While many of us simply adore immersing ourselves in past times, the history, the fashions, the literature, and all the ephemera, one thing we take for granted is our modern corrective eyewear. If you’re lucky to have 20/20 vision, or still young enough that the natural degeneration of eyesight due to aging hasn’t caught up
Specifically, this is a review of Patterns of Fashion 5: The Content, Cut, Construction, and Context of Bodies, Stays, Hoops, and Rumps c. 1595-1795 by Janet Arnold, Jenny Tiramani, & Luca Costigliolo with Sebastien Passot, Armelle Lucas & Johannes Pietsch, to give the full title and credit to all involved. It’s on sale exclusively from
Everyone sees the pictures online — a francaise dinner, a steampunk picnic, Costume College, a cosplay meetup, the Fête Galante, Venetian Carnevale. The idea is the same, it’s a bunch of friends in fabulous costumes having loads of fun! How can you get yourself some of that??? Sure, you can try to wrangle an invite
It’s easier than you might think Have you ever dreamed of waking up in a canopied bed, throwing open the curtains to look out over rolling green hills, then dressing in your finest period costume to stroll about those hills with your best friends? Do you fantasize about candlelit dinners in wood-paneled rooms with you
Note: I’m not a doctor, and I don’t even play one on the internet. This article does not constitute actual medical advice — it’s just what I’ve done, what works for me, and what I think is a good idea. Consult with professionals so you don’t hurt yourself or make what hurts worse! It’s a
Research and Theories: Linen caps and coifs are a well-known part of the Elizabethan wardrobe for women and even men. In their simplest form, plain linen caps were worn at all levels of society, often as a protective layer between the hair and a hat or even as a nightcap. Many women’s embroidered coifs survive
Or as I tend to think of it: Fancy Man Bags! Because the discerning Elizabethan gent needed a sassy little purse to carry his hankie or a few coins in. Women seemed to hide pockets & such in their voluminous skirts, while the men showed off their goods, ehem, with highly decorated purses that were
One of my favorite styles of 16th-century headgear is the tall crowned hat. It was first worn by men starting around the 1570s mostly in England, the Low Countries, & Spain. Women soon adopted the style, particularly when worn with high-necked doublet-style bodices. This fashion was hugely popular, which lead to criticism by the early
By Lady Violet Ruthvene in the SCA This is an accompaniment to a lecture class I taught at the West Kingdom Collegium in November 2013. The goal is to help people in the Society for Creative Anachronism create largess — the small gifts that royalty give to their subjects, such as to welcome visitors, to thank
It’s a known fact that I love wacky hairstyles (also, hats). Big, weird shapes sprouting off one’s head please me inordinately. So naturally, I’ve been drawn to the horn-shaped style worn by Venetian upper-class women in the mid- to late-16th-century. I’ve given one try at making hairpieces to replicate this style, tho’ I’m not quite
Some time ago, my good friend Sarah collected some historical images documenting 16th-century women wearing crowns, because it often seems like a rare thing. We see queens & female nobility of earlier eras decked in towering regalia, but crowns / coronets / tiaras / diadems & the like almost go out of fashion for the
When you’re just starting out in this wonderful world of costuming, you tend to use what’s easy and fast. This is no crime, we’ve all done it, that’s to be expected. If you want to lace up a garment, you need to reinforce the lacing holes so they don’t wear out, and you find some
The heart-shaped cap most famously worn by Mary Queen of Scots goes by many names and its construction has been up for debate. The style was not just worn by this queen — it was common among upper-class women of the late 16th century in England and France. While modern costumers may know it as
By Trystan L. Bass Notes and Caveats: This is written based on my nearly 20 years of professional experience writing and editing on the Web. For a decade, I was an editor in the central editorial department of Yahoo!, and before that, I worked in similar capacities at a digital music startup and an alternative
This article is an accompaniment to a lecture and demonstration class I taught at the SCA West Kingdom’s Collegium Occidentalis XLV in November 2010 and at Costume College in July 2011. It’s intended as a practical lesson in how to recreate the look of upper-class hair fashions of late 16th-century England. The first half of