Re-enactor anthropology

[mmcnealy]

I think it would be an interesting project, and probably PhD thesis to go back and study the formation of what I've come to call "Rennie Landsknecht Fashion" or RLF for short.

For those of you who don't follow the Renaissance faire scene or the Landsknecht scene at all, you may not have the slightest clue of what I'm talking about. Basically its just a small subset of the available styles of clothing, some are depicted in period artwork and some aren't. There are several period hat styles that aren't represented in current re-enactment circles (peasent hat styles, droopy barett styles), or are so far removed from the period depiction of the hat as to be a completely different style all together (most tellarbarett).

Which leads me to the anthropology part of this train of thought.... Who came up with the coda of fashion which defines the current Rennie Landsknecht look?

I can imagine a scene in some small cluttered apartment, with some guy pulling out the Osprey Men at Arms Landsknecht book and telling his wife/girlfriend "Honey, I want this outfit"

And she says "OK, I'll make it for you because I love you!" So she does, and its 11 pm the night before the event that he's going to wear the thing at, and she gets to the hat, because how hard can that be? Or rather, it has scared the living daylights out of her and she's put it off till the last minute....

So she looks at the hat, pulls on her theatrical costume experience and comes up with something that works.

The next day, people come up to her and ask her about the hat, so she tells them how she did it. They make them, and tell other people how they are made. Twenty or more years later, its now standard fact and classes are taught, and everybody makes their hats this way and nobody questions if this is the way its supposed to be done.

And so you end up with this being the standard method for creating a crown for a square topped barett.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77086627@N00/413774279/

Not that this is a bad hat, its just not the method of construction that I think the artwork is showing.

More on the subject of period construction methods later....

Comments

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

Thsi is very funny, it's ver much liek one of the projects I have applied for money for; a study of how knowledge of medieval dress is formed and transferred in the re-enactment communty. Which sources are selecte, how and why are they chosen, waht modern concessions are made and why and such things.

/Eva

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

Now that would be an interesting study! I hope you get the grant. :)

Its funny, but what research sources are used and what sources are trusted often does not correlate to the accuracy of the source, but rather a sense of fun in the artwork and accessibility. Of course then there's always the saying "95% of costume research happens at events" to which I would add, and looking at other peoples cool outfits online.

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

thing is, this can be applied to any period (and I use the term loosely ;)) of clothing that gains popularity in a club.

there's the whole "norseky chic" movement in AnTir. as far as I know it has little if anything to do with historical accuracy (baseball stitch ornamentation?). it looks lovely, though :)

the "cotehardie" in the SCA, ie take a greenland gown. one of them. always the same one. run some lacing somewhere. do some embroidery around the cuffs and neck. tada!

the "italian renn" in AnTir is another one. very common, but I think they're actually wearing gamurras, which are a midlayer garment, not an overlayer...

and then there's the headcoverings. white coifs? on women? and never tied... colored headveils. fuzzy "lao hats".

the sca is its own culture with its own fashions, I think...I presume the renn faires are the same.

[peteyfrogboy.livejournal.com]

For the record, by the last quarter of the 15th century the gamurra had become an outer garment. Whether the ones in question are of the earlier or later style is another question.

Some background to the Viking-period stuff.

[pearl]

The viking stuff might be based on the Oesenstitch and Van Dyke stitches found on the Oseberg and Mammen textiles. (I'm not sure what baseball stitch is)
Naturally, you only ever refer to Thora Sharptooths' research, and you apply it to everything you absolutely can. (Not to knock the research, it's just many people don't look further than that page it seems.)

White coifs might be from the interpretation of the Anglo-Scandinavian and Hiberno-Norse hoods found, which although not found with any bodies is believed to be a female headcovering. The general consensus is that the hoods were worn because the local Christian women were covering their heads with wimples, but that hasn't stopped their use spreading to every generic Viking chick.

The only two cultures I know of with coloured 'veils' is Finland, and one tribe from Lithuania. Both of them were blue. Oh! And there was also a Frankish 'princess' buried with a red silk veil too. So it's not completely unheard of, just rare.

[thalionar.livejournal.com]

I need to "re-floppify" our hats. They're currently made stiff by use of corsage pins to hold the feathers "in place." Mine's much floppier than his anyway due to softer fabric (fulled coat wool vs. wool/rayon felt).

