The main dress post can be found here and the jewelry can be found here.

The Headwear

After the jewelry was complete came the headwear. I have to confess, I am still not super sure about how I feel about the results. There are still a variety of theories and questions about her headwear that I’m still considering. A album of my headwear process can be found here. For those who want to just jump to the conclusion: I had the most success wearing this with the velo, cofia, and headpiece pinned together, and using the “bag” space created by tying the velo closed to hold my hair while loose.

What we know for sure about her headwear is as follows:

• The bottom layer is a square-fronted cofia, definitely made of linen.

• She is wearing a very long tranzado, also linen, that is wrapped in a crisscross pattern with a black ribbon. The tranzado, were she standing up, would likely reach below her knees.

• There is a very sheer velo with a heavy gold bordered front on top, which is wrapped in the back into the same ribbon holding the tranzado in place.

• There is a black strip of something between the cofia and the velo.

What we do not know for sure about her headwear is:

• Are the cofia and tranzado attached?

• Is that black a ribbon holding the cofia in place and then looping around the back and the tranzado for security? Is it a second, sturdier cofia of some sort to hold up the weight of the velo, headpiece, and tranzado? If the latter, why can’t we see either the linen cofia or the black under the sheer velo?

• Is the fullness in the back from her cofia or from just her hair?

Based on what I actually ended up doing, I have some theories.

The first theory is that the tranzado is not her actual hair. It goes down far far too long for the average person’s healthy hair,. Additionally, what we do see of her blonde hair is either somewhat wavy or crimped. The longer hair with curls gets, the harder it is to maintain and the easier it sheds (ask me how I know…). Given all of this, and it’s very uniform width the whole way down, I think at least part of this tranzado is fake. The most logical assumption if that is the case is that the fake hair is attached where that big block of black ribbon could hide the attachment. That is the most secure point to attach it at, unless she has a part of the tranzado filled with her natural hair, and the bottom of it stuffed with fake hair. Either is possible, but the latter would be much harder to put on.

That leads to my next question: how is her cofia constructed? It has square points in the front, which would argue against the St. Birgitta style cap we see in other women in contemporaneous paintings, although this style is very good for holding a bun in place. It’s possible that the black piece is a ribbon sewn or pinned into place on the cofia and used to anchor the back to keep the bun from falling out once tied up underneath it. I am inclined to give this some credit. No black ribbon is shown tied above a bun, but if our first assumption above, it needs to have some amount of both tension and support from beneath. Alternatively, a ribbon could be pinned in place with the velo and it’s heavy front edge.

To play devil’s advocate to this theory, the back of her head shows volume but not a lot of roundedness. It is a fairly straight line that would likely follow hair that wasn’t pulled back at all. Either the partially fake tranzado theory from above is correct or, given that the edges of the cofia are obscured by the gathering at the back of the velo and by its sheerness, the back of the cofia and the velo could theoretically form the space for her hair to sit.

An alternative to all of this is the black being some sort of secondary cofia. This is a stretch, given the luminosity of the sheer velo. We see no black underneath the silk that would indicate a black cofia under there. However, a black wool cofia under the silk would address a lot of the above concerns. First, it would grip onto the linen cofia very well and allow for the pinning in place of the velo, headpiece, and the tranzado. Second, a stiffer fabric like wool would hold a lot of the necessary tension to keep her hair up but still maintain a natural hairline shape like we see in the back. In practice, I genuinely don’t think the ribbon adds anything to the security or look of the pieces. It really just got in the way, especially when I added the headpiece after.

Theory aside, the practice offered some insight.

The first item I made was the squared off cofia. I tried two methods for this item. I cut four identical pieces of linen for the cofia. Two of them I sewed together with a running stitch, then felled the center seam and hemmed the edges. The second two, I hemmed all of the edges and then whipped the two completed halves together. Both method produced a serviceable cofia. However, the second cofia sat much more centered on my head, whereas the first cofia’s seam is just slightly off center. It’s enough to bother me, but not enough to stop me from wearing the item, because it does actually do its job well. I wish I had made them a little deeper, and I don’t see the square front replacing my preferred style of cap on a day-to-day basis, purely for the security of holding.

Next, I made the velo. I was lucky enough to find some beautiful sheer silk from Burnley and Trowbridge. I chose off-white for the color because of how the silk appears at the back of our lady’s head. An alternative to consider is possibly a champagne color, given the gold tone of the body of the velo. For the construction, I chose to make this a slightly elongated half-circle. Doing so allows it to sit where I want equally on the sides of my head as the back and not created an awkward rise in the back. I cut out the shape (I actually cut out multiples, because I do plan to make a second one), then I hemmed with the smallest rolled hem I could manage. After the hemming was complete, I whip stitched on the trim.

I did not have any heavy gold trim on hand, but I did have a silver option that was the correct width. Because I was still considering some of this as a tester, I chose to make one velo with this silver instead. I do still have some of the silk that I could make a gold-trimmed version as well in the future.

The silk gauze is absolutely beautiful to look at. It hits that sheer look I wanted perfectly, and really stands out with the headpiece on it. Having the headpiece mounted on ribbon helps secure the slippery silk to the linen underneath it and I think with wear, this velo will soften up and drape a little better than it does right now. As you can see in the photo of the velo displayed on the foam head (in the linked gallery), the fabric is rather stiff and without either pinning or tying it down as in the painting, it stands out at the back of the head. Having a fake hair tranzado of sufficient length would definitely help weigh it down and smooth that out.

I do have to say that I have some other similar items in my closet that I am very likely to wear with this outfit as headwear. My St. Birgitta caps are my favorite and would adequately serve the purpose here. I also have my black wool hood with the blue lining that would as well. It’s a very similar shape and construction to the velo and I think would compliment the outfit nicely.