(no subject)

[verity83]

All right, my costuming friends (and anyone else who may have $0.02 to add): I need all the info I can get on making authentic clothing from about 1558-1603 era, especially middle-class stuff. I've googled and found some good-looking links to peruse later on, but if anyone has favourites to share let me know.

Basically, I'm taking on Renfaires. I want to start out by making myself an authentic outfit (or two) to learn about techniques, etc., which I will then begin wearing around as a walking advertisement. Yes, I'm so subtle. I've never actually been to a Renfaire, but planning to change that in September.

IT IS HARD to find anything that isn't like... royalty and nobility.

Comments

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I know people who do Elizabethan, so I'll ask them for some recommended sources. I know there are good ones out there, but I've never tried to gather the information myself. I'll also go to a couple sites I do know, and see if I can find something more comprehensive. How authentic are you interested in being?

ETA: You are rather fortunate that LJ is a favorite blogging site for costumers. That's actually why I'm here! :D

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

Oh, and do you mean English clothing, or all nationalities during the Elizabethan period?

[butterbobbin.livejournal.com]

I think I will start with just English for now...

[butterbobbin.livejournal.com]

That would be awesome... thanks! I would like to be as authentic as possible for myself, though I know liberties will no doubt be taken for a lot of costume requests.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Just a side note on catering to renfaire customers - unless you want to do historically accurate clothing for your own sake, don't feel like you have to do so in order to appeal to the average faire-goer. Sure, the SCA people tend to go to great lengths to get accurate costumes, but the majority of people won't. (um, last time I went I saw a guy wearing drapes - DRAPES, those big heavy kind with the hooks still attached - as a cape.)

That's one of the many things I love about faires. Unlike civil war reenactments, no one at a faire is going to care if you are wearing something less than period. Go and observe the random assortment of costumes and the various time periods and places represented, and you'll see. :) After all, you'll usually see mermaids and fairies at renfaires, too. And belly dancers. And, well, yeah. Pretty much anything goes. A lot of goth kids hang out there, at least in these parts. ??

[butterbobbin.livejournal.com]

Definitely wanting to just go to this one as an observer, to start with, and maybe list a few things on etsy or something. I feel like I am in for a fun trip. lol

Some Advice: Part 1

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

The following comment(s) are in a response to my request to msmcknittington. She offers for you to send specific questions her way, since she's a lot better with specifics than with general information. Or so she claims; what she sent me is already amazingly helpful, and she's going to post on her own LJ for others to offer better advice.

Middle class Elizabethan is a little tricky because most of the scholarly stuff is on royal and noble wardrobes, and most the extant clothing that's in good enough condition to take a pattern from is upper class. But the great part is that middle class costume on the upper end of middle class is basically noble costume, if less rich. But then there's middle class costume which is basically working class costume with some upgrades -- accessories and quality of fabric, basically. But there was also a thriving secondhand clothing market in most urban centers, so middle class people might actually be wearing noble clothing with the shine taken off it. :D It's *tricky!*

So, you kind of have to define what you mean by middle class. Is it what merchants are wearing? They're probably going to be more richly dressed than a skilled tradesman like a cobbler or a cheesemonger of what have you, though a modern American would probably consider all of those people to be middle class.

Books:

Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion. http://www.amazon.com/Patterns-Fashion-Construction-Clothes-C1560-1620/dp/0896760839
[PoF is a series of books with scaled-down patterns, on grid paper, of actual existing garments. I got the second one through my school library to use for Regency patterns. HIGHLY recommend. You'll have to scale up and then modify to fit you, but there's no better way to see how garments were actually cut and put together. You can get it, or any of these books, through inter-library-loan (ILL); or PoF shows up regularly on ebay, going for $20-30 roughly. Well worth it, especially if you continue doing Elizabethan.]

Mikhaila, Ninya and Malcolm-Davies, Jane. Tudor Tailor. http://www.amazon.com/Tudor-Tailor-reconstructing-sixteenth-century/dp/0896762556/ref=pd_sim_b_4 -- This one isn't so much for the patterns, which have been "modernized" and so lost some accuracy, but for the text introduction. Highly informative! There's also a lot of really great pictures in there.

There's a related book to the one immediately above: The King's Servants: Men's Dress at the Accession of Henry VIII by Caroline Johnson. http://www.tudortailor.com/bookshoptks.shtml8 It's Tudor, though, not Elizabethan! But I've heard that this is the book that the above authors wanted to write when they were working on Tudor Tailor, but their publishers pushed them in another direction.

Everything else I'm thinking of might be too specific until your friend knows more specifically what she wants to do or it's for out of era. Or it's really, really expensive. Like, La Moda a Firenze is an AWESOME book, but I think a person ought to put off buying $80 books until they're really committed to something. I don't even own it, though I'd love to. Um, it's also about Italy, which might not help her much. :P

Websites:

Extreme Costuming (Laura Mellin, known in the SCA as Isobel Bedingfield, on LJ as attack-laurel) http://extremecostuming.com/ -- She does extreme costuming for reals, but there are tons of really useful articles for a beginner on her website. I'd start linking them, but your friend really should just read all of them.

