Pelicon: The Begining

So I was perusing Pinterest recently, and I came across a pin from one of my favorite SCA Pinners, Fortune St. Keyne. She had pinned an image I had never seen before:

I'm not certain of the origin of this image, but the garment this woman is wearing is quite interesting. It's called a pelicon (pronounced with a soft c), and Google is less than helpful when trying to research it. Pinterest however, gave me at least a little more to sink my teeth into.

I came across this image as well when searching Pinterest, and it only helped confirm a few theories I had on how it was worn and constructed.

The image led me to this site, that gave a little blurb about the garment and its styling and construction.

"At the end of the 13th century the Pelicon, a feminine version of the Garde-corps, makes its appearance. This is made of a large elliptical piece of fabric, measuring approximately three and a half metres on its longer axis. Worn, the fabric falls softly from the shoulders to the feet and forms a train at the back. Like the Garde-corps, the Pelicon is made from a heavy fabric bordered with fur and completed with a hood. The head opening is cut at approximately three-quarters of the length of the ellipse, where the separately cut hood is buttoned up to the collar."

Upon reading that description I felt comfortable in my assumption that is was an odd hybrid of a surcoat and a houppelande... but with a hood. The hooded aspect is whats really grabbing me, and the contrasting lining fabric that shows when the hood is left to hang off the shoulders. It also doesn't help that the trim in some of the examples is fur, and I happen to LOVE fur on everything.

A fellow household member is making one for Birka so it'll be interesting to see what she comes up with. I've seen a few variations without the hood, and just a very high buttoned neckline - much more similar to that of a houppelande, without the sleeves.

I'll be doing my own interpretation of it at some point. I've got some red silk that is dying to be made into a cotehardie, and I think this would be the perfect addition to that dress for those cold, wintery events *cough* Crown Tourney *cough*.