Mariana’s cote felt like a little bit of a cheat - she really liked Marguerite’s cote, and I had plenty of gold trim and enough scrap of the gold silk shantung to make another.

I did pull a bit of a trick on her, though. Mariana is incredibly thoughtful and deliberate in her fabric purchases, and she had stashed away a piece of suiting weight wool that she designated to make her Laurel cote. However, I knew that suiting weight would not hang quite the way I envisioned, so I decided to gift her the same black wool flannel I used for Marguerite.

The difference between the two is in the details. Women in Spain contemporaneous to Mariana tended to wear a large half circle cloak that covered them from head to toe - again, this is deeply impractical for our climate. Instead, I modeled her cote off a late 15th/ early16th century Spanish garment called a monjil, which is probably the remnants of a Moorish garment.

To keep the feel of the Spanish garment, I left the neckline low and cut the arm openings to just below the braline. I bound the neck and front openings with the silk chantung, and layered on the gold gimp. It was finished off by die cut hand dyed green silk leaves from Ollam Lanea Inghean Uí Chiaragáin and a wreath stem of gold cord from my elevation dress.