| Mad Masks |
| I draw a lot of inspiration from weird and wonderful history details when creating the world of my Red Kingdom books, and while flicking through a history magazine, I came across a fascinating fashion trend that was popular in the 1500s and 1600s. Basically, wealthy European women liked to cover their faces when going outside into public—both to protect their skin from sunburn (can’t look like a filthy peasant who has to work for a living obviously!) and also to look more ‘mysterious’. |
Too see photos, just search online for ‘vizards’. It’s worth a look, because they are very very silly! Haha.
So like I said, the masks were called vizards, often made from black velvet in small ovals designed to cover only the face, and, the best part of all, they often didn’t have ribbons or bands to hold them in place … and instead had a small bead sewn to the inside of the mask at mouth level, and the woman wearer would literally clench that little bead between her teeth the entire time to hold the mask onto her face.
So that’s fun, right? She’d certainly look very mysterious, helped in part, surely, because she also couldn’t speak a single word, haha.
Historical fashion is pretty weird.
Haha.
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PJ Nwosu writes dark mystery novels set in epic fantasy worlds.
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A vast, rotting city set aflame by Purge House.
A crowd gathers in the shadow of the Red Palace to watch the pyres burn.
A bitter ex-soldier infiltrates the city’s greatest gold house, determined to locate the slave he seeks.
Diem Lakein might not like what he finds.
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