Well, my beta reader for my story got back to me last night, and overall, it was a pretty positive critique. One comment, though, suggested I hadn't really set my setting as well as I might have. Seeing as it's high fantasy, this was a serious concern.
On reading back through with fresh eyes, I realized that I really had left the environment somewhat sparse... along with character descriptions. I blame one of my old creative writing teachers for that - he preached the "never describe your characters" philosophy, and he was very convincing. It made sense that the readers would paint the picture in their head, and I see it working in some of my favorite books, but still - there are some details to sketch out their appearance.
So, I spent most of Wednesday working out what details I need to add and where. One of those details is clothing (kind of an important part of a high fantasy). Of course, "skirt" and "shirt" didn't seem to quite do it, so I grabbed a few references and hit the Google image search.
And that is how I found... the kirtle.
I am familiar with a lot of medieval clothing - chemises, shifts, petticoats, bodices, surcoats, tunics, all that fun stuff. I had never in my life heard of a kirtle. Turns out, it's a dress. Yeah, shocker, I know. This particular dress can be long-sleeved, short-sleeved, or no sleeved, worn over a chemise or shift and worn under an "overkirtle", outer gown, surcoat, or any number of other other gowns. Sources vary on whether it can be the top layer all by itself.
Basically, perfect for what I need, if not for the fact that it's probably going to leave readers going, "what the heck is a kirtle?"
For those of you who are curious, THESE are kirtles.
Yeah, they look kinda like something a first grade teacher would wear to me, too.
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