Starting a landsknecht outfit

 After the big parade of landsknechtsbig parade of landsknechts last year in Stockholm David really wanted a landsknecht outfit. First he talked about making it himself, by Christmas we had both realised that wouldn't be feasible. I have spent a lot of time in the winter trying to drape a pair of hose for him, and now with less than two months to go until Medieval Week in Visby it was time to for me to really start. Early May we also visited friends in Borås and could pass some of the fabric shops to actually pick ut fabric. This also meant a redesign, since he had talked about wanting a pink costume, but here we found a beautiufl red so then he wanted red with pink lining, to be seen through the slashes.

The fabric that will be used, red wool, pink wool and a linen lining.

One reason why it has taken me so long to start is that I am really unsure about making male clothing, and that I couldn't decide on a design. I did want to make something fairly easy, but at the same time it is a landsknecht so it has to be flamboyant. There are also so many variations on decorations and models that it was simply hard to choose. I am not going to make an exact reproduction, so in the end these are some of my inspirations

Matthäus Schwars was a man in Augsburg that made a book with all the outfits he had worn throughout his life. This is from 1524. This was when I finally got something that I felt was a good inspiration. It's a fairly simple outfit, but the doublet has massive sleeves, and then the hose are not as heavily slashed and decorated as for example Urs Graf's Swiss mercenaries.

This painting had been an early inspiration when David said he wanted a pink outfit. The pink and red remains as colour inspiration.

Another original inspiration was this soldier that's on a mural in Lojo church in Finland, dated to around 1510-1520. His clothes are a bit more 15th century, but I liked the pattern of the hose.

Since the hose is going to be at least striped I realised that it would be better to start with the doublet, since the sleeves will take the largest single pieces of fabric, and once I have that done I could use the rest to created stripes for the hosen. Since the double isn't going to be as fitted as the hose I also felt it would be easier to start with it.

I have started with cutting out the bodice of the double. It consists of three parts. A full back and two fronts. The larger front will be overlapping the smaller piece, and that is why the smaller isn't a full piece, only the side going up to the shoulder and a flap that will be tied to the other piece to keep it in position.