Costuming, anyone?

angeliz2k

never mind the shorty
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 24, 2008
Messages
3,727
Reaction score
488
Location
Commonwealth of Virginia--it's for lovers
Website
www.elizabethhuhn.com
What a nice dress, and I'm glad you were able to wear it to something. And that nothing fell off. lol! I do not have any talents in the sewing arts at all, all I can do is just draw, and attempt to write.

You have some mad drawing skills, Tepelus! And the '20's outfit is super cute.

I have been known to draw, but nothing historical, and not much recently. I've focused more on writing than visual art since high school, which was lo these many years ago. I think the last drawing I did was several years ago of Olga Korbut in mid-flight (this was a few years post-college).

Anyway, I was surprised at how quickly I got used to walking around in a hoop skirt. Although it looks cumbersome, it's light. As long as your corset is fit well and your skirt is high enough not to trip you, it's not that hard to get around unless you're in a confined space. Which goes to show, even though it's easy to gasp and say, "Oh, how silly, hoop skirts!", our ancestors were not entirely insane. These were everyday garments, so they were, in fact, livable. Not the *most* practical fashion, but not a torture device or something that left women immobile.
 

CWatts

down the rabbit hole of research...
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 4, 2013
Messages
1,756
Reaction score
1,235
Location
Virginia, USA
Last edited:

blake.e.weis

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 23, 2019
Messages
67
Reaction score
0
Location
Minnesota
Yes. I’m writing two books about WWII and I own a full US Army field uniform so there have been many times where I’ve worn it to get the feeling of what it’s like
 

angeliz2k

never mind the shorty
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 24, 2008
Messages
3,727
Reaction score
488
Location
Commonwealth of Virginia--it's for lovers
Website
www.elizabethhuhn.com
It's good to be back on AW, everyone!

So, I've been spending far too much (?) of my time on historical costuming lately, and I've been upping my skills (I hope). I'd been working mostly in the 1860s, with one outfit from the 1910s that I wasn't totally satisfied with (the blouse is lovely, but the skirt never quite seemed to fit properly). In any case, I decided I was going to make a concerted bottom-to-top effort at some 1910s and early 1920s looks. I bought patterns and fabric (then bought different patterns) and I schemed and I sketched, and eventually I came up with a plan. I'm still in the early-ish stages of this longer strategy. The strategy looks like this: combinations, corset, mid-1910s day look, 1910s evening look, late 1910s day look, 1920s evening look, and somewhere in amongst all this try to figure out what to do with my hair, which is always a struggle. There are some previous projects I want to refine, as well.

Obviously, that's a long-term plan. Eventually, I would also love to put together a VAD uniform, but that'll be well down the line, I think.

So far, I've done the combinations and blogged about it here, and the corset. I blogged about the first half of the project here and will blog about the second half of it soon.
 

Whiteout

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 26, 2021
Messages
53
Reaction score
47
I’ve done this a few times

our house is set up like the 1930’s so my wife dressed up in 1930 attire, and we did a photo shoot of that in our hone

Another time we dressed up like the 1940’s and went to a local railroad station from the 1940’s and did a series of photos. I had one blown up poster size and the print shop thought it was our grandparents until we pointed it out that it was us

As for our costume attire: all derived from Thrift Shops!
 

Layla Nahar

Seashell Seller
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 6, 2007
Messages
7,655
Reaction score
913
Location
Seashore
I'm costuming adjacent. Or maybe just a voyeur. I'm beyond curious, I just haven't made and garb myself. Tho I think about it aaaall the time, and I can't stop looking at all the eye candy, the costumes that other people make.
 

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian
Staff member
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
16,877
Reaction score
5,196
Location
Near the gargoyles
Website
www.alessandrakelley.com
I'm costuming adjacent. Or maybe just a voyeur. I'm beyond curious, I just haven't made and garb myself. Tho I think about it aaaall the time, and I can't stop looking at all the eye candy, the costumes that other people make.
Costume appreciation is like any kind of art appreciation. You don't have to make paintings to enjoy paintings and you don't have to make costumes to enjoy them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Layla Nahar

Whiteout

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 26, 2021
Messages
53
Reaction score
47
My wife and I did Little Red Ridinghood on our farm with me being the logger that saved her just because we could not do a wolf costume!!!

But my wife and I don’t sew but found a no sew way to put a good on her cloak so it ended up being creative and fun in the end

I would post pictures but I’m new snd not sure how yet
 

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian
Staff member
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
16,877
Reaction score
5,196
Location
Near the gargoyles
Website
www.alessandrakelley.com
My wife and I did Little Red Ridinghood on our farm with me being the logger that saved her just because we could not do a wolf costume!!!

But my wife and I don’t sew but found a no sew way to put a good on her cloak so it ended up being creative and fun in the end

I would post pictures but I’m new snd not sure how yet
You have to host the pictures somewhere else on the internet and link to them from here.
 

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian
Staff member
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
16,877
Reaction score
5,196
Location
Near the gargoyles
Website
www.alessandrakelley.com
So, if anyone is interested, I just finished a video on the history of costume books and posted it to Youtube, oh, about ten minutes ago. I've been working on it for a year and a half (yow), and if anyone is interested how the topic fits into art history (and what are some fantastic resources!), "Tissues and Fabrications: A (Brief) History of the Histories of Clothing" is here:

 

Catriona Grace

Mind the thorns
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 1, 2021
Messages
4,203
Reaction score
4,108
Part of my business involves doing reenactments. I can't afford to do all out down to the undies costume reproductions of so many eras, but I do have favorites I spend more time and money on than others. Corsets- I can't get into them by myself easily, so end up putting them on at home with my husband's help and then driving myself to my venue. During the drives, I've occasionally had a corset push my boobs into a position they haven't attained since I was sixteen.