I’ve done a little time traveling.

Yep, strapped myself into a medieval gown and went to a Renaissance Festival. That’s as far back in time as I go cuz I can’t be without my wet wipes, make up, hot baths, books, my computer and cell phone. I’m a hardcore 21st century gal.

But across the country, more dedicated historians do a little “time travelin” themselves with the help of Historical Reeanactments. There are Civil War reenactments, Fur Trade reenactments, Old West Train Robbery reenactments, 19th century Women’s Education Schools and the Old Time Base-Ball League, to name a few.

In period uniforms and language, the players of the 1860’s baseball league and their fans (called “rooters”), also dressed in the fashion of the day, are devoted to accuracy. The players use real dinner plates as bases which was standard protocol in the late 1800s and the “hurler” pitches underhand. Hand-sewn, leather-bound baseballs are caught with bare hands and you get four strikes before you’re out at the old ball game.

Late night talk show host, Conan O’Brien, caught wind of the league and decided to pay them a visit. Conan said his 1860s Baseball experience was his favorite video clip in Late Night history. Besides being hilarious, this video will give you an idea of what you can expect when you get involved with historical reenactments:

[via Mental Floss]

This video is fantastic! The iFanboy guys talk in depth about masks, tights and capes in this 25-minute episode about superhero costumes.

These guys know their stuff. They look at the history of superhero costumes and discuss what has worked and what costumes were major flops.

Done right, a design can last decades and become an essential part of the cultural fabric, like Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man have become. Others can become jokes that create laughter for years to come.

If you have the time, be sure to watch this video. There’s a lot to learn about superhero costumes and it’s quite interesting. Well done, Guys!

Spring is slowly inching its way forward here in the northern hemisphere, and you know what that means. Before you know it, Ren Faire season will be upon us! Because of this realization, I’ve been thinking about historical costumes a lot more than usual, and I thought maybe the My Disguises audience would like to think about it too.

Ren Faires are full of the fun and fantastical costumes, which is definitely awesome in its own right. They just wouldn’t be the same without all the fairies, elves, and pirates. But today I’m going to address the other side–like I said, historical costumes. A lot of people would like to wear more historically accurate costumes, but they don’t know where to start and they don’t know the facts, so they just get costumes that look like costumes they saw in some movie sometime.

Free hint: Movies are basically never the best resource for historically accurate costumes. Of course, if you want to dress up like the characters, that’s fine, and I won’t complain. Film costumes are pretty, after all!

When it comes down to trying to create accurate period costumes, there are two basic resources available. They both have their pros and cons, and they both require a certain amount of thought and discernment from the researcher, but until someone invents time travel, it’s simply the best we can do.

The first resource is extant pieces of clothing. These are actual pieces of clothing from the Middle Ages that have survived, at least partially, and have now been excavated, preserved, and studied. Learning about these articles is about as close as we can get to the real thing. (Well, they are the real thing). These ancient pieces of clothing, while there are not many of them, can tell us generally about the way clothing was constructed and the types of fabric that were used. Some of the luckier finds involve entire outfits found on bodies, which tell us how clothing was worn, what pieces were worn together, and how the clothing was different between the genders.

On the other hand, a lot of the study that has been done on these pieces amounts to mostly speculation. Some of the “clothing” that have been found, were really just mostly-rotted scraps of fabric, and the researchers just had to guess what piece of clothing it might have been, based on where it was found in relation to a body (if there was a body nearby at all!) and if there was any indication of a seam or hem on the scrap of fabric. Furthermore, dating the clothing is done with carbon-14 dating methods, which is not very exact.

As you can see, there is a lot of guesswork involved when dealing with extant pieces of clothing. But at the same time, the piece of clothing can tell us everything about itself, even if we have to guess about its context.

But enough blathering about that! Here are some useful websites that deal with studying extant pieces from the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Marc Carlson’s “Some Clothing of the Middle Ages”. The site includes tons of information on extant pieces of clothing, categorized by type of clothing. There are diagrams of the clothing, measurements of the pieces, if they were found with a body or other pieces of clothing, what fabrics they were, and what time period they were probably from. He also has an extensive bibliography which can lead you to more information, if you can get your hands on the books.

Viking Resources for the Re-Enactor is one of the more comprehensive sites I’ve found addressing Viking clothing. Unfortunately it has a lot more words than images, but the descriptions are pretty clear, and it should give you a pretty good idea of what the Vikings wore in regards to entire outfits. On that same subject, this PDF addresses in detail the apron-dress of Viking women, including some clear and useful information on what is called the Hedeby (or Haithabu) fragment, a piece of cloth which is believed to have originally been an apron-dress.

Reconstructing History: Articles is another good resource from a researcher who regularly deals with extant pieces of clothing. Many of the articles will go into detail and give diagrams for the construction of the piece. She also has tons of other information about medieval and Renaissance clothing.

