My second pair of socks are finished, these were the cammo socks. They turned out pretty cool, one toe needed to be knit in the more yellow of the yarn, as I ran out of the nice mottled green. That's ok though, what shows will be the nice mottled, or heathered green.
My next project is revisiting the shirt warp from a couple of years ago. I'm working from a sample in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, accession number 98.1822g. I had a good chunk of that warp left over from the project when it fell off the back beam. Like a good, frugal girl, I crocheted up what was left, put it in a bag and into my string bin, determined to revisit it.
Well, now is as good a time as any.
This week I have done the finishing set up of my loom with help from Pierre. We washed it down, blech it was dirty. Then I loaded the harnesses with heddles, which I do not have enough of. Pierre made a bunch of lees sticks for detangling, but also for winding on the back beam. I also had to stitch my back beam apron on again as someone in its past lifetime had cut the beam rods off (thankfully I still have them). With an equal amount of enjoying our longer than long weekend, we got the loom ready for loading with thread.
This morning I came upstairs and got geared up to thread the loom with that old warp. Have I mentioned how tangled it is. That I washed the excess starch out of it and it's a big old mess. Have I mentioned that there's no cross marked any more, nor do I know where the centre line is. I looked at it and thought, why that HELL am I bothering! More than enough work to untangle the thing, then more to get it on the loom, and then I'm not even sure if I will have gotten the centre right, or any of the pattern...it is plaid after all.
So it sits in the chair, contemplating its own messiness, and I am winding a new warp.
The new warp will not be nearly as long. My winding board only does a five metre length on a good day. Nor will it be as wide as the original project. I am winding it in sections, crocheting each section up, tying it to the back beam, and hopefully not getting it as tangled as the last time around.
I might use the old warp for weft threads...that will depend on how many spools of thread I have on hand.
I have a few projects on the go this summer. Weaving this shirt warp, then a hose warp in worsted wool. I have a 1775 suit to make for Pierre, and I have to finish my pink striped gown. Then, during, as soon as freaking possible, I'm also embroidering a stomacher for Jennifer Wilber, for her wedding at the beginning of August.
AND, I'm thinking about submitting a paper proposal for next year's Canadian Museums Association conference that's due June 12th.
And helping mum through Chemo.
Wednesday, 25 May 2016
Tuesday, 3 May 2016
Idle Hands are the Devil’s Playthings: You Could Be Knitting….
On social media lately there has been a call for more
activities for the ladies, more women’s material culture being represented at
events. For most of its history, the
living history movement has been focused on the major battles of North American
history, and with it, the major focus has been on the men. Women’s roles have been relegated to that of
camp drudge, prostitute, or silk dressed ‘belle’ out to view the
encampment. As living historians have
expanded their research, we have found that any number of roles for women could
exist. Camp following women were not
just soldier’s wives or prostitutes, but could be tavern keepers, merchants,
Loyalist refugees, immigrants, the list could go on as far as your imagination
will allow.
So what should we, as women, be doing in camp?
As I prepare for this upcoming season, I am working towards
goals set out by the more progressive members of our community. I have already completely hand stitched our
clothing, I’ve been doing that for over a decade now. I’m working on the little things, the
accessories that round out our impersonations.
Getting those little things right can lead to a bunch of little, short
term projects with a big bang for the buck.
Lots of accomplishment feelings can go a long way when you are mid-way
through a gown that feels like it is taking forever to finish. I also have a lot of time sitting and waiting
right now, and so need little projects that I can take with me as I sit in
waiting rooms. My latest project has
been knitting stockings for Pierre. His
legs are the most visible, and so I have started with him. The eventual plan will be to have all three
of us in knitted, period stockings and that none of us have to carry with us
modernly constructed, over-the-knee socks.
Eighteenth-century stockings are different from modern
stockings in relatively few ways.
