What do the women of Kinyn wear? Part 4

Nessa’s adventures in The Healer and the Pirate cost her four good dresses. Lucky for her, pirate treasure paid for most of them!

This dress is also made of expensive silk. Aster flowers were used to dye the fabric to a shimmering blue that actually goes well with Nessa’s unusual hair color. Both the dye and the silk is what gives the dress its value.

Since the dress is one piece, it is easy to shimmy into in a hurry. The lace bodice gives it some shape as well as support. Though, Nessa would have preferred a much higher collar.

The sleeves are what are called “bridged sleeves” and they add some decoration to an otherwise unadorned dress.


Thank you for reading! Have any questions about Kinyn? Contact us! We hope to hear from you.

What do women in Kinyn wear? Part 3

Here's another dress Nessa wears in "The Healer and the Pirate," sketched by Julie.  It's a fancy dress--a true one-piece garment without a separate bodice at all.  It laces up the sides to flatter the waist. It's made of something we called silk in the book, though it's not actually made from silkworm cocoons. Elves and fairies both make fabric similar to silk, through magic, though it's quite costly--in fact, this dress costs at least two months' wages to a common man. The seams are so fine it's likely it was sewn together by fairies or magic.

The skirt is three fine layers, though the illustration doesn't particularly reflect that. Flowing sleeves are gathered at the elbow.

The undershirt doesn't look particularly feminine.  Interesting; I wonder what the story is behind that...

What do women in Kinyn wear? Part 2

Picking up from last week, here's a sketch that Julie did and Maggie salvaged from having a lavender bodice.

This is another of Nessa's dresses from “The Healer and the Pirate." The bodice has pink summer daisy designs woven in, and there is a slim matching skirt.  With its fairly high neckline and long hemline, it's just slightly reminiscent of something a child would wear to a festival.

The sleeves belong to a separate shift worn underneath the dress. They are gathered at the bicep and wrist and edged with sky blue lace.  The skirt is also edged with lace to match the shift.

In Renaissance times on Earth, lace was incredibly costly, as poor women would work all day to make just a miniscule amount of lace.  In Kinyn, however, several varieties of caterpillars spin cocoons which can be easily pulled apart into lace. A quick dip in vinegar sets the lace, preventing it from falling apart when it's used.

This is actually a ready-made dress, acquired in a clothing shop in a fairly small town. In towns and even cities, women tend to sew their families' clothes, while the wealthy have clothes custom-made for them. However, many towns on main roads--even small towns--have small shops selling clothing for travelers passing through. Ready-made clothes are costly but are often more finely-sewn than their homemade counterparts.

A wide placket in the back of the bodice (not pictured) allows this to fit a wider variety of body types. Nessa is slimmer than the ideal figure in Kinyn, so she can lace the bodice as tightly as it will go.

What do women in Kinyn wear?

Kinyn has a variety of fashions. In fact, Nessa goes through several outfits in “The Healer and the Pirate.” Since Julie likes clothes and Maggie can redraw Julie’s sketches into something nice to look at, we’ll highlight a few outfits she wears over the next few weeks. That will give a pretty good overview of what women (and female elves, Asri, and the like) wear.

This is Nessa's linen traveling dress, the dress she's wearing when Aridin first lays eyes on her. (Read it here!) The bodice is lightly boned for support and laces up the front. It is not purposely constructed to hide curves, nor does it accent them.

The sleeves are sewn into the bodice. The sleeves’ edging--darker green fabric--constitutes the only decoration on the dress. It is overall a simple design, suitable for everyday wear.

The calf-length skirt attaches to the bodice as well. Calf-length is the shortest a "good" woman might wear her skirts, and a good, practical length for farm work. (However, in some places--particularly port towns--a certain type of woman might wear skirts knee-length, or even higher.) The medium-weight material and fullness of Nessa’s skirt allow her maximum mobility. She could even ride astride a horse in it!

Beneath the dress peeks out a long-sleeved tan shift, or chemise, edged with matching fabric ruffles at the neck. Shifts are considered undergarments and are washed more often than overdresses. No woman’s ensemble would be complete without one. This shift is fairly close-fitting, with dark-trimmed cuffs. With Nessa’s ice-white skin, a bleached white shift would be rather unbecoming.

Not pictured are Nessa's brown ankle boots, which lace up the front. Like most villagers, Nessa only has one pair of shoes, and they were created with an eye to utility, not beauty. Wealthier women may have slippers for wearing to special occasions. In a small village like Nessa’s, however, such a thing would be considered ostentatious.

For practicality, Nessa ties back her silver-blue, waist-length hair in a thick braid while she travels.