Bring Authenticity to the Occasion With Historical Costumes
There are many occasions where historical costumes introduce that touch of authenticity that is essential to project the right atmosphere. Take a Renaissance Fair, for example. It would be pointless if everybody was wearing 20th century clothing, as it is the clothing of the period that gives people the sensation of actually being there in the Europe of the 14th - 17th centuries.
Nor would a Civil War reenactment seem very authentic without the participants wearing the military tunics of the period. Not only that though, because even the 19th century jewelry, accessories and armaments add to the excitement and the feeling that you are actually there as an onlooker, watching the dancing and the battles actually take place. Naturally, historical costumes such as these are often made by the participants, but they are also available to buy online.
Anne Boleyn gowns, capes and hats are available online, or if you prefer to be more European than English, then you can purchase gowns worn by the ladies of Florence or Anjou during the Renaissance period. For something not so specific, there are gowns worn by typical renaissance maidens, dresses worn by the ordinary people of the day or even a peasant's blouse. Accessories include a farthingale, women's leather boots, capes and hats, and elegant costumes suitable for empresses, queens or princesses.
For the men there is a selection of swordsmen's shirts, doublets and leather pants along with the authentic boots to go with them. Naturally, you can also purchase the swords, daggers and weapons that people would carry with them in these days - not unlike today, though then it was legal!
For Civil War reenactments you can purchase just about anything you can think of, from the traditional kepis to the full uniforms, belts and sashes. Many people are so traditional that they dress in the exact costume for the regiment they purport to serve in, down to the exact number and design of buttons and even the traditional stitching, but such realism is a bit too expensive for most people.
All historical costumes are not restricted to just the Civil War and the Renaissance period, however, and there is a much wider selection available to those that want them. Traditional Scottish costumes, for example, include the traditional early kilts for the men, with the correct shirts and sporrans. There is also the William Wallace great kilt that covered the entire body, with an accompanying belt.
For the women there are a number of underskirts, skirts, chemises, bodices and kilts available, and for all of these there are also some tradition accessories such as horns, belts and sporrans. If you want to look traditionally Scots, then you most certainly can.
If you want to go right back to the Crusades of the Medieval period, you can purchase tunics, capes and robes, including Hospitaller and Knights Templar capes and tunics. From the Medieval period you may also acquire a number of different gambesons, brigandines, gowns, capes and tunics, plus boots and shoes of the period. For those preferring to be peasants, there is a selection of tunics and drawstring pants to choose from. You can even dress up like Robin Hood or Maid Marion if you prefer.
If you want to go right back to the Viking period in history, you can purchase a genuine reindeer skin (from the Lapps that breed and kill them for food like we do sheep and cattle, and not for the fur) or a complete Viking outfit for the men, and Scandinavian princess costume (for the ladies of course).
However, not all costumes available online are historical, although it could be argued that the Star Wars costumes on offer are historical costumes, in that the events in the movies took place 'long, long ago'. So if you want to dress up like Anekin or Luke Skywalker, Hans Solo or Obi-Wan Kenobi, then you can choose from a wide range of costumes and footwear.
So, whether you want a historical costume to make an event such as a Renaissance Fair appear more authentic or just because you want to dress as a Roman gladiator, there is a wide range available online, limited only by how much you are prepared to spend. However, in addition to that more historical purpose, you can also acquire costumes of a more specific nature.
Take Harry Potter, for example. There are now Harry Potter costumes available that enable people to look like their favorite characters, Harry himself, or perhaps the dreaded Voldemort. Or maybe your kids, or even you, want to dress up for Halloween with a witch's costume, or perhaps as a warlock or wizard. There is a fabulous selection available. Hardly historical costumes, but great fun nevertheless.
What historical inaccuracies are in the show The Tudors?
Please focus on:
Costumes
Historical Events
Characters
Setting
Architecture
Class Structure
Technology
Modes of Transportation
Georgraphy
Role of women, men or children
Values and beliefs
Religion
Government Structure
etc
PLEASE list some websites I can go to. Preferably reliable ones. Not like wikipedia
Gearing up for Grad School– help?
So.. as I sit at my desk, writing another paper as usual, I’m watching another semester fly by right in front of my eyes. I’m starting to realize that graduation isn’t so far away at this point and I’ll be starting my junior year of under grad next semester.
I’m starting to consider different grad schools and I’m wondering what I should be doing now, instead of later, to prep for it.
I’m an Anthropology major, Art History minor, Museum Studies minor at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY. Let’s just say it’s not Ivy League… but I enjoy it. They offer Museum Studies classes and that has definitely kept me here. =D
Anyway, my GPA as of right now is a 3.5. I’ve done a summer internship working with and researching historical costumes and I’ll be going back in a week to help them install the exhibit. I’m working with the director in our Museum on campus to create new exhibits for next year. I’ve bonded with everyone at the museum, as well as one professor in particular who I really enjoy taking Art History and Museum classes with. I’ve travelled to London and Paris to analyze different types of museums and art work for an art history class. I’ve also worked at a Children’s Museum.
What else should I be doing? God knows I might volunteer more, there are some positions open in my area for that, but it’s a very difficult thing to do as far as money goes.
What are Grad Schools looking for in an applicant? I mean.. besides all of the required tests and my GPA, what’s going to set me apart from the crowd?
How accurate was the Other Boleyn Girl Movie?
How accurate was The Other Boleyn Girl Movie not compared to the book but compared to HISTORY.