Starting at the top edge, the ribbing is constructed differently so that
instead of being elastic, like modern socks, the ‘gartering’ is a fat rib to
allow for your garters to hold up your socks.
The top band is knit in alternating rows of knit a row and purl a row,
instead of knit one, purl one on the same row.
Does that make sense? The garter
rib usually also is only about ½ - ¾”, rather than a fat 2-3” band of ribbing.
Stockings should also come up, over, the knee. Unlike modern knee socks, these stockings
have to extend up beyond the knee band of your breeches. It drives many a living historian nuts to see
sloppiness of socks drooping down around the ankles, or having to constantly
struggle to keep your own socks up because they are just too short. The stockings I’m working on started off as a
modern knee-length stocking pattern that I added 5-6” to the length, I also
added more stitches to the initial cast on so that there would be enough room
for the lower thigh to be comfortable in the sock. I think I may have added 20 stitches to the
cast on. I then have two separate
decreases to the leg, one from top of stocking to the knee, and then a second
from the calf muscle down to ankle.
The third main difference is the heel. Most stockings I have seen have a plain knit
heel, no modern fancy stitches to make the heel knitting thicker to last
longer. As boring as it sounds, plain
knit heels are the majority. But if you
come across an oddball outlier, I’d love to see it!
There are many references to historical stockings in books
such as Sharon Burnston’s Fitting and
Proper (Burnston 100) , or Linda
Baumgarten’s Costume Close Up (Watson 75) , the latter
being frame knitted, but holding similar characteristics to their hand knit
counterparts. The stockings I am
studying are from the New Brunswick museum collection, accession numbers 59.81,
OTTY 22586, and OTTY 22587. These
stockings are all knit in fine thread, possibly cotton or linen and are
white. References from run-away ads from
American sources in the period also mention woollen stockings with varying
colours, such as blue, heathered grey, and even red.
Publication:
The Pennsylvania Gazette
Date:
August 30, 1764
RUN away
from the Subscriber, living in New Britain Township,
Bucks
county, a Servant Woman, named Catherine Palmer, about 5
feet high,
well set, of fair Complexion, full faced, pretty
fresh
coloured, with brown Hair, has a Scar on her Breast, and
another
on the left Side of her Head, grey Eyes, supposed to
be about
29 years of Age, sometimes says she was born in
England,
but talks with the Scotch Accent; she is much given
To
Liquor, and Chewing Tobacco; Had on, and took with her when
She went
away, a long Calicoe Gown, with purple Flowers; a
Striped
Linen short gown, Kenting Handkerchief, and a blue and
White
one, three Shifts of homespun Linen, one with the
Sleeves
something finer than the Body, two Linsey Petticoats, one
Blue and
white, the other red and white; two Caps, one
With
Cambrick Border, and the other with a Lawn one; Black
Bath
Bonnet; a Pair of Pockets, one the same Stuff as her
Gown; a
Check Apron, a Pair of new Shoes, her Buckles not
Fellows;
a pair of Woollen Stockings, with blue Gores, Stole a
Pair of
blue Stays, new Silk Handkerchief, about 8 yards of
Fine
Linen, a Pair of red Worsted Stockings, and several other
Things
supposed to be taken by her. Whoever
takes up the said
Servant,
and secures her in any Goal, so that her Master may
Have her
again shall have Five Pounds Reward, and reasonable
Charges,
paid by John James, jun.
N.B. All
Masters of Vessels are strictly forbid to
Carry her
off. (The Accessible Archives - the
Pennsylvania Gazette)
In a very
quick search on Pinterest this morning, I also came up with several instances
of women of all class levels knitting.
Given that it has taken me a month and a half of knitting to produce one pair of stockings for my husband, it seems as though we should all be knitting. Everyone needs socks. The ones you can buy commercially just won’t cut it anymore for several of the events we want to participate in. It’s time we stepped up our game and started knitting our own stockings. It is also a good way to keep our idle hands busy, and interpreting an activity that many of us enjoy already. For those of you needing an actual pattern to follow, there are several available through places such as the Plimoth Plantation and the Modern Maker. I am also currently working on a pattern based on my own research which will be published in the near future.