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

In period art sources there were stiff hats and floppy hats, they just don't look much like what are on people's heads nowadays.

[broider-barones.livejournal.com]

the initial to current ren faire Lanz gig look was defined by Julie Adams and Julie Bradley who were then with Ren Faire LA and later Julie B to Ren Faire Northern Cal. Julie A used to have a website with information and instructions on how to - they also have lots of classes on how to. Also since it was used as part of the Renaissance Military Group there were 2 units - English and German. What you could were depended on what rank you portrayed and of course the women camp followers could not dress better than than the Guild Mistresses except on St Michaels day..........

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the history lesson on the fashions. I had totally forgotten about Julie Adams, its been forever since she posted on the GRC. I wonder what happened to her?

[answers-within.livejournal.com]

Thought-provoking material, as always - thank you for the time you put into the things you write!

I can't speak to the Rennie piece, as that's not my world, but I know in the SCA there is definitely a tendency for one person to be brave enough to attempt some items from a period source, and then that method gets passed down as gospel - no matter how poor the result. Few people seem to want to do their own research, or they're intimidated, and it's always easier to have someone else say, "Do it like that" and be done with it.

My personal pet peeve at the moment is skirt pleating - I've never been told by anyone teaching German dress construction to use anything except cartridge pleating. I kept saying, "Yes, but the pleats are so thin, they don't look like the images!" I was told to pad the pleats. I padded the pleats until I felt like I was wearing a bum roll around my waist and they STILL didn't look right.

The most recent dress I made, I got a wild hair and decided to use rolled pleats, and sort of figured it out myself...and they look *exactly* like most of the portraits I've seen. I know there are also knife pleats, box pleats, and all kinds of other ways of folding fabric, but I have been confidently assured over and over that cartridge pleating is the only way to do it.

Grrr.

I very much appreciate your willingness to ask questions and disregard "orthodoxy" in the quest for the best re-creation!

The hat illustration was bizarre, btw - there aren't even any petals, and it sure seems to me like most of the barrett styles I've seen have anywhere from two to six petals. It's baffling to me that people do this "pseudo" stuff, but de gustibus est non disputandum, I guess.

Thanks for sharing!

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

I once did a study of pleating styles, and I could find every other pleating style in German pictures *except* cartridge pleating! I can't wait to see pics of your rolled pleats on your new dress.

There are a couple of different hat styles, some have "petals", and some are just a disk. The "petal" type of barett (the period name for the hat) are much more more common than the type that's just a disk.

Few people seem to want to do their own research, or they're intimidated, and it's always easier to have someone else say, "Do it like that" and be done with it.
I think this is the heart of the problem, people just want to be told how to do it. Can't blame them really, its so much easier that way. Unfortunately, so much of the How To's or instructions are not from a authenticity point of view.

[pearl]

People get annoyed with me when they ask me for advice on something Viking-era, and instead of telling them how to do it I give them photocopies and scans from books. Yes, I expect you to at least look at the sources I gave you, I'm not being mean.

If I was being mean I'd give them a bibliography, none of the books are publicly available in any library in Australia...

I get annoyed because these people ask for information, which I provide, but what they expect is that I give them a one-page summary with lots of diagrams and patterns.

[pearl]

That came off as being really bitchy, I'm not, I promise!

[answers-within.livejournal.com]

First, thank you for your reply!

Re: pleat research - wow, really?? The obvious question then, is, "WHY the heck does everyone cartridge-pleat German gowns???" Beyond that, though, you said you found every other pleating style - since I have not done nearly as much research as you, I'm very curious about this. I've never seen a gown that I could recognize as box-pleated or knife-pleated, though those are two of the easiest types and lay nicely flat, which can be helpful if you're already well-padded about the waist. Have you see those styles specifically? I'd love to know about that, despite my new love affair with rolled pleats. :-)

I did post my dress photos to my journal tonight.

Re: hats - very interesting, thank you! I've never seen the "disk" type but again I haven't done anything like the looking you have. Good to know!

And yes, research is the constant bugaboo...I admit I'd love to have a lot more time to do it than I do, but I still find time for bits and pieces pretty constantly. I guess it just comes down to whether you're the sort of person who questions, and likes to find out for herself, or whether you just want instruction and then to get on with it. I can see both sides, but I've always been a bit of a heretic, so the investigation angle just naturally follows!