As far as I could tell from reading the books, Brandon just sometimes calls the streamers tassels. Or the streamers could just split as they got close to the bottom. Despite not seeing inkthinker's art until after I made what I did of my cloak, it's fairly close to his interpretation, but more complex as far as the streamers go.
I read your bloggy posts. Do you think that silk will be too heavy for the streamers? It seems like it would be ideal for the main body of the cloak if you can get it to behave properly (IOW if it's tailored tightly and well enough). How many layers of streamers are you planning? I was planning on something like 12-20, but I ran out of fabric (I bought 4 yards of fabric, and was almost out after two rows). I wore my cloak for Halloween last year and properly freaked some people out just standing there. I have no idea why. Maybe the floaty tassels were unnatural looking.
My cloak 's base "coif" piece (as in the piece of mail armor) was made of a high density felt. This was quite hot, but allowed all kinds of holes to be poked in it without losing strength as well as holding a decent amount of weight without distortion. The streamers/tassels were navy and black organza. I thought that the mix would look good for mists, and I even bought a silvery color to add to it, but the black was plenty grey alone, as organza's kinda shiny and transparent. I cut strips between 1/2"-1" and sewed them in rows.
The problems with organza were twofold. 1) Organza is very loose and flimsy. When a strip was stepped on, it would rip wherever it decided. 2) As the evening wore on, the edges of my cuts caught on each other more and more.
If I were making the cloak today with the knowledge I have now, I would go with black 1" unwired organza ribbon (
like this) for the strips (it comes with a clean edge, so less catching would occur) and either a super-fine silk or fine but lightweight felt coif. If I had infinite time, I would forgo the coif and make the cloak completely out of strips (as I think Brandon described the cloaks in the books). Dark grey organza is, unfortunately, impossible to find.
Do you cats know if there's something a little stronger and smoother than organza, but still lightweight enough to still keep the cloak light when used in massive quantities (20-30 yards)? I really need to make a proper cloak one of these days.