Bibliography
Baumgarten, Linda
and JohnWatson. Costume Close Up: Clothing Construction and Pattern
1750-1790. New York: Costume and Fashion Press, 1999.
Burnston, Sharon
Ann. Fitting and Proper: 18th Century Clothing from the Collection of the
Chester County Historical Society. Texarkana Texas: Scurlock Publishing
Co. ,Inc., 1998.
The Accessible
Archives - the Pennsylvania Gazette. 30 August 1764.
accessible-archives.com/collections/the-pennsylvania-gazette. 26 April 2016.
Monday, 2 May 2016
a rough term
I haven't written anything that's any good this term. My thoughts are focused on just getting through the day for the most part. I've been battling a bad depression that probably stems from the move and starting at a new school. Then, to top things off, Mum got sick at Christmas time and by mid March we finally found out it was cancer. So there's that.
I made it through the term though, B+ student. I will take that as a fairly decent mark, given the circumstances.
The new term brings with it spring and spending the next four months making. I've also started my anti-depressant top up pill again. Let's kick this depression shit in the arse!
For school, I will be weaving. I am going to re-visit the shirt warp, trying out some theories that I have to see if I can get it to weave up a bit tighter. Washing some of the starch out of it, and using a finer weft thread might help. So will weaving in an non-air-conditioned space. That's the first project.
Second project will be weaving some red and white checked bag hose material for Kerry Delorey of the 84th Highlanders in Nova Scotia. He is also working on getting some yardage woven in Nova Scotia in larger amounts. If that works out, could we possibly wish for other heritage textiles to be woven? In any case, I'm going to be weaving more once I get things set up here in Saint-Hubert.
For the past two months I have also been working on a knitted sock pattern. Knitting away in between periods of reading and trying to grasp school work. I just started my second pair of the summer on Friday night. Pierre should have four pair by the time we get to do any living history this summer...if we do.
That said, it is highly unlikely that we'll be travelling very far afield this summer. Louisbourg and Shelburne are now out of the question. We can't be 14+ hours away from Mum, and our original plan of taking her with us to stay in Caribou is now out too. She'll be too sick for that kind of travelling. Our back up plan right now is to spend our 10th anniversary at Fort Ticonderoga, if we can swing it. There is an event brewing there for that weekend, and if we are accepted to go, we'd be in with a bunch of hard core progressives.
So I am focusing my to-do list with that in mind.
Pierre can't just bum around in his Louisbourg sailor's kit, he needs arsing around gear for the revolutionary period. So I have some linen in the wash for new breeches and frock coat that he can then completely destroy once they are made. I'll be basing them on the breeches in Sharon Burnston's book (Burnston, 53), and the frock coat from Linda Baumgarten's (Baumgarten, 92). The linen is a twill in dark blue. He'll wear the waistcoat I made for him last summer in blue and grey stripe.
I have to finally finish my linen striped gown for then too. I figure another few days and that will be off my UFO pile. Better late than never.
This encampment has a document it or leave it at home rule. So I'll be going over our kit with a fine toothed comb. I am looking at tracking down a basket I can make into a pack basket and only taking what we'd be wearing and what will fit in the basket and maybe one market wallet. I am also considering making/finishing the canvas tarp I started back when I worked at the museum to be used as a shelter. All of their tents are hand sewn. Like I said, hard core progressive. It will be interesting to experience that.
Anyway, should get back to my knitting...
I made it through the term though, B+ student. I will take that as a fairly decent mark, given the circumstances.
The new term brings with it spring and spending the next four months making. I've also started my anti-depressant top up pill again. Let's kick this depression shit in the arse!
