I decided to move forward with my late period German persona, I needed to find the proper accessories and head coverings to go with the Swabian dress I had in the works. The dress is already finished and is in need of some minor pattern tweaking for its next incarnation. I found a few options back on the https://garbrelatedchaos.wordpress.com site I had been working from, but one of them seemed a bit too warm for the current climate as I was beginning this work (late spring/early summer in the south). I decided to shelf her suggestions for the time being (until the fall) and headed to Pinterest for some more ideas and options. After trying a few different keywords in my search I happened across this amazing li’l thing.
detail from ‘Krönchenstechen’, after 1480, Housebook Master of castle Wolfegg, South Germany
Could this be a period version of today’s trend of unicorn hair? I was now intrigued. I traced this picture back to http://www.bettinas-pages.de/clothing/c_wulsthaube.php which had a wealth of info concerning hair covers and accessories. I have to admit I was so enthralled with the Gefrens I declared my next little project right there and then. There were also a number of different pictures showing different combinations of hair covers as well as hairstyles that was exactly what I was looking for. To me this was another subtle hint that the German persona I was pursuing was exactly what I needed in my life. I’m a big fan of trying to find something a little different (and still period) than what’s normally seen around. I personally don’t know anyone in my area with a similar persona, other than my bff’s husband who wears German Renaissance, which is slightly later than my 1490’s Swabian. Either way, I was very excited to get to work on some fun and cool looking accessories for my hair!