“Key Keeper” Dress with Sleeves

Linen dress with detachable sleeves

A Keeper of the Keys is more than just a person who opens doors and locks up the castle at night. They carry the secrets that are hidden behind every doorway…

Our “Key Keeper” dress illustrates that a dress can be beautiful and practical at the same time! This whole collection contains medieval items made from simple, high-quality materials, and instead of relying on fancy pearls and silks, it expresses its beauty with expertly tailored details. You’re going to fall in love with the silhouette of this dress, which is perfect for festivals, feasts, events, and anywhere else in your medieval life!

The main part of this dress is inspired by the XIII-XV centuries and features a slim fitting bodice and voluminous skirt. Four gores of fabric are added to the skirt to give it an extra impressive drape - you’ll find yourself wanting to twirl in circles to watch it! The bodice of the dress can be adjusted with lacing in the middle, meaning it’s up to you if you want to lace it closely or leave it a little bit looser. Instead of metal lacing rings, for this dress, we’ve sewn in robust cord to create lacing loops, which lacing is passed through to close the dress.

The trim used on the dress and sleeves has been designed by our artists, who took inspiration from medieval patterns and geometric shapes. Since this trim is designed here at ArmStreet, you won’t find it anywhere else. The design of the trim is not the only amazing part, though – the way that it is applied to the dress is just as breathtaking. At the neckline and the sleeves, 7mm of bias binding made from linen is sewn with the trim to give a contrasting border. The bottom of the dress is similarly embellished, with 4-5cm of linen with a trim.

Instead of making sleeves that lace onto the dress, we decided to make free-floating ones that are quite similar to arm warmers. This leaves your elbow free from bulky fabric and looks beautiful. The sleeves are made from the same linen and trim that you’ll find on the rest of the dress, with the main color on top and a contrasting color used as a lining. The cord has been woven into the seams to make loops that lacing is passed through, making them adjustable and easy to fit your arms. The sleeves are slightly flared at your wrist, and go up to just below your elbow.

We chose flax linen as the material for this dress because it’s robust, breathable, and is a textile with lots of history! Linen has been used for thousands of years because of how soft it becomes and how nicely it drapes. Our linen is no exception to this – even though it starts out a bit starchy once you’ve worn it and warmed it up with your body heat. What truly makes this dress stand out is the little tailoring touches and tidy, hidden seams. Years of experience have made our seamstresses absolutely professionals, and we have no doubt you’ll marvel at this feat of sewing as much as we do.

The chemise (underdress) is not included, but available in our store.

To check how to measure yourself please click here.

Please contact us if you have any additional questions.

Important note: This dress cannot be made in custom size for the chest circumference bigger than 49 inches (124 cm).