PRINCESS'S CHAMBER
REAL MEDIEVAL ARMOUR MADE FOR WOMEN
Comfortable, protective, battle ready and it
looks great!
Women's armour utilizes more
variables
to get the correct fit than man's armour. Normally (but not
always) the faulds must be made wider, and flare more deeply, and also
normally (but not always), a woman's waist is higher than a man's waist
of comparable size and weight. Therefore, ALL armour made for
women
is "CUSTOM".
This gallery is for practical
medieval
armour that is designed to be used in re-enactment societies. Sometimes
all that is wanted, or needed, is a fantasy armour. I make these
too...they may be found by going into the "Fun and Fantasy
Gallery".
Click HERE to
go
there. (but don't blame me...they are not MY ideas)
First, we need to see how its been done before!
I have included a few paintings to give you some ideas.
I hope that you would use some details from these
paintings to help you design your custom armour. Gallery of armours for women
according to the artists
click image to enlarge
Ingres
In Ingres's amazing picture above, you can see that the armourer has
given his subject nice broad hips, a fashionable for the time corseted
wasp waist, no gorget and lots and lots of late period
articulation.
Even so, he has still has the poor girl wearing a man's armour....the
low
waist, the upward lapping placqarts, and the "keel" all seem to imply
that
this young woman has absconded with her brother's kit. The
pinched
waist was actually period for male armour, and even more so for female
clothing....and
I don't recommend it..it looks painful. Other rather interesting
items include the tassets which slip "under" the fauld, and the
understandable
lack of a codpiece arch. And codpiece for that matter.
Important features of this armour....the fluted tassets, the winged
elbow cops and the gorget would have been worn under the armour.
click image to enlarge
Milla Javovich
The armour in the picture above, is
also boys armour, but then, it is being worn by the rather tom boyish
Milla
Javovich. Basically, if
you have a lean figure like Milla, then this transition armour looks
really
good. You don't have to use chain mail under it either...it looks
just fine with a simple padded gambeson. Good details to
consider
with this picture...the gorget is rolled all around the outside, the
spaulders
are laced onto the gorget, and nice late period single piece wraparound
elbow cops hang by laces from the spaulders. The half gauntlets
are
leather lined, with the lining being held in place by a row of brass
rivets.
click on the image to enlarge
Swynner
Now this is Swynner's painting of Joan of Arc. Noteworthy points would be the roses decorating the elbow cops, the large breastplate overlapping the lower placquart, the lance rest and associated breastplate keel, the very simple spaulders, and the lack of any faulds or tassets at all. note that this Joan is shown a few years older than the real Joan...who was only 13 when she was leading troops, and 15 when she was burnt. As far as armour goes, this armour is remarkably accurate, and would serve admirably.
no bigger pic, sorry
ARMOURS MADE BY SOUTH
TOWER
click image to enlarge
Maggie's Armour
click on image to enlarge
Back View
Maggie's armour was based on the artistic impression of Joan of Arc in a video game. I have progressed considerably from his artwork though. You can see a picture of this artist's impression HERE.
click on image to enlarge
Sam's Armour
front view
click on image to enlarge
Sam's Armour
Side View
Lower parts
The above two pictures are of Sam, modeling her armour. Important features....the placquart, fauld and tassets are not connected to the upper breastplate in front. The backplate is a standard three piece backplate held tightly against her body by the straps (hidden in her hand above). I think the tassets might work better if they were stuffed under the fauld lames. What do you think?
Coralea's Armour
3/4 front view
front view
back view
This is Coralea...she made this armour pretty much on her own right here in my shop. I think it looks pretty good.
Of course, you can go with chain maille...easy to fit, looks absolutely stunning. I make a fair amount of chain maille in aluminum, so gravity does not HAVE to be your enemy. But then, we are getting into the realm of armour as costume instead of armour AS armour. Leslie is a Scholar in the OMSG, and she does live steel fighting. She wanted chain maille that worked. And got it.
Manniquin
This gallery is just to get you
started on getting the armour of
your dreams. It is not especially costly, for instance, Sam and
Coralea's armoured
breast and back plate pictured above cost her well under four hundred
dollars,
Maggie's armour much the same, the Swynner armour not including the
chain
mail but with the shoulder pieces would be about five
bills,
Milla's half armour would be only a couple of hundred
dollars, though of course at the other end of the scale,
Ingress's amazing gothic plate would be about three grand when you
add in those nice gothic legs. Remember, all Lady Armour is
custom, and the final price will depend a lot on how ornate you
want it to be, what metals you would have me use, and for that matter,
what brass work and jewels you want me to inset into the steel.
I don't approach the manufacture of
a custom armour lightly...we must
correspond, you must send pictures of yourself so that I can
learn
your somatype, you must let me know what details in the gallery
pictures
above you absolutely loved, which details you detested, and where you
plan
to wear this armour so that I can choose which gauge of metal to use.
If
you need the placquart to act as a corset, I need to know that as well.
Filling out the info on the above manniquin is a good first step.
If you need to pick up extra pieces...say gorgets or gauntlets, then
make
a wish list from the "single pieces" list on my web site. I will
guarantee that they will all fit together. You will get no surprises
either
price wise or funtionality wise.
email me at
stag@southtower.on.ca with that
wish list.