How the Heck the Hennin Happened.

The hennin, a fifteenth century headdress seems to mirror the highly revered steeples, towers, spires and heavenward architecture of that period.  

• Was popular reception of the hennin a phenomenon resulting from travel in distant lands during the Crusades? 
• Did the hennin stem from a Byzantine influence? 
• Was wearing the hennin a step toward looking more worldly and well-traveled... an effort to stand out and gain attention?  
• Did hennin-wearers adopt the trend subconsciously or was there a conscious and well-defined reason for choosing to wear it?
• Was the pointed hat a "trickle-down" trend - originating with holy men and women, then borrowed by society?

Though not on my head, the hennin has been on my mind. 

One thought:  During the Renaissance, arts and literature - even higher learning - were more accessible to members of the church and religious sects.  Simultaneously, much emphasis was placed on construction of very large and grand churches.  Perhaps the hennin was not only a subconscious reflection of steeples and spires - but also of the search for higher knowledge.  The hennin - a heavenward hat housing the divinity of the mind.

Another thought:  Why do we later see a similar hat shape worn by people associated with magical powers?

Albrecht Durer.

Collegiale Saint Quentin.

Domenico Quaglio die Kathedral Reims.

Albrecht Durer Innsbruck.

Albrecht Durer Aix La Chapelle.

Jean Fouquet Aix La Chapelle.

Rogier van der Weyden - for a Carthusian monastery near Brussels, 1445.

Leonardo da Vinci Ginevra Benci, 1474.

Maurice Quentin de la Tour - City of Saint-Quentin.

Jan van Eyck.

Fouquet - Charles IV and Marie Luxembourg.

Hans Holbein, 1500.

Hans Memling, 1480.

Hugo van der Goes - Maria Porinari, 1476.

Kaiser Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy.

Petrus Christus, 1450-60.

Margaret of York, Duchess Consort of Burgundy - 1468.

Rogier van der Weyden Seven Sacraments - detail.

Petrus Christus, 1470.

Vittore Carpaccio - St. Stephen.

Rogier van der Weyden.

Michael Pacher - Mary of Burgundy, 1490.

Rogier van der Weyden - Young Woman in a Pinned Hat, 1435.

Pisanello - Princess of the House of Este, 1449.

iO-robe: A Short Fashion Forward Fiction.

Intelligent Optic Robing, iO-robe, or just iO - solved so many sartorial conundrums regarding travel, parties, fitting in... . A bit of programming, then - the magic transformation. A digital fairy godmother. It came to mean the birth of ideas, the generation of life itself... iO... a small cursive letter i encircled / enrobed by a fat, round O.

You know, in the 60s - there was Mars and the paper dresses. Mars - the company, not the planet... and the paper dress was just another way to express freedom and being "with it" - fashionably and sexually. 

The digital dress was of the same ilk - another way to be "with it"... hip, chic, cutting edge - you name it - always the same thing, but a different name.

The Techie-Chics and the Techie-Geeks dreamed the entire scene. T-Chics wanted the style, T-Geeks wanted the notoriety... the challenge.

To the middlemen it was a surprise... no need for malls, no sweat shops, no child labor, no fighting for parking spaces - everything changed. Was it better? It was different.

Of course, there was the buffout... of 2020. Like a blackout or brownout - all to do with power / electricity, but so many people were left standing around with so few little wires and buttons dangling - it wasn't that big an embarrassment.

That outage though - created in the modest among us - a momentary return to the paper dress - which made for a better canvas, a smoother silhouette... like the vast screens at the retro drive-in cinemas.  

Then there was, once again, the move to fabric... aside from the digital gadgetry - that's all anyone needed - just a few solid-color dresses or coveralls of fabric - depending upon the "in" feel... soft, crisp, silky, plush, crackly... upon which the iO (robe or suit) was projected.

Eventually, digitally enhanced optics - DEO - also eliminated even plastic surgery - with all appearances hiding the possibility of illusion or facade.

Anymore, what was real?

If you like this story, let me know - with some comments.  Will this be the path of fashion in the future... who can say, but imagining the scenario produced the fiction you just read.  There's another quick fashion-y time travel fiction here.

Green Thumb, Striped Cat.

More of nature and the outdoors, rambling and wild:

• Here, a post mentioning my love for Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf's touch of au naturel - and a few snapshots of The Wild which surrounds me. 
• Or here, Rambling in The Wild. 

  

  Where we belong... the outdoors.  Toile La La.