Historical Costuming - Tumblr Posts
You have no idea how happy this makes me
I don’t know if I can contain my “The Muppet Christmas Carol has better costume design than most Oscar-nominated period dramas” rant until after Thanksgiving you guys, I have…so many Thoughts
HEY ARTISTS!
Do you design a lot of characters living in not-modern eras and you’re tired of combing through google for the perfect outfit references? Well I got good news for you kiddo, this website has you covered! Originally @modmad made a post about it, but her link stopped working and I managed to fix it, so here’s a new post. Basically, this is a costume rental website for plays and stage shows and what not, they have outfits for several different decades from medieval to the 1980s. LOOK AT THIS SELECTION:
OPEN ANY CATEGORY AND OH LORDY–
There’s a lot of really specific stuff in here, I design a lot of 1930s characters for my ask blog and with more chapters on the way for the game it belongs to I’m gonna be designing more, and this website is going to be an invaluable reference. I hope this can be useful to my other fellow artists as well! :)
Did you find this helpful? If you’re able, maybe buy me a coffee please? :D
do you have a favorite historical costuming youtuber?
Would it be terribly basic to say Bernadette Banner?
I feel like her videos are just very relaxing and comforting, good background viewing for Sewing Time. Which is primarily what I watch costuber videos for, so...yeah.
But I like each of the usual suspects for their own reasons (and I suspect The Closet Historian and I have the closest aesthetic preferences- history goths unite!).
I don’t know if I can contain my “The Muppet Christmas Carol has better costume design than most Oscar-nominated period dramas” rant until after Thanksgiving you guys, I have…so many Thoughts
if we were married would you lace my corset for me be honest
THINGS I NEED TO FUCKING KNOW: Why every fuckin trans man or nb person I know who binds is like “oh binders are the worst, you can’t breathe in them, I know someone who broke a rib once”,
And meanwhile over in historical costuming, we are fucking eating, sleeping, swordfighting, riding horses, and feeling great like this:
(credit: Jenny La Flamme, The Tudor Tailor, Verdaera)
Like is there NO overlap between people who want to bind and people who care about accurate 16th century clothing reconstruction techniques?
(I, okay, maybe it is kind of a niche interest, but…. REALLY? Anyone who’s made a boned binder, PLS SPEAK TO ME)
Keep reading
Steve Rogers did, in fact, realize that something was off when he saw the outline of the woman’s odd bra (a push-up bra, he would later learn), but being an officer and a gentleman, he said that it was the game that gave the future away.
Claire's fancy-pants HISTORICAL FASHION MASTER POST
So my historical costuming resources list from 2011 was less than a page long- I’m not saying that I’ve learned a lot in the past three years, but this list is now sitting pretty at a solid nine pages. Whew. And people wonder why I want to redo this damn series.
This list is by no means an exhaustive one- it’s a list of (primarily western) historical fashion resources, both online and offline, that is limited to what I know, own, or use! It’s a work in progress, and I’m definitely hoping to expand on it as my knowledge base grows. First things first, how about a little:
ADVICE FOR RESEARCHING HISTORICAL FASHION
Read, and read about more than just costuming. Allowing yourself to understand the cultural and historical context surrounding the clothing of a particular region/period can be invaluable in sussing out good costume design. Looking at pictures is all well and good, but reading about societal pressures, about construction techniques, daily routines, local symbolism, whatever else will really help you understand the rhyme and reason behind costuming from any given context.
Expand your costume vocabulary. When you’re delving into a new topic, costuming or otherwise, picking up new terminology is essential to proper understanding and furthering your research. Write down or take note of terms as you come across them- google them, look up synonyms, and use those words as a jumping off point for more research. What’s a wire rebato? How does it differ from a supportasse? Inquiring minds want to know.
Double-check your sources. Especially on the internet, and double especially on tumblr. I love it, but it’s ground zero for rapidly spreading misinformation. Books are usually your safest bet, but also take into account their date of publication, who’s writing them- an author’s biases can severely mangle their original source material.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Do everything you can to find out information on your own, but feel free to reach out to people with more specialized areas of knowledge for help! Be considerate about it- the people you’re asking are busy as well- but a specific line of questioning that proves you’re passionate and that you respect their subject matter expertise can work wonders.
Okay, onto the links!
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of getting off the internet and looking into books! God bless the internet, but books are (generally, this isn’t a rule) better-researched and better-sourced. Bibliographies also mean each individual books can be a jumping off point for further research, which is always a fantastic thing.