For school, I will be weaving. I am going to re-visit the shirt warp, trying out some theories that I have to see if I can get it to weave up a bit tighter. Washing some of the starch out of it, and using a finer weft thread might help. So will weaving in an non-air-conditioned space. That's the first project.
Second project will be weaving some red and white checked bag hose material for Kerry Delorey of the 84th Highlanders in Nova Scotia. He is also working on getting some yardage woven in Nova Scotia in larger amounts. If that works out, could we possibly wish for other heritage textiles to be woven? In any case, I'm going to be weaving more once I get things set up here in Saint-Hubert.
For the past two months I have also been working on a knitted sock pattern. Knitting away in between periods of reading and trying to grasp school work. I just started my second pair of the summer on Friday night. Pierre should have four pair by the time we get to do any living history this summer...if we do.
That said, it is highly unlikely that we'll be travelling very far afield this summer. Louisbourg and Shelburne are now out of the question. We can't be 14+ hours away from Mum, and our original plan of taking her with us to stay in Caribou is now out too. She'll be too sick for that kind of travelling. Our back up plan right now is to spend our 10th anniversary at Fort Ticonderoga, if we can swing it. There is an event brewing there for that weekend, and if we are accepted to go, we'd be in with a bunch of hard core progressives.
So I am focusing my to-do list with that in mind.
Pierre can't just bum around in his Louisbourg sailor's kit, he needs arsing around gear for the revolutionary period. So I have some linen in the wash for new breeches and frock coat that he can then completely destroy once they are made. I'll be basing them on the breeches in Sharon Burnston's book (Burnston, 53), and the frock coat from Linda Baumgarten's (Baumgarten, 92). The linen is a twill in dark blue. He'll wear the waistcoat I made for him last summer in blue and grey stripe.
I have to finally finish my linen striped gown for then too. I figure another few days and that will be off my UFO pile. Better late than never.
This encampment has a document it or leave it at home rule. So I'll be going over our kit with a fine toothed comb. I am looking at tracking down a basket I can make into a pack basket and only taking what we'd be wearing and what will fit in the basket and maybe one market wallet. I am also considering making/finishing the canvas tarp I started back when I worked at the museum to be used as a shelter. All of their tents are hand sewn. Like I said, hard core progressive. It will be interesting to experience that.
Anyway, should get back to my knitting...
Bibliography
Baumgarten,
Linda. Costume Close Up: Clothing Construction and Pattern 1750-1790.
New York: Costume and Fashion Press, 1999.
Burnston, Sharon
Ann. Fitting and Proper: 18th Century Clothing from the Collection of the
Chester County Historical Society. Texarkana, Texas: Scurlock Publishing
Co. Inc., 1998.
Wednesday, 9 March 2016
wow, where did February go?
Feeling kind of dumb today. I can't get one of my readings to open (Bennett) past itty bitty tiny, tried in google scholar and it only opens some of the pages, and only part of the first chapter. That I can read is a whole lot of academic bureau-speak. Feeling a bit over my head today.
I have been questioning my place in this PhD program. I have a core group of classmates that I enjoy being around, that I enjoy conversation with. This core group are challenging all of us to think outside the box. I think of them in the same way that I think of another classmate in my MA program. She left that program and I was beside myself. Her choice to leave was valid, and I applaud her for it. I stuck things out. I felt alone a lot of the time. The only thing that got me through that program was my family and my advisor. I had no cohort. With this degree, I finally feel like I have a cohort. It is a small one. Most times, I feel like we are the misfits of grad school, the nerdiest nerds. I love them all. I stick it out in class because of them. I want to be with them. I want to engage in conversation with them.
Then there are the 'big fish' of grad school. The ones who can create words seemingly out of thin air, the students who can engage in academic bureau-speak. With these classmates, I feel frustrated. I feel stupid. Some of these classmates have exclaimed that we are the 'upper echelon of the academy', and I'm going 'what?', 'Where?', 'Howdidthathappenagain'? I'm not feeling upper of anything. I'm just trying to figure out what my readings are trying to teach me this week...what does that word mean again?