Please focus on:
Costumes
Historical Events
Characters
Setting
Architecture
Class Structure
Technology
Modes of Transportation
Georgraphy
Role of women, men or children
Values and beliefs
Religion
Government Structure
etc
PLEASE list some websites I can go to. Preferably reliable ones. Not like wikipedia.
If there is not enough inaccuracies in this movie, can you give me another movie set in the 16th century that is inaccurate?
Your on a great path to getting into graduate school.
Outside of knowing which schools you want to get in (IE: Harvard as compared to other schools), most schools look to see students that stand apart from other students. Yes, that cliche was used in high school, but even more so for graduate schools.
Start studying for your GRE ASAP. It is not a hard test, but one that you will need to do well on. Keep volunteering and getting to know people, as letters of reccomendations are key.
Remember, the last thing you want to do is use all your time volunteering and lack on studies. Keep your grades in shape, work on your GRE scores, and I don’t think you will have a problem.
I love that show,but this sight states some some points that according to history, they didn’t get quite right in the movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467200
what are some good children’s stories that lend themselves well to Storytelling-in-Costume…?
…(Professional Storytelling)?
I am a high school drama teacher, trying to facilitate the development of creative talent in my graduating students. One young lady is surely born to be a professional storyteller. We are working on her portfolio, photos/costumes/testimonials, and we need to be on the watch for stories…either existing currently as children’s picture books, OR great historical stories of high interest/drama/humor that would adapt well to storytelling for an elementary age audience.
Thanks in advance for the help!
It’s a weird mix of accuracy and inaccuracy! There’s a lot going on in the series, so I’ll just have to make the points I remember.
The costumes are accurate to a certain extent, but nobody would have worn many of the revealing dresses shown. I think the designers themselves said that they were “authentic with a twist”, in that they are made more sumptuous and revealing to appeal to our modern eyes. In some parts they’re more Elizabethan than Henrician, and even Victorian to an extent. There is far too much hair – married women covered their heads, and even unmarried women wore hoods. The headdresses are all wrong. There was even one lady who had a short bob – unthinkable!
Some of the historical events are highly inaccurate. For instance, in the first season, Henry has one sister named Margaret who marries and then kills the King of Portugal. In reality, Henry had two sisters, one named Margaret who married the King of Scotland and did not kill him, and a younger sister named Mary, who married first the King of France and then Charles Brandon. This Mary became the grandmother of Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for nine days. Thus the programme wrote out a whole part of future history! And Wolsey didn’t kill himself; he died on his way back to London and escaped being beheaded.
Main characters are fairly accurate, except that they don’t look anything like the portraits we have of them, or their descriptions. Henry is the worst: he had the red-gold hair of the Tudors, a thin mouth and gimlet eyes. First a handsome renaissance prince, he grew fat in middle age, lost his hair and suffered from a leg wound that ulcerated. Katherine of Aragon was married to him for more than twenty years and knew him through his best physical years; he was already spreading out when he pursued Anne Boleyn. Many of the other characters are adapted to fit into the TV show rather than history, and some are amalgamations of several real persons.
The settings are pretty reasonable, but they’re not really like the places where the real events happened. Whitehall Palace is quite well reconstructed, but Anne Boleyn’s beheading, for instance, looked very different from the real Tower of London. The décor is not authentic, being rather more fussy and padded than it actually was. It’s more Victorian in style! I think the producers have used real castles, but Henry preferred to live in more comfort in places like the ‘modern’ Hampton Court.
Class structure seems to be fairly well portrayed. There was the king and his court, with all the courtiers flattering and making obeisance to the king and his vanity. We don’t see much of the poorer classes, but Thomas Culpepper’s rape of the peasant woman was quite authentic, I think.
Technology, as far as I know, is also fairly accurate. They wrote with quills and so on, but I can’t vouch for the authenticity of the military weapons and so on.
Modes of transportation have been laughable in some cases, with Katherine of Aragon riding nicely in a Victorian carriage! They didn’t have carriages like that then; queens would ride in a litter, or on horseback.
It’s all a bit of a mish-mash, with timelines being interfered with and characters out of chronology and so on.
I can refer you to the Tudors site where the inaccuracies are listed.
http://tudorswiki.sho.com/page/Historical+INACCURACIES+of+the+Tudors
http://www.suite101.com/content/showtime-for-the-tudors-season-3-a107516
They lend themselves well to costume – I tell the story of “my” meeting with Jesus at night while dressed as Pharisee Nicodemus and the story of Daniel while dressed as a king – Nebucannezar
I have also done the story of Peter Rabbit dressed as the farmer – that’s a fun perspective to use and I did the tale (an overview, yes) of Jason and the Argonauts as a Rower on the Argo.
How do you sew a child’s costume?
Do you have to use a pattern, or can you make your own?
Where can I find out about the proper materials.
Where can I get costume type patterns for historical type clothes for kids, if anywhere? Like a puffy lacy shirt or a buckskin shirt, or a leather vest, or a quilted jacket?
How do you make your own pattern, if possible?
Do you have to measure your kid? If they’re growing, how early should you make the costume?
Simplicity patterns carry a line of children’s costumes. Just go to the fabric store and look in the pattern books. The back of the envelope will tell you what kind of fabric you’ll need, etc. I have found patterns run a little larger that regular clothing, so I would measure the child to get the proper size pattern. I wouldn’t try making my own patterns unless I knew how to sew really well-which I do-but I still wouldn’t.