“Townswoman” Linen Dress

Short sleeve medieval dress with lacing

While some of our dresses are beautiful for their ornate details and over-the-top embellishment, our “Townswoman” dress is all about crisp simplicity. Colourful, 100% linen is combined with a pattern that makes for flattering lines and a silhouette that looks good on absolutely everyone. At most of our events, this dress is a bestseller simply because it has the ability to bring joy to any customer admiring themselves in the mirror!

The design of this dress originally came from our customer’s requests for a medieval dress with short sleeves. With many events happening in hot weather, people were finding that long-sleeved dresses were a little bit too constricting. Our solution was this wonderful dress that looks medieval, but has nice short sleeves that you can wear with bare arms or combine with a light chemise depending on your comfort level. There is no specific historical inspiration, but the style can be compared to the women’s cotehardie and other examples of more fitted dresses from the XIV-XV century.

The lacing at the front of the dress is what gives it such a great fit. Robustly attached metal lacing rings can be found inside the middle split, and they are sewn in such a way that they are hidden from the outside. This lacing gives you a little bit of room for adjustment, so day-to-day you’re able to change the fit a little bit and pull the lacing in or out depending on how you’d like to wear it. If you’re wearing no chemise underneath, you might like it pulled tight so there’s no gap in the middle; if you have a chemise you could always let the lacing out a bit more to show the fabric underneath. The lacing is also what allows you to make the waist fitted without the need for a modern zipper – simply loosen the lacing, pull the dress over your head, and re-lace it once it’s on.

The most magnificent aspect of this dress is how voluminous the skirt is - four gores have been sewn in to give it extra flow, and it swishes as you walk. The whole dress is made from 100% flax linen, a fabric that softens up over time to be very gentle on your skin. It’s a breathable fabric that is great for the summer, as it allows some air to pass through and your sweat to easily be wicked away. The skirt, sleeves, and neckline are hemmed in a contrasting linen border, which has been expertly sewn to hide exposed stitching.

Chemise (underdress) is not included, but is 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).