Remember- owning books is awesome and you should absolutely assemble your own library of resources, but LIBRARIES. Libraries. You’ll be surprised to find what books are available to you at your local library.
GENERAL / SURVEYS
British Costume from Earliest Times to 1820 Fine book with lots of first hand sources, but be wary of the photography in the book- reproduction costumes and thus somewhat less reliable. Though hilarious.
Corsets and Crinolines Norah Waugh’s invaluable survey of corsetry and corset patterns- used the world ‘round by modern corsetieres.
Costume in Detail: Women’s Dress 1730-1930 Elaborate line drawings/diagrams of extant period garments! A fantastic survey.
Cut of Men’s Clothes PDF available online! Patterns for men’s period garments.
Cut of Women’s Clothes Patterns for women’s period garments.
Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History This is a library find, unless you have a pretty three hundred bucks lying around- a great, general resource.
A History of Costume A lot of good text and info, to be taken with a grain of salt. Be wary of any reconstructions and or “supposed” patterns that aren’t directly based on extant garments or firsthand accounts.
Fashion (Taschen 25th Anniversary) A survey of the Kyoto Costume Institute’s fashion collection- broad but beautiful. On every fashion student’s bookcase.
Fashion: The Definitive History of Costume and Style Great overview of fashion history from the Smithsonian and DK publishing.
The History of Costume: From the Ancient Mesopotamians Through the Twentieth Century Broad costume survey, second edition.
What People Wore: 1,800 Illustrations from Ancient Times to the Early Twentieth Century this is one of those “I am putting this here because I used it a ton when I was younger” but man, mixed bag. Really cool survey to browse through, but also work that is a copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy in most instances and thus not necessarily trustworthy as a resource.
What People Wore When: A Complete Illustrated History of Costume from Ancient Times to the Nineteenth Century for Every Level of Society A collection of Racinet and Hottentoth’s costume plates from the 19th century. A beautiful survey but, since these are later illustrations, to be taken with a grain of salt.
Patterns fo Fashion books Detailed, hand-drawn diagrams of historical fashion, inside and out. Pretty amazing stuff.
Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women, C.1560-1620
Patterns of Fashion 1: Englishwomen’s Dresses & Their Construction C. 1660-1860
Patterns of Fashion 2: Englishwomen’s Dresses & Their Construction C. 1860-1940
Patterns of Fashion 4: The Cut and Construction of Linen Shirts, Smocks, Neckwear, Headwear and Accessories for Men and Women C. 1540-1660
Fashion in Detail books Not what you want if you’re looking for photos of entire costumes- note the “in detail” bit up there. Just a beautiful series, and great reference for all the little things you might miss otherwise. The V&A has an amazing fashion collection, and it’s great to see them share it with the world.
Nineteenth Century Fashion in Detail
Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Fashion in Detail
Underwear: Fashion in Detail
World Dress: Fashion in Detail The one non-western entry in the series.
Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700 - 1915 LACMA’s response to the V&A’s series mentioned above, also an invaluable resource for historical fashion detail.
Continuar a ler
i looove the miku trend. nomadic horselord hungarian miku be upon you
This was an actual gun, called the punt gun. It was outlawed for being to effective at killing ducks. 50-100 ducks at a time matter fact. Imagine mass shooters having one of these! Regulating the gun industry works. Just need to kick out every Republican from office..I'll color this later. 😎..
Back in 2015, I made this skirt for an 1860s ballgown. I wanted to make a daytime bodice to give the gown more wearability outside of formal events, but I had run out of fabric and since the fabric had lived in my stash for years, it had been discontinued long ago. I had a minor fabric miracle when I discovered some similar plaid taffeta on Etsy! I scooped it up and decided to make an 1850s bodice, since tiered flouced skirts like this were super popular then.
This bodice ate fabric, and I think I used three or four yards in total because the sleeves are massive and multi-layered. There is a black lace/fringe trim on the bodice, which you can’t see very well in pictures but is lovely in person.
The cap and bodice were made to accompany the new ensemble. The cap is made entirely from things found at Walmart, and the materials for the bonnet came from my fabric stash.
Had a last minute notion to make an Elizabethan-inspired embroidery pattern to celebrate the eclipse. I originally thought of doing a coif pattern, but thought the eclipse would get lost in the folds of the cap, so I ultimately went with a sweet bag. Since it was cloudy throughout totality, I thought it would be fun to incorporate the stars & clouds embroidery from a c.1600 waistcoat at the Bath Fashion Museum. The sun design is inspired by various period illustrations of sun motifs, minus the face they always seemed to put on every sun/moon design because I just couldn't make it not look silly.
