Two of my friends are joining SCA and we are looking for books that give some sample ideas, lots of pictures, to help limit our time period. We want relatively historically accurate (no zippers but i'm not measuring stitchings for my buttonholes either) but I am willing to have a few modern alterations.
You create a character so I'd need a couple books that reference the location that garb would have been worn. Thats what I'm having the hardest time with. Are there books just by location?
Pictures of clothing worn between AD 900 and AD 1600--however a really good *detailed* book that only had 1200-1300 or 1400-1600 would be better.
Seamstresses that make historical costumes or other members of SCA, LARP, reenactment groups--Please give your favorite reference book.
2007-07-16 07:36:17 · 5 answers · asked by phantom_of_valkyrie 7 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
I would check out the series by Osprey Books for the period.
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2007-07-20 07:13:06 · answer #1 · answered by fitzovich 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The bad news about most "costuming" books is that they are often not written by historians. So accuracy isn't necessarily their strong point. Herbert Norris's works, for example, may be okay to start with but don't rely on them for historical accuracy in the descriptions.
One good book for construction basics is the Medieval Tailor's Assistant. I don't have it but for late period The Tudor Tailor comes highly recommended. I also want to get
Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince (years 1340-1365) but it is more an academic book. For ideas of what was worn when 20,000 Years of Fashion is fun to page through.
For me, I prefer to look at actual paintings/illuminations. The Web Gallery of Art www.wga.hu can be searched by school (Italian, Flemish, etc), artist and by time period. I also like joining various yahoo groups (12 th, 13th and 14th century garb groups, sca garb, Italian Ren garb group, etc) and can get good ideas from searching the archives and the photos they post. There are also some very good garb related websites out there...Kass McGann at Reconstructing History is extremely reliable (she too has a yahoo group), Cynthia Virtue's website, Realm of Venus, The Viking Answer Lady, In Prayse of the Needle (good info on tunics and embroidery) are some I can think of just off the top of my head.
HTH!
2007-07-19 03:12:22 · answer #2 · answered by Annora 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Check out humanities and art books. You can find out a lot from paintings, particularly how something was worn, different styles from different countries, different clothing for different social statuses and the time period that it was worn in. There are several good costume design books that deal with the history of fashion. Another good book is by Umberto Eco: "History of Beauty".
2007-07-16 10:55:24 · answer #3 · answered by saracatheryn 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I can go you one better than a book. Go to www.sewingcentral.com, the pattern section. They carry a good selection of basic and advanced patterns for a fair range of european time periods in multiple sizes. They show picture of each of the patterns so you can decide what you think would suit you (no pun intended).
Once you decide that, you can proceed to the lbrary and various historical websites to research more specifics for that period. Good luck.
2007-07-16 20:09:45 · answer #4 · answered by prnigel 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm surprised the SCA website doesn't have any resources. Check out costumes.org costume.org, modehistorique.com, costumepage.org, and rendance.org
2007-07-16 10:42:51 · answer #5 · answered by Pink_Pirate 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