I could feel frustrated and stupid, or I can just go and be creative. So, once again, I have cut out a bunch of new garments and am going to engage with the Zen of pocket construction this afternoon. Each painfully tedious step from marking with chalk, to basting, welt construction, pressing, I am going to engage with them all. Then I am going to Hong Kong finish all my seams, or maybe not, depending on the sample I do, and if it creates too much bulk with the seams. I am going to engage in topstitching in contrasting colour, this jacket will be topstitched to within an inch of its life. And then I am going to engage with the Zen of the buttonhole stitch; that meditative thing that I enjoy the most about garment construction, hand sewing.
Maybe I should then write a reading response to my professor. The performativity of my own artistic practice, and my own concept of agency (Jones).
I'm givin' er.
http://beautifuldata.metalab.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Bennett_Vibrant-Matter1.pdf
I have been feeling a bit over my head a lot this term. A couple of things have struck me over the past few days though, and I'm beginning to feel my head clearing of the fog. Brene Brown's interview on Empathy, Compassion, and Boundaries really struck a chord with me this morning.
https://www.facebook.com/theworkofthepeople/?pnref=story
Then there are the 'big fish' of grad school. The ones who can create words seemingly out of thin air, the students who can engage in academic bureau-speak. With these classmates, I feel frustrated. I feel stupid. Some of these classmates have exclaimed that we are the 'upper echelon of the academy', and I'm going 'what?', 'Where?', 'Howdidthathappenagain'? I'm not feeling upper of anything. I'm just trying to figure out what my readings are trying to teach me this week...what does that word mean again?
I could feel frustrated and stupid, or I can just go and be creative. So, once again, I have cut out a bunch of new garments and am going to engage with the Zen of pocket construction this afternoon. Each painfully tedious step from marking with chalk, to basting, welt construction, pressing, I am going to engage with them all. Then I am going to Hong Kong finish all my seams, or maybe not, depending on the sample I do, and if it creates too much bulk with the seams. I am going to engage in topstitching in contrasting colour, this jacket will be topstitched to within an inch of its life. And then I am going to engage with the Zen of the buttonhole stitch; that meditative thing that I enjoy the most about garment construction, hand sewing.
Maybe I should then write a reading response to my professor. The performativity of my own artistic practice, and my own concept of agency (Jones).
I'm givin' er.
http://beautifuldata.metalab.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Bennett_Vibrant-Matter1.pdf
Jones, Amelia. Material Traces: Performativity, Artistic "Work," and New Concepts of Agency. MIT Press, The Drama Review, Vol 59, No. 4, Winter 2015
Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Studio day
I have designated Tuesdays as a studio/work day. Today I am cutting out a silk bonnet to wear to class next week (I almost wrote a couple of weeks there, time is slipping away quickly!). I am presenting on interpretation, ethnology, and museums for my 'objects' class. I think my final paper will be on interpretation too. I also checked further into the Fort Ti internship, the due date for applications is the first of April, so I may use this piece of writing as part of that application.
But first, bonnets, and next week's class. I was hesitant on the whole bonnet thing at first. I saw them as a fashion trend emerging within the re-enacting community when they first appeared. I wondered how prevalent they would have been in period, and how many would be produced by reenactors to wear. Would the silk bonnet eclipse the straw bonnet? What about the calash? The last few years have seen more and more information put out for the public to see, and I have to now admit that I am convinced. Will I be wearing my bonnet all the time? Probably not. It will be saved for working in, when the other hat options are not practical. And probably not when it is too hot, as the straw is a better option there.
I am making mine out of black silk taffeta that my brother gifted to me a few years ago. It is fine quality cloth, with no slubs at all. I am constructing the brim with layers of hair canvas, pad stitched together to create the curve, then I'll cover the canvas with wool, then the silk.
