Towards my journey of Elizabethan Hair and
Beauty research; We were tested on how well we could follow instructions
based on someone’s interpretation of modern Elizabethan Hair. During
this class we were supplied with materials from auburn crepe hair, to
gold embellishments and ribbon. With these materials and mediums of our
own we were to create the Elizabethan design on something as simple as…
A3 paper. The image above is a small sketch that does not do my two year
a-level qualification any justice but does show some factors that
whilst researching Elizabethan hair, I personally found of much
significance to what I plan to interpret myself. Understanding Style,
Colour, Textures and position are key to perfecting the style in which many Elizabethan women once wore themselves, done with nothing but the simpleness of that era.
I chose the following features in this hairstyle to reflect Elizabethan style;
- Gold/Brightly Coloured Ribbon Material -
Colour itself has great importance in our 21st Century lives; Red can
reflect love and romance, whilst green can represent either jealously
or the doings of evil, but in the Elizabethan era it not only conveyed
an emotion but also the well being, class and wealth of an individual;
and with this small sketch I thought it was really important for me to
reflect some colour for example gold and bright colours. These bright
colours were only wore by those of importance and essentially only those
who could afford the luxury of satin and velvet. Colours that we would
associate with an Elizabethan peasant (however cruel that word is) would
usually be more earthy tones of brown and khaki accompanied with a
coarse material to reflect ones position in society.
- Coloured Lace (matching hair colour) -
This idea I had because of a quote I read about Elizabethan Hair, in
which it stated that Women’s hair was always elegant; and because I did
initially design an afro-type crimped hairstyle, I wanted to just add
some grace and elegance to not only make it modern but to also reflect
different textures. I also felt that if I could find a lace material
that is the same colour as the models hair, it would look like the lace
was part of the hair and they would blend into one another. I feel like
it is important to add accessories and think outside of the box with our
interpretation of the Elizabethan hair because in all the pictures I
have flicked through, there is always some decorative aspect to the hair
and outfit which at the time could only suggest importance; so this is
why I chose to add Gold Ribbon and Lace to my design.
I designed this sketch with a braid in mind. I knew that I wanted a
braid somewhere in the design because to me its the closest structure to
a crimp but also is a very good representative of the
Medieval/Elizabethan era. I thought that having a plait going across the
whole top half of the head would not only add a feminine touch to the
up-do, but would also contrast in structure with the big afro-like
crimped hair at the back, and a clean cut french plait framing the face
at the front.
However, when being partnered up in class we chose to design something a lot different from my own design:
As you can see from the collage above, the two hair designed on A3 paper did come to life and here were the keywords:
- Crisped
- Rings
- Frizzed
- Bugles
- Veil
- Curled
-XO
