Favorite "Costuming" Myth

[isabelladangelo]

I'm kinda expanding this to all costuming but my main thought this afternoon was on medieval/Renaissance/SCA costuming.
My question is simple: What is a myth that you were actually told that you believed at some point in your costuming carrer? Not one that you heard later on or that you realized wasn't true, but one that you believed for at least a little bit. (Feel free to