Ok, this is me, getting my day started.
But first, bonnets, and next week's class. I was hesitant on the whole bonnet thing at first. I saw them as a fashion trend emerging within the re-enacting community when they first appeared. I wondered how prevalent they would have been in period, and how many would be produced by reenactors to wear. Would the silk bonnet eclipse the straw bonnet? What about the calash? The last few years have seen more and more information put out for the public to see, and I have to now admit that I am convinced. Will I be wearing my bonnet all the time? Probably not. It will be saved for working in, when the other hat options are not practical. And probably not when it is too hot, as the straw is a better option there.
I am making mine out of black silk taffeta that my brother gifted to me a few years ago. It is fine quality cloth, with no slubs at all. I am constructing the brim with layers of hair canvas, pad stitched together to create the curve, then I'll cover the canvas with wool, then the silk.
Ok, this is me, getting my day started.
Tuesday, 12 January 2016
Thoughts on a wintery afternoon
We are in Montreal now, and I am starting my second term at the PhD level. I am growing to really love my program, but I'm also looking at the future, and what I want to do once I'm done. I really want to get into Interpretive Programming, at the management level. Pierre and I have also made noises about wanting to return to Nova Scotia eventually, but even that is up in the air, depending on the job market.
I'm not ready for the job market yet anyway. I have another school year of classes to take, then a year of comprehensive exams, then writing the dissertation. But what can I, or do I want to do in the meantime to expand the interpretive background of my CV? There's a summer internship at Ticonderoga in Interpretation. There are opportunities at Williamsburg. I will be spending the next month looking for other opportunities that I might like to take part in. Broadening the horizon will make it easier to get work when I'm finished this degree, especially in Nova Scotia.
I am anxious though, that there will be pressures forced upon us to return to Nova Scotia before I am ready. As much as I love it there, I think I would regret it if we go back too soon. I feel like, for the very first time in my life, that I am able to do anything, anywhere that I may dream up. Most people do things like this when they are in their early 20s. I am turning 45 in four months.
In the meantime, I just finished the second of my two 'Christmas break' project outfits. I wore the red smock last week to class. The little brown and blue suit I will be wearing to a mess function at the end of the month. I'll have my hair done up nice and will take a photo then. next up for sewing projects is to get my striped linen 18thC gown finished, just on the off chance that I might have a summer gig.
fingers crossed.
I'm not ready for the job market yet anyway. I have another school year of classes to take, then a year of comprehensive exams, then writing the dissertation. But what can I, or do I want to do in the meantime to expand the interpretive background of my CV? There's a summer internship at Ticonderoga in Interpretation. There are opportunities at Williamsburg. I will be spending the next month looking for other opportunities that I might like to take part in. Broadening the horizon will make it easier to get work when I'm finished this degree, especially in Nova Scotia.
I am anxious though, that there will be pressures forced upon us to return to Nova Scotia before I am ready. As much as I love it there, I think I would regret it if we go back too soon. I feel like, for the very first time in my life, that I am able to do anything, anywhere that I may dream up. Most people do things like this when they are in their early 20s. I am turning 45 in four months.
In the meantime, I just finished the second of my two 'Christmas break' project outfits. I wore the red smock last week to class. The little brown and blue suit I will be wearing to a mess function at the end of the month. I'll have my hair done up nice and will take a photo then. next up for sewing projects is to get my striped linen 18thC gown finished, just on the off chance that I might have a summer gig.
fingers crossed.
Thursday, 31 December 2015
Author and
Authority: Creating Fashion Trends in Historical Re-enacting (Probe on
Foucault’s ‘Author’)
As I begin
my own process towards authorship, I have been thinking a great deal on how we
create authorities out of persons who share their research. This has held exceptional resonance with me
in my own work on Eighteenth Century fashion and how it is viewed by the
community of re-enactors I belong to.
