Wearing vs Styling: Elevative (Part 1)

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PART 1: ELEVATIVE

(Previous post: Introduction)

Welcome to a Part 1 of a recent talk I gave at the Westcoast Elizabethan Clothing Symposium entitled: "Wearing vs Styling: Accessorizing to Create a Period Look".

~ Elevative

Accessories can often be one of the greatest factors in taking your historical clothing to the next level. 

And I think the best way of demonstrating that is to explore how the opposite can also also true...

Because as much as I have always loved accessories, they are not something I’ve always used effectively or thoughtfully. And sometimes using the wrong pieces --or using the right pieces the wrong way-- can actually be the greatest factor in creating a sense of historical dissonance within the look you’re trying to create.

So opening my vault of shame, we have this image...

This is me when I first started costuming, throwing everything I possibly can at an outfit to make it seem more “historical” but not making any informed choices.

For example...

The waistcoat is late 16th or early 17th century, but the purse (which is a huge visual element of this outfit, both because of its size and colour) is significantly earlier. 

The skirt has too WAY much volume, at over 240" in circumference.  Also it's brown, because surely all things are brown and grubby in the past. Right?

The capelet is an odd length that I don’t think you really see outside of German clothing.

And the hat (which I love dearly) is not…well, I was going to say it’s not the type of hat you typically see with this style of outfit, but I honestly don’t know what this outfit is trying to be.

I think this falls into the trap that a lot of us do when we are starting out, which is finding a lot of pieces that we love (many of which may be historically correct on their own) and just throwing them together with whatever outfit we have.

But I’m not making any specific choices about time, location or context. And I think you can feel that.

So let’s use accessories to make better choices!

First, since the waistcoat represents the largest investment of labour let’s use that as our anchoring piece.

This is the first piece of historical clothing I ever made (not counting underwear) and so, unsurprisingly, it's not without its faults. 

For one thing, it’s rather an odd length…It’s a tad too long and as an result has extremely large godets for the period (in addition to having extra godets it probably doesn’t need).

But it’s here.  I spent a lot of time making it.  Maybe next time I’ll construct it differently, but for now we’re going to cheat and re-accessorize it to create a more period look until it can be swapped out for something with more historically fidelity later.

So first, let’s collect a series of period images in which we can vaguely see something that resembles a blue waistcoat.

These are primarily pulled from various Brueghel genre paintings of the early 17th century.

So when I look at the above images, what I’m seeing are mostly red petticoats that hit at the ankle or higher. Maybe half the petticoats are guarded with at least a single row of black trim, often two. 
Aprons appear to be ungathered and are either blue, black or white.
Headwear consists of mostly close fitted coifs, and if there is a hat it is straw rather than felt.
Neckwear includes small to medium ruffs (with narrow sets), even smaller ruffled collars and a few wider, pleated collars.  There are also a couple of small dark pouches and knives hanging from belts.

Which brings us to this...

It’s a bit of a cheat…but visually this has more of the vibe of the period imagery in a way that the first photo does not. The length of the waistcoat is still a bit of a problem for me, and the petticoat could be even shorter. 

But in terms of historical fidelity, it's definitely better than where we started. 

(Note: Additional photos of this combination and accessories can be found HERE)

The new outfit at least feels like there is some specificity and intention behind it, even if it’s not perfect.

But here is the thing... 

Anyone who has read this blog knows that I have been down this road before. 

I attempted this exact same exercise, with the exact same source materials, nearly 10 years ago.

And what I came up with at the time was this:

A lot of the same elements are present…but the styling is not representative of what we are seeing (and what past me is failing to see) in the period images. 

It’s hard to tell in this angle, but the skirt is still 30% more voluminous when compared to later version (and made of very shaped panels, rather than the later stye for more rectangular skirts). 

The ruff is WAY too large. It’s not a terrible width but the sets are absurdly huge for this look.  

The apron is both not the right shade of blue and the hanging sides are too long (minor faults, but we are nitpicking here!). 

And there’s even a little detail of the hat being trimmed in red whereas Brueghel has them all trimmed in blue.

The point is...

Cultivating a historical eye is an ongoing (and possibly never ending) process. 

I’ve made a ton of mistakes in the past and I know for a fact that I’m going to continue to make mistakes in the future.  And that's okay. 

We don't need to throw our early efforts out with the historical bathwater, because little changes can often make a big difference. 

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Image Reproductions

Moving on!

Let’s talk about reading period images and image reproductions!

Again, for me, when it comes to trying to reproduce a specific image, accessories can make all the difference. 

So let’s take this image of German Camp follower and build her outfit from the bottom up.

The foundational elements of the outfit are basically a brown, sleeveless doublet and pink petticoat with green guards, worn over a white smock.