These two might be especially helpful, though.

15 Favorite Books: http://extremecostuming.com/articles/my15favouritebooks.html
Working Women's Clothes in 1580s London: Servant, Alewife, Housewife: http://extremecostuming.com/articles/womensclothesin1580slondon.html

Re: Some Advice: Part 1

[butterbobbin.livejournal.com]

This is super helpful. THANK YOU!! :-D I'll get in touch with her soon as I do have some nice specific queries I could send her way.

Re: Some Advice: Part 1

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! And I'm so glad you showed up on her reference post. :D I'm excited for you, and excited to watch as you delve into this new period!

Re: Some Advice: Part 1

[butterbobbin.livejournal.com]

I'm really excited about it too, and just HOPE that I have the time and continued motivation to work with it. The idea that this era is sellable helps... and, as eattheolives says, people who go to renfaires just to go have fun usually aren't picky about Historical Accuracy. But for me, especially if I ever take part in a faire as a vendor or what-have-you, I definitely want to know my stuff.

I found a linen shirt at the thrift store the other day and am going to make a lace-up bodice out of it. It will probably be Not Particularly Accurate (going to just use the costume pattern I have), but it will be good practise.

Re: Some Advice: Part 1

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

I hope you keep with it! It helps me with big projects to keep my eyes on the little goals, and get a sense of achievement when I finish one piece. Like now I'm doing Regency, and having to make everything from the skin out; but I'm 90% done with the shift (hand-sewn, even!) and it feels great.

That sounds fun! What elements are you going to practice?

Some Advice: Part 2

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

Websites, Continued

Mode Historique (Sarah Lorraine Goodman, known in the SCA as Sarah Sarah Wydville, and on LJ as modehistorique) http://www.modehistorique.com/ -- Sarah's very highly knowledgeable. I like her a lot for reasons other than that, too! She has some really good articles on her website, and the pictures and dress diaries of her completed outfits are lovely, too.

Also check out the links list on Sarah's website. It's really, really thorough and a lot of the sites I'd link you to are on there. Like Elizabethan Mafia! That's a great site.

Festive Attyre. http://www.festiveattyre.com/ Jen does great 16th century stuff, though I don't always agree with her conclusions from an historical standpoint.

The Elizabethan Costuming Page. http://www.elizabethancostume.net/ She should just go there and dig through it. Many, many links. Many useful things. I'd actually point her away from the Corset Pattern Generator, though. It's not historically accurate! It will give her a silhouette that looks right, but the pattern shape is accurate and the boning pattern isn't either, from the extant corsets we have. The Smock Generator is right on, though!

The Elizabethan Compendium. http://www.elizabethan.org/compendium/home.html Information on everyday life in Elizabethan England. Not much info on dress, but it helps put it all in context.

Karen Larsdatter's Medieval Material Culture Linkspages. http://www.larsdatter.com/index.html Lots and lots of links to extant material culture. It's mostly medieval, but there is some Elizabethan stuff on there.

Honestly, though, the best thing she can do is look at pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. Portraits, woodcuts, illuminated manuscripts (though those are thin on the ground for Protestant England!). Over time she'll develop an eye for what looks right and what doesn't.

Places to look at pictures:

Wikimedia, Elizabethan Clothing: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Elizabethan_clothing -- Look at the subcategories, too. She's going to have to use some discretion, because there are some not primary sources in there. Like this? http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Purpledoublet.jpg Renfaire actors. Should not be used as a primary source!

If she's interested in 16th-century middle class English costume, then these two pictures specifically will be of interest to her.

The Fete at Bermondsey by Joris Hoefnagel, 1569: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joris_Hoefnagel_Fete_at_Bermondsey_c_1569.png

London Gentlewomen and a Countrywoman by Lucas de Heere, c. 1570: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/De_Heere_Gentlewomen_and_Countrywoman.jpg -- The three ladies to the left are the gentlewomen; the lady to the left is the countrywoman. I've seen her described as a fishwife, but I have no idea where the people who've said that are getting that. She's holding a chicken? It might be the chinclout -- that's the cloth over her mouth.

Tudor & Elizabethan Portraits. http://www.elizabethan-portraits.com/

The other thing that helps track down images is to find out the names of artists for the time and place you want to recreate and Google those names. The big miniature artist in Elizabethan England is Nicholas Hilliard. Here's an article about Elizabeth art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/liza/hd_liza.htm

And look at museum collections! In person isn't always possible, but lots of places have online collections. Lots of portraits and extant items in museum collections -- both useful.
[Kendra at Demode Couture has a listing of museums with online collections (http://demodecouture.com/extant-costumes/), as well as a no-longer-updated list of specific items, broken down by period, in the Real Women's Clothing directory(http://demodecouture.com/realvict/). That only starts with 1600, however; Elizabethan clothing is harder to find than Victorian! Still, there are portraits and other items in museums as well.]