When I began as a historical interpreter and costumer, I knew about the larger community, but did not
feel a part of it. In Nova Scotia, we
were a small group who did our own research and shared it with our friends,
discussing and shaping ideas within a very small group (at that time, about 100
total members). With the dawn of the
internet, and social media beginning with email list serves, our scope grew
larger, we were now included within the larger, North American community. At that time, there were few opportunities
for non-academics to publish their research.
Some were able to write and publish books about and through their own
local museum collections, others published articles in community newsletters. At that time, the status of the author rose
to dizzying heights, they became superstars within the community and began to
be noticed by the academic community.
The research they published was copied extensively throughout the larger
North American community with little regard to situational and cultural
dynamics.
Fashion
doesn’t exist in a vacuum, but neither does it exist as a wide spread
phenomena. Even today, there are
cultural differences in how we dress ourselves, even here in Canada. The cut of our jeans will be different in
Nova Scotia than it is in Alberta, not only because our bodies are differently
shaped but also because of how we wear clothing culturally. These differences relate to genetics, weather
patterns, religion, and culture. In the
18th century, those cultural differences can be highly insular. What a person wore in Pennsylvania Deutch
country would be different than what a Protestant Loyalist refugee would have
worn on their way from New Jersey to Nova Scotia. Don’t get me wrong, fashion existed, and was
not as stagnant as would first appear, but there are cultural, weather,
situational, and religious differences at play.
A person interpreting a figure from Nova Scotian history cannot just
copy an outfit from ‘Fitting and Proper’ (Burnston, 2000) and be entirely
correct.
Since the
publication of this book, Sharon Burnston has become an authority on 18th
century clothing. She has been given
star status within the community. Others
who achieved such status through early publication were not as considerate in
their research though, and that research has proven to not be as reliable as Burnston’s
book. Other books published in the same
time frame include ‘Costume Close Up: Clothing Construction and Pattern,
1750-1790’ (Baumgarten, 1999), ‘Whatever
Shall I Wear’ (Riley, 2002) , and ‘Tidings from
the Eighteenth Century’ (Gilgun, 1993) . All these authors achieved star status, or authority, save for Mara Riley, despite
her research being considerate and strong.
Each of
these publications created fashion trends within the hobby. How can this be, when members of the
community should be considering the context of the research and how it relates
to their own interpretations of historical figures? It seems that modern capitalism and desire
can influence how we interpret histories, and that when a woman wants a new
dress, what is new and ‘fashionable’, even in research, can sway a decision in
what the seamstress creates. Through our
actions, we in the community have given authority to these authors. The fact that some hold higher status as
authors than others may have a lot to do with the status of the publication,
the paper used in the printing, the institution that houses the collection
studied, the use of colour, even the gloss used. When we look at the collections of garments
studied themselves, are there photographs taken, or were artist’s drawings used?
What was the quality and care given to the renderings? Are patterns included?
Are they easy to use? Are the garments themselves stunning to the eye, or are
they very plain-Jane? All of these
considerations will make or break a fashion trend, or create authority for the
author. And so, with each publication,
copies of the fashions that were published appeared at re-enactment events
across the Eastern Seaboard, whether they were appropriate for the
interpretation or not.
In the
intervening years, more and more research has been published. Members of the community have been actively
working with museums and in academia, and the research and scholarship has
grown stronger with each author. Through
online communities, care has been taken to ensure that people are interpreting
their historical figures with considerations of time, place, culture, religion,
and political status. And yet, fashion
trends continue.
When Neal
Hurst’s Bachelor’s Honors thesis was published, Hurst was working in the men’s
tailoring shop at Colonial Williamsburg.
Entitled ‘Kind of
Armour, being peculiar to America: The American Hunting Shirt’ (Hurst, 2013) , the paper set off a
flurry of men wanting to own hunting shirts.
