PRINCIPLE 2. NO WRONG ANSWERS
Yes, I believe this with all of my heart. Now, before I make a whole slough of SCA folks mad, I want to point out that I LOVE the SCA! It's one of the reasons I have a dang company. I love the portion of people who love to dress up, camp together, and beat each other with weapons. Yes please. What a fantastic way to get modern-day aggression out of your system!! My only beef with them (what a strange phrase...."beef with"...I would have thought that "having beef" with someone would be an enjoyable occasion with much celebration and calories....) is when the people that are super-hard-core-history-buffs come up and rip into some poor woman for her gown in the hue of purple, when CLEARLY she should know better, since she is but a mere peasant.
I get it. I love dressing up. I love the idea of playing characters. I have a deep reverence for someone who sits and hand-sews their whole entire wardrobe with sinew and a needle made of a squirrel bone. I love people who lovingly hand-dye their fabric that they wove from their own cat hair and corn husks. Heck yes to dousing your pieces in beet juice for weeks to get a particular hue. I am IMPRESSED. Also, I'm amazed at the people who research history from every angle, tirelessly consuming wikipedia articles and scouring images of period paintings. I even like it when two "period nazis" (not my term. This term has been around for a LONG freaking time in the SCA) get into a heated discussion over how a codpiece would have been attached. It's exciting to be so passionate about something! I just wish that those blessed people might tone it down slightly when they're in the presence of a family who, let's say, just showed up at the renaissance festival in clothing that they made from a McCall's pattern and $1 fabric from Wal-Mart. (Bravo to this mom! That was TOTALLY my family!) Those people just want to come and have fun and escape the horrors of modern-day stress. Let them have it. Please don't accost them and tell them how wrong every piece of their clothing is!
Now, on the other hand, if you are in a guild, and your terrifying guild mistress tells you what to wear, you had better dang wear it. I have had my posterior whooped by many MANY succinct guild mistresses, and I would suggest you NOT mess with them. I understand when guilds want to portray an accurate representation of their time period. That's the whole idea of re-enactment. I would professionally suggest that you stay FAR away from my booth if you're trying to go for re-enacting history. Obviously I want you as a customer, but I will be frank, and let you know, right out of the gate that our stuff is NOT period appropriate. I've said this before and I'll say it again. When people come up to my booth and politely ask, "Wow, what period in history is this clothing from" I politely respond, "roughly, circa Spring of 2014".
Thank you! Very well put. I have felt this way since becoming involved with our local fair.
ReplyDeleteLove it!! Had a friend who we made a gorgeous dress for refuse to ever dress up again because some jerk walked up to her at her first faire and told her she wasn't period accurate!
ReplyDeleteYes! There is a vast difference between playing dress-up and historical re-creation. Some people just need to get a life :)
ReplyDeleteYes, you have to be dedicated (with both time and money) to be historically accurate and not everyone can afford to do this. I love making costumes (for myself and others) and do make my own patterns to try and get the shapes reasonably accurate but I usually settle for the fabric I can afford and use a sewing machine for construction. It doesn't make the clothing any less enjoyable to wear and that's really what it should be about.
ReplyDeleteYes. Yes to all of this. This is part of the reason why I dress almost entirely in fantasy garb, as it is pretty hard to tell an elf or fairy they are not period accurate, as that period, unfortunately, never existed. Boom. Problem solved.
ReplyDeleteI am so with you! I've taken my kids to ren faires as Tinkerbell and Peter Pan (disney brand costumes) because they like dressing up, and back then I hadn't established a costume pile for them yet. Luckily no one has ever had a problem with that. The last festival I went to, I wore an awesome black combo of Damsel and Thrift Store, and added a shiny blue Damsel Bustle. I walked into a shop, actually the shop that I bought my FIRST EVER corset from, and showed them how my original corset had worked out to fit my 6 y/o with a little adjustment. anyway, they had the nuts to tell me that my bustle would work better at the Shakespeare Festival, implying it totally didn't work at this Ren Fest. AAArgh. Good thing I had already decided long ago that I wouldn't buy any of their crap ever again. that put the nail in their coffin. (about to put pics of this on the Facebook Damsel customer photo page, can't believe I never did)
ReplyDeletePlease tell me that youre going to keep this up! Its so good and so important. I cant wait to read more from you. I just feel like you know so much and know how to make people listen to what you have to say. This blog is just too cool to be missed. Great stuff, really. Please, PLEASE keep it up!
ReplyDeletefashion corset
corset fashion
black lace corset
Love it. We have costuming Nazis at our Faire as well
ReplyDeleteLove your take on this! I'm the "throw things together from the thrift store" mom because it's all I can afford. But still love dressing up!
ReplyDeleteAgree! This should also be true of all cosplay (not just renaissance-y/historical garb). I have worn my TARDIS costume to the Renaissance Festival before, and while no one seemed to mind the overall costume itself (the TARDIS can travel in all of time and space after all) I had people nit-pick about portions of the costume. Oh I am sorry, just because the TARDIS as an inanimate object couldn't possess its own key I shouldn't have added a TARDIS key necklace to my costume?! Be gone nay-sayers! Why can't we all just get along and say nice things.
ReplyDeleteAgree! Sometimes I do budget type costumes and I get nit picked for accuracy purposes....And I tried to promote making costumes from your closet (out of laziness in the start...but hey some don't got time and money to make the stuff..) to make it fun and take out the idea of "where would you wear that"...
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