Considerations for your Re-enactment Wardrobe
Some of the most profound advice I have read on planning an
ensemble, and to a certain extent a persona, states that one must
“look through the eyes of a different era.” Meaning, to view your
choices as a person of that era would. Also, to “view the persons of
the past as individual persons, with his/her own opinions, preferences,
and history.” Meaning, just as not everyone of today wears the exact
same garment, in the exact same way, neither did the persons in the era
you want to portray.
Consider the following when planning a re-enacting wardrobe:.
ensemble, and to a certain extent a persona, states that one must
“look through the eyes of a different era.” Meaning, to view your
choices as a person of that era would. Also, to “view the persons of
the past as individual persons, with his/her own opinions, preferences,
and history.” Meaning, just as not everyone of today wears the exact
same garment, in the exact same way, neither did the persons in the era
you want to portray.
Consider the following when planning a re-enacting wardrobe:.
| Event Appropriate: Are they serious about history (and the fun is syrup on the ice cream) or are they more interested in the entertainment value of the event. Knowing the focus of the events you attend saves a lot of heart-ache, frustration, and nasty feelings for attendees, event givers, and tourists. |
| Historically Appropriate: Were your choices available to persons of that era, likely to be chosen by persons of that era, and used in that manner in that era. |
| Persona Appropriate: Just as a tour through your present day wardrobe would tell the world your opinions, values, morals, personality, sympathies, and preferences; the garb you choose will tell the historical world about your persona’s place in history. |
| Age Appropriate: Just as today’s fashions make the cycle from runway, to teens, to young married ladies, to older married ladies, to grandmas; fashions in the past did too. And remember that in the past, “rights of passage” happened at a younger age. So today’s young career women are yesterday’s older married ladies. (It scares me too!) |
| Economically Appropriate: What constitutes an expensive fabric differs from era to era. Would they have been able to afford the fabric, trim? Is it a complicated pattern that requires precise fitting, that would have been done by a dressmaker, and could they have afforded a dressmaker? Was this garment meant to withstand many cleanings, or be worn once? |
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