Were they appropriate to all walks of life? All areas of North America? These were important questions that needed to
be reflected upon before having a seamstress or tailor create one for a given
interpretation. Hurst’s authority on the
subject is well earned though, as this was not a simple undergraduate
thesis. Hurst has the academic and
employment credentials to back up his research, and that paper was well
documented and written. Even he will
exclaim though, that this garment is not appropriate for everyone in the hobby,
and he would cringe if it were to become a fashionable trend in the community.
With ladies wear,
these trends can be even more drastic.
The men in our community, for the most part, belong to military units
that have fairly strict codes of dress.
Uniforms can be researched and recreated to the year, month, even the
battle. Women, because they are a
civilian population, do not have such restrictions, and so follow fashionable
trends a bit more closely. Fashion
trends that are regularly brought to mind include items like silk bonnets,
printed cotton jackets, stripes, silk gowns, and brightly coloured or printed
gowns. When each of these items listed
comes into fashion within the community, or comes around again as fashionable
in the community, questions of authenticity follow. Who would have worn these items? How would they have been worn? Is that printed cotton originally a bed
hanging (upholstery fabric), or was is the lining on the hem of a quilted
petticoat? What class/culture would have
worn that garment? And even, is that
fabric appearing to be too 1980s instead of 1780s? Who first wears a new style has influence on
how it will become a fashion trend. Do
they have authority? Have they been published? Do they have name fame? These are all considerations when considering
a fashion trend within the hobby.
Recently, a young woman in New England has entered the hobby, and
quickly developed a following. She was
well turned out from her very first event.
Jennifer Wilbur studied fashion photography at the Fashion Institute of
Technology (academic word fame amoung fashion people). Her clothing and interpretation is well
researched and thought out. She seeks
out talented individuals to create her wardrobe, even spending top dollar for
historically accurate shoes from the UK that many longtime community members
are hard pressed to consider. Even
though her wardrobe reflects that of a lower situational Loyalist woman on the
march with the army, I suspect she too will create a fashion trend amoung women
in the hobby. She is considered an
‘authentic’ or ‘progressive’ member of the community, names given to
‘fashionable’ young people in the organization that are pushing research and
interpretation beyond the comfort levels of the older generation.
Jennifer Wilbur, Loyalist woman on
the march: One of her first events
So as I embark on
my own explorations in the fashion of the 18th century, I am
considering my own authorship, my own authenticity, and my own word fame. Amoung my smaller provincial group, I have
long been considered ‘progressive’ with regards to the clothing I create and
wear. Will this name fame be carried
over into the larger North American community?
How will my own research hold up, to scrutiny and to time? I will have to consider carefully my
reader. I will also have to consider the
extant pieces I will chose to include in the published document, were they a fashion
‘trend’ of their time? An anomaly, or
widely worn? What was the cultural,
class, religious, and political ramifications behind the garment, if any? I will also have to consider how my research
is published. Will I choose a high gloss
paper, a hard cover or paper back, colour photographs or the original garments,
or line drawings? How will all of this
play a role in how authentic my research is viewed, and how enduring it will
become? Will I have the authority to speak and be heard?
Bibliography
Burnston, S. A. (2000). Fitting and Proper.
Scurlock Pub Co .
Foucault, M. (1980). What is an Author. In Lanuage,
Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press.
Foucault, M. (1998). On the Ways of Writing History.
In Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology. Essential Works of Foucault,
1954-1984 (pp. 279-96). New York: New Press.
Gilgun, B. (1993). Tidings from the Eighteenth
Century. Scurlock Pub Co.
Hurst, N. (2013). Kind of Armour, being peculiar
to America: The American Hunting Shirt. Williamsburg Virginia: College of
William and Mary.
Linda Baumgarten, J. W. (1999). Costume Close Up:
Clothing Construction and Pattern, 1750-1790. Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation.
Riley, M. (2002). Whatever Shall I Wear? A Guide
to Assembling a Woman's Basic 18th century Wardrobe. Graphics and Fine
Arts Press.
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