I have no idea what stitches I would use for this bag, since sweet bags tend to use all sorts of different stitches. The original stars & clouds design is in blackwork, but I haven't seen any evidence of blackwork used on sweet bags. I'd probably do the background in a black or darkest blue metallic gobelin stitch (also ahistorical, but pretty!), the clouds/stars in silver stem stitch, the corona and rays in satin stitch or plaited braid, and the moon in black detatched buttonhole or some other fill stitch. Or I'd do the entire thing in blackwork except the corona and rays of the sun, which I'd do in gilt, documentation be damned.
My latest finished project, based off a couple of extant bodices and a fashion plate which all had this snazzy cross-over front feature.
I actually made the skirt a long time ago as a historybounding, everyday thing to wear. It has alternating panels of striped and solid black cotton, and has a scalloped hem. I love it and wear it often, and decided that I was going to make a matching bodice so I could wear it to costume events, too.
I draped the pattern myself, based off of a couple of extants. Each seam is boned with artificial whalebone and the seam allowances were tacked down by hand with a herringbone stitch. The peplum is lined with black cotton, but the rest is just lined with cheap plain white muslin to save on cost. The bodice closes up the center front with hooks and eyes, and then the wrap panels are folded over and closed at the side seams.
Brain gremlins about my weight are under the cut for those that don't want to read it.
I finished this outfit a while back, but I've been struggling with whether or not I wanted to post it. It's not the outfit, I think that it turned out fabulously. But I've been really unhappy about my weight, and it's been a fight to remind myself that my weight is not my worth. I keep hearing the negative things my mother would say whenever I would gain a pound or two or the "positive" things she'd say when I lost them (things like "oh, you have a chin again!" or "I can actually see your waist now.")
So I'm trying to ignore all that and remind myself how awesome this dress turned out, how hard I worked on it, and how proud I am of the construction of it.
A New Crinoline and 1850s Petticoats
Finally getting around to posting about my new 1850s undies! I finished them last winter, but Life happened, so here I am, a year and a half later.
Anyway, I finished a new crinoline and basic cotton petticoat first. The crinoline was made by first making the lower section out of cotton muslin, and attaching twill tape at even intervals. I then made each bone individually, the casing made from twill tape, then the boning threaded through, and then the bone stitched closed at the needed circumference. I played around with the size of each bone before I stitched it to the tapes to get the overall shape that I wanted.
To go over it, I made my standard cotton petticoat with a single flounce.
Then I actually got around to reading period descriptions and suggestions for petticoats in fashion magazines of the time, and found that they frequently recommended petticoats made of grosgrain fabric, with three flounces from the knee to the hem. So, I searched the internet and finally found some grosgrain fabric, which I had to order from Greece. (Spoiler alert - grosgrain and faille are pretty much indistinguishable, which I wish I'd known before because faille is way easier to find.)
Anyway, the construction of the petticoat was not difficult, but the grosgrain fabric was a nightmare. It frayed at the slightest touch, exploding into a thousand tiny shards. My serger was garbage and not working, so I used a side cutter presser foot instead, which sort of acts as a serger. It definitely helped, but by the time I discovered said presser foot, I was already so over this project that I threw it in the naughty corner for months because I couldn't stand to work on it anymore. I finally dug it out a few months later and finished it up.
I have to say, it does give an enormous amount of floof, but I would never, ever recommend making one to anyone else. It was a nightmare from start to finish.
There's a more detailed writeup with more of my petticoat research and in-progress photos on my main blog, so please do check it out!
𝚃𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚊'𝚜 𝚄𝚗𝚒𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖 - 𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚓𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝙸𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗
This particular project will be a blend of two things - Grand Duchess Tatiana's Ulan uniform and a late Victorian walking suit [meaning the skirt will be changed from an asymmetrical riding habit skirt to an 1890s fan skirt, and the jacket will be cut to a curvier profile]. The patterns for the both the jacket and skirt will be entirely self-drafted based on the original photos shown above. Let's go over the materials: For the body of it, I chose a medium-heavy weight [450 gsm] English herringbone tweed in 'Dark Navy'. This totaled to 6 metres. The yellow front is also of tweed, but this time a plain weave and only 1/2 a metre. They are pictured below along with silver dome buttons and an antique fob necklace, because who doesn't need one of those. Additional materials such as trims for the collar and cuffs, as well as the belt, will be shared in a future post.
Photos are not mine [except for last one], I found them on Pinterest.
Who knew trying to find historical silk stockings would be such a dreadful and agonising struggle...