The other resource is historical art. Art previous to the middle ages is so rare and stylized that we won’t even get into it. Medieval art is not very detailed when it comes to drawing the clothing, so it takes a fair amount of interpretation. This is why it’s useful to take information both from the paintings and from the extant pieces, to try to figure out what the clothing was really like. Paintings do give a certain amount of context, so you can see what types of clothing were worn in what types of situations, and that kind of thing.

Art was more advanced in the Renaissance, so there are plenty of portraits with heavy detailing, which makes it easier to see how the clothing was constructed and decorated.

The thing to keep in mind, when looking at historical art, is that they might not be entirely realistic. You know how, if you’re going to go get a formal portrait taken of yourself, you wear nicer clothing than usual? They definitely did that back then too; so the super fancy dresses covered with beads and pearls was probably not what they wore every day. Furthermore, there’s a certain amount of symbolism put into the art so that illiterate people could identify the subjects. In medieval art, saints and royalty were depicted wearing certain types of clothing so that they could be identified as such, whether or not they actually wore such things in real life.

To get the most complete idea of what historical clothing was actually like, it’s best to do research on extant pieces and on the art, and then figure out how the two fit together.

As far as actual resources go, a good bet is to go to your local library and see if they have books about medieval or Renaissance art. You know, the huge ones with lots of pictures. But there is also a fair amount of information on the web.

Tudor England has many scans of portraits of the Tudor royal family–Henry Tudor, Henry VIII and his wives, Elizabeth I and her siblings, and several others. Each portrait is coupled with a fair amount of commentary regarding the history of the portrait and the subjects.

Artcyclopedia is a good starting point for finding online galleries of historical art. And in that vein, Wikipedia is also good for finding threads that will lead to more information. You can start by searching through the History of Clothing, or you can look up portraits of nobles, or search for historical artists, and find information to go from there.

A Milanese Tailor’s Handbook is an awesome resource for Tudor clothing. This site is an online copy of a fashion book written in the 1500s. It’s hard to get more authentic than that. There are other similar books (not available in an online format). The most popular ones are Patterns of Fashion by Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d by Janet Arnold, and Tailor’s Pattern Book 1589.

This kind of research should give you enough information to make or assemble something that looks pretty accurate. If you’re not into sewing, it’s just a matter of creatively putting together the right pieces of clothing to create the right look. If you are into sewing, there are plenty of costume patterns available. If you want patterns that are truly authentic to period, I would recommend Reconstructing History and Margo Anderson’s Historic Costume Patterns.

Good luck! And have fun at the Ren Faire! I know I will.

Some of the best costumes I’ve ever seen…are painted directly on the body.

The World Body Painting Festival is the biggest annual event of the body painting culture and community. Here are highlights of the first South Korean Body Painting Competition (held in 2008).

It is said, by some, that body painting is the oldest form of art, dating back to early civilization. The World Body Painting Festival originally began in 1996 in Austria. Over the years, it has drawn over a hundred artists and models, and thousands of visitors, from all over the world.

The elaborate detail is amazing. Here’s my personal favorite:

[via Funtasticus.com]

Okay, I thought I’d seen it all.

But I’m a little taken aback (pun intended) by a new trend in body piercing called Corset piercings. Corset piercings are a series of piercings up the back in two vertical columns, that mimic the eyelet placement on the corset. Ribbon is threaded through the rings, in the same fashion as the laces located on the back of the garment.

Originally, corsets were worn by women, predominately in the 1800’s though it dates back to the 16th century, to cinch up their waists and shape the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes.

In today’s fashion industry, modern corsets or corset tops often feature lacing and/or boning to mimic a historical style of corsets, but have very little effect on the shape of the wearer’s body.

Speaking of body effects, near as I can tell, corset piercings are intended for temporary use (to avoid infection, unsightly scars, etc.). I’ve read, though, that a qualified piercer can install permanent corset piercings.

While I find the concept of corset piercings entirely fascinating, I’m afraid I’ll have to keep the rings on my fingers and the laces on my shoes.

1932: Premiere of White Zombie, starring Bela Lugosi. Capitalizing on previous voodoo zombie themes, it is regarded as the first legitimate zombie film ever made. Zombies are portrayed as mindless, shambling henchmen under the spell of an evil magician.

1930’s – 1960’s: Zombies, typically still voodoo-inspired, continue to appear in cinema periodically. Notable films include: I Walked with a Zombie (1943), the notorious Plan 9 from Outer space (1959) and EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.

