Fashion shows.....

It's that time of year again and T.O.R.M crept up on us, well, like an express train! The fashion show with it's theme of "Noble Passions" went very well indeed. Our thanks go out to all those makers, models and backroom staff involved. (The next theme will be "A Night at the Movies").
The highlight for me was the 5 minute improvised argument between The Empress of Austria and The Czarina of Russia played respectively by Sue Lee and Alison Ryder-Hill of U.K Freeforms. Ladies you have my respect and admiration - for an hilarious and consummate performance.
Unfortunately, we don't have photos of the Sunday show but the Saturday show is below- and thanks to Ina Martin for the Photos.

Fashion Show March 2009

Cloning the clothing....

On occasion we are asked to replicate something that has been lost, damaged or God forbid, stolen. If the damage is light, we can usually discern its materials, manufacture and processes and do a good job on duplication. It becomes a little more problematic when the original item is not there to copy and you end up with a sort of 'identikit' picture of what you are trying to do - never an ideal solution.
So, (and I will say this only once)! If you have an item that you love, PHOTOGRAPH IT! and I don't just mean a picture of you dancing with someone else, at a distance, where the only relevant piece that can be seen is a shoulder. I mean the whole thing, front, back and sides. sleeves, linings, facings, embroidery, stitch lines, buttons and fastenings, notions - and then do it again in close-up! It would also help if you can identify any of the materials used, in other words, make notes of sizes and sketches. It will also help any insurance claims!
Another point. We like watching things like the Antiques Roadshow, (one of the few programmes that hasn't suffered from the 'dumbing down syndrome' and interminable advert breaks)! We do spot the odd uniform or similar and we are struck by the fact that the experts, even for insurance valuation, consistently undervalue them. Lets take one example. If a 95th Rifle officers Dolmen came up, (and it won't - shame!) the material costs alone would not be covered by the valuation. 45 metres of Russia braid, 80 odd silver plated ball buttons, wool good enough to carry the weight of all that. Linings, facings etc.- and going by past performance I suspect the valuation they would give to be about £450.00. So check your insurance!- and get out that camera!

Quotations and Enquiries

This month has been quite a busy one on the enquiries front and we've had many interesting items to quote for including 'strapwork' (making the body of material from interwoven and crossed flat tubes of material or leather) and very complicated embroidery and applique items. Tudor and Victorian outfits do tend to be high on the agenda, which, I suppose, reflects the power of the national curriculum.
It seems that organisations are now looking to spend on fewer, higher quality items that will stand the rigours of heavy use, instead of having to replace them annually. We can only applaud their foresight!

Gone for a Soldier...

Quite a difficult project this, as Nikolaus wanted to portray the 37th Regiment of Foot (North Hampshire Regiment), as at the Battle of Long Island in 1776. We normally give a little extra time on uniform to enable us to research properly, but in this case, we had a very short lead time, so it's was all hands to the libraries!

British Soldier (37th Regiment) 1776

We had our work cut out on this one! We have given it it's own album. (Click on the picture) and you'll see most of the process of dressing. We've also added a few Comments by Cuthbertson - who really knew what he was talking about!
Now the Uniform, and Nikolaus, are on their way to Singapore, so Nikolaus can take up a new job there. Good Luck, Nick.

BTW. Do you approve of the Colour change on this site?

Layouts & Dressing

Tudor Dress

It seems a few educational establishments are using the 'Tudor Dress' album as a resource, to show the stages in the way an early Tudor lady was dressed. There are very few things on the net that show this.
Dressing & layouts has been on my mind a lot lately and we're making changes to the website. The first one being that we've given 'Music' it's own sites. If you're interested, the music workshops are here and the ceilidhe band is here .
This is going to give us more space to show you what you want to see.

A Nice Warm Coat...

I really can't believe that it's been six weeks since I last posted on here! The time has just flown.
First there was the 'Christmas rush' and trying to get all the orders out on time. These included a new outfit for Mr White who was appearing in a 'Dickens' production over Christmas - at Williamsburg! We made him a nice warm outfit as it normally snows in Virginia at this time of year, unfortunately the weather had other ideas - and delivered 70 degrees of warm sunshine!
Then I came down with flu' and recovered just in time for us to fly to Spain for the holidays.
Now in the campo (countryside) it has cold nights but in the daytime reached about 20, which was very comfortable. -A little better than an outdoor event I did in Peterborough, in November, where it was minus 6!

Now back in Britain where the new year spreads before us like virgin snow, or should that be Virginia snow?

Blood, Guts and Gores

I've been toying with the idea of adding videos to this blog, or another suitable host. I have but one problem, what would you like to see? Each period seems to have it's own bugbear. On the living history forum here in the U.K, the thing that gets medievalists 'punching the wall' , is the problem of inlaying gores into skirts. For E.C.W. the thing that makes you furious, seems to be tassets. The 18th C 'quandaries of note' are Frock coat tails and stays. A lot of people tell us that they have project that is stalled for the lack of someone to say "try doing this or that". Well here's your chance, to save your sanity! How about a video on measuring to fit? Toiling? What would you like to see? Or, more relevantly, what would be useful?

Lethal Beauty

The fashion shows at T.O.R.M were a great success. We were trying to get away from the 'same old, same old' format and instead, concentrated on characters from history. The theme this time was 'Lethal Beauty' bringing in, among others, Elizabeth Woodville, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Caravaggio, Lady Ferrars, Dick Turpin, Black Bart, Anne Bonney and Mary Anne Cotton. A lethal collection indeed! The picture shows Rachel from Tamworth Castle trying on her new Medieval Hennin - after her appearance as Typhoid Mary!
The show finished with a WWI soldier going through the actions of the poem 'The Naming of Parts" by Henry Reed. He then presented arms while the 'Last Post' was played. Very moving.
How many people does it take to put on a fashion show? The answer is LOTS - and we'd like to thank every single one of them.

Portrait of a Black Knight

Splitting the web albums wasn't that successful as there were still too many shots in the 1700-1920's one, making it a devil to load! So I've done it again, splitting that in to two and making a new album for Victorian and Edwardian - All the albums are here. Ten of costume.

We've also had a couple of good shots sent us, John White provided three pics of his Henry VIII clothing in action
Ian Pycroft of "Black Knight Historical" also sent us the picture shown, wearing his new 18th C. outfit for the first time. He was also kind enough to say that he "Received many compliments - it was worn with much grinning and that he felt like a millionaire..".
Ian runs a lot of Historical events, normally in the East of England. His last event at Mannington was said by someone to be "the best multi-period show ever". Shame we missed it. Still, if you're in the area, Ian is running the Historic Christmas Fair in the cloisters of Norwich Cathedral 12-14th December.

Pictures & Dynasties

Various (1700-1820)

It is generally accepted that the medieval period finished at 1485 and this was the start of the Tudor dynasty. It is not so easy to do so in historic 'fashion', as people did not throw away all their clothes just because there was a new king on the throne!
A long time ago we decided to split the time periods like this in our slideshow and so far it's worked reasonably well, except for those customers who are on the cusp of changing periods.
I mention this as I've had to split one of the web albums into two as it was just taking too long to load. Now we have 9 albums that may be of interest to 'the costume conscious' . If you would like to see them all go here.
The pictures will take you to the one I've split. Previously called 'Various', they are now called Various(1000-1700) and Various (1700-1920's).We hope you like them.

Various (1000-1700)