And there you have it. Just clothing elements. Nothing else. 

Now, this works just fine as an outfit, but clearly  there is a world of difference between this and the inspiration image we started with:

So let’s start adding on.

In terms of accessories, I would say the bare minimum we need to get closer to achieving this look is a hat, an apron and a black belt to bustle up the skirt…

Which takes us to this:

This is already much better. 

The change is pretty drastic just with these three pieces.

The hat and the belt help achieve the proper silhouette which, for me, is the defining feature of this particular look.

Meanwhile, the apron visually breaks up this wall of pink of the petticoat which helps to achieve a more balanced colour palette. 

I would say the above are the essential accessories.

Anything we add from here will be the secondary accessories; pieces that add detail, visual interest or specificity of character.

So next, we have a small white linen ruff; a pair of ruffled linen cuffs; a simple leather purse; a knife in a black leather sheath; and a small white, horsehair brush. 

Which gives us this:

In this case the change is less dramatic when compared to the first batch of accessories.

The differences here are small, but in terms of creating a more finished look I think they are meaningful. 

Are these pieces an exact match to the ones in the portrait? No. But they are doing the job they’re supposed to, which (in this case) is to add visual interest by creating some light and dark shapes and to further break up the pink mass of the skirt.

(And really, if I’m honest you could probably get away with just the purse and you’d be fine.)

So I would say this is pretty good. 

Great even. You could stop here and it would be very recognizable as the inspiration image. 

But we're not going to stop!

Next we’re going to add the final group of accessories.

These are the pieces that are specific (if nor unique) to this image.

This includes a spear with white tassels  a rolled length of black wool which is playing the part of a rucksack...

...and finally, my favourite part of this whole outfit: a small Welbar hen made of wool felt.

Which gives us the final look.

Are there cheats and inconsistencies? 

Yes. Definitely.

The hat is a mid-century Bavarian wool cap with some vintage millinery feathers sewn on. The rucksack should be larger. The original image has at least one extra, unidentified black object on the belt that is missing. And the whole thing is created a mirror image of the original and should be flopped 180 degrees.

But, the overall feel is something that I’m super happy with and reads unmistakably as the inspiration image.

And more importantly, it’s a huge improvement over where we started…

The accessories have elevated the look into something specific and recognizable.

But again, you can decide how far along that spectrum you want to take it. 

There is no right or wrong approach and your needs and milage may vary...but even little changes can make a big difference.

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Proportion

Now before we move one, there’s another thing that I want to touch on when it comes to image reproduction. 

It's is only tangentially related to accessories, but I still think it's important...and that is proportion. 

Let's stick with this slide as an example.

When I’m approaching image reproductions, I’m not necessarily trying to copy the pieces exactly as they appear in the period images. 

Instead I’m trying to create the same or similar proportions on my own body.

So in this case, when the skirt is bustled up, the ratio of pink skirt to green guards is about 2:1. This means I actually made the skirt a little longer than I would normally wear, knowing that when it was hiked up, the proportions would match. 

Likewise, I tried to hang the accessories so they just hit that top line of trim so the overall proportion of black to green to pink would feel as similar as possible.

The same principle applies to the trim on the skirt.

I was less worried about getting the size exactly right than I was with making sure the trim took up the right amount of space for my height.

Likewise, I was also paying attention hitting the right proportions for the trim placement. 

For example, the width of the trim and the space between each row is basically 1:1 (with a little bit of wonkiness on the left side of the image that I'm going to ignore). 

But the distance from the hem to the first row is about 2:1. 

So that’s the sort of thing I was trying to replicate. The exact size was less important that maintaining the overall balance.

But this can also be tricky because sometimes you need to decide which set of proportions to prioritize. They may be mutually exclusive, in which case you’ll have to pick one over the other...

Let's use this image as an example: my reproduction of the Dutch Folk hero, Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer.

I really struggled with this black, long sleeved partlet-type thing she is wearing...both with what it was and with how to make it. 

For example, this garment (whatever it is) actually seems rather long in the body. If you look under her arm it actually extends more than a full hand’s width down her torso. 

Now, if I had done the same thing, using my own hand as a guide, the partlet would be so long that you’d only see the tiniest sliver of the brown kirtle between the bottom of the partlet and the apron, because my torso is significantly shorter than the one in the painting.  

And so I chose to prioritize the overall ratio of black to brown (about 1.5:1) rather strictly adhering to the shape and size of the garment as presented in the portrait.

Again, that’s an aesthetic choice that I made. Your mileage may vary…but it is something to consider when you are trying to adapt the often exaggerated proportion of period paintings for modern bodies. 

(For more photos and information on the research, construction and historical cheats involved in the create of the Kenau outfit, please see HERE and HERE)

Up next: 

PART 2: COST EFFECTIVE

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