1954: Publication of I am Legend, by author Richard Matheson, the story of a future Los Angeles overrun with undead bloodsucking beings, influences the zombie genre with the portrayal of a worldwide apocalypse due to an infestation. Although classified as a vampire story and referred to as “the first modern vampire novel,” it has an authoritative impact on the zombie genre through the work of George Romero. Romero, by his own admission, was greatly influenced by the novel and its 1964 adaptation when writing the film Night of the Living Dead.

1968: Night of the Living Dead crushes former horror film taboos to became a genre-defining classic, proving more influential on the zombie archetype than any other literary or cinematic work (see Zombie Evolution: Part 1 below)

1978: George Romero follows up Night with Dawn of the Dead. The film tells the story of four survivors of the expanding zombie apocalypse as they take refuge in an abandoned shopping mall, in Monroeville (Pennsylvania), where they intend to wait out the crisis. They clear the mall of the undead and barricade the entrances with tractor-trailers. But they have more than the undead to worry about. They also have to contend with a band of looting bikers and their own mounting tensions. Here’s a look at the trailer:

Make sure you check back for more zombie goodness, including tutorials on how to do zombie makeup on the cheap and information on the official World Zombie Day!

In honor of the fast approaching World Zombie Day on October 26th, it only makes sense to pay homage to the iconic film that shot zombies into horror movie pop culture.

George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead was filmed in black and white, not to add a certain artistic tone, but because it was more cost effective. Oddly, though, the black and white tones of the movie increased the film’s heebie-jeebie quality.

Night Of The Living Dead follows two protagonists, Barbra and Ben, as they try to survive the night in a Pennsylvania farmhouse surrounded by zombies (recently dead bodies reanimated due to radio active explosion in the earth’s atmosphere and are now on a bloodthirsty hunt for human flesh). Will Barbra and Ben survive? (I’ll never tell…you’ll have to watch the movie).

Back in 1968, when Night of the Living Dead premiered, it was strongly criticized for its “explicit content.” However, in 1999, the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry, saying it was “historically, culturally or aesthetically important.”

While Night of the living Dead wasn’t the first zombie movie produced, it was certainly the most influential in shaping the modern zombie archetype. Take a look at the trailer…if you dare!

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has converted the world’s largest collection of historical clothing and accessories, The Costume Institute, into a searchable database which is now available to view online.

This project begin back in 2000, and for eight years they’ve worked on formatting and digitizing their 31,000-piece collection. Amazing!

Harold Koda, the museum curator, reports, “Once we got the information together, we thought it would be ideal if the general public could log in and, for instance, find all of our Christian Diors.”

Wow, a person could spend countless hours on their website, and still not see everything. It’s so great that the museum is digitizing and preserving this information for countless generations to come.

When it comes to throwing a party as big as the Olympic opening ceremony, the Chinese take it very seriously.

It’s a chance to showcase their culture and history to the world so the show must be spectacular.

Based on some of the pictures I’ve seen, they succeeded. The 3 ½ hour show highlighted 5000 years of history, featured 20,000 performers and 33,000 fireworks.

And apparently, the creators of the show spared no expense on costumes.

I was not able to include some of the most impressive costumes here, but you can view them on the NBC Olympic web site.

Having been deemed as the writer with the most costuming experience, I am here to share with you–

A Short History of My Own Costuming Experience.

Part Two: College

The next few years saw a little improvement in my costume-making skills. Of the sewing I did at this time, my creation efforts were mostly redirected to making normal clothing, and I only made three real costumes during my years of college. One was a cosplay of Victoria Everglot from Corpse Bride, one was a Queen of Spades costume, and the other was a new, more awesome pirate costume.

(more…)

Originally, jousting tournaments were held as military exercises between the various nobles. Such tournaments started peacefully but often turned into bloody battles between jealous champions.

At the end of the thirteenth century, jousting tournaments started evolving into organized spectacles, subject to chivalry and fair play and often fought with blunted weapons. The knight’s object became one of knocking opponents off their horses.

Modern day Renaissance Fairs, The Society for Creative Anachronism and the National Jousting Association have kept the sport of jousting alive.

But a new style of jousting is emerging, quickly gaining widespread popularity.

Nowhere is there another sport that encourages more pageantry, chivalry, and excitement than what you’re about to witness…

This weekend I got the opportunity to go to the Scottish Festival at Thanksgiving Point in Utah. It was awesome! I got to see some rocking celtic bands, participate in celtic rituals like waulking, eat haggis for the first time (seriously, yum), and of course I was dazzled by the eye candy! Tartan was draped everywhere, there were hundreds upon hundreds of kilts, not to mention a variety of period costumes and other fun things to wear!

This family sang an a capella rendition of the national anthem for the opening of the Highland Games.

This is the band Wicked Tinkers, they were very popular!

Some pretty outfits:

I even showed up in the most Scottish-looking outfit I could muster.

But this guy was definitely the best dressed of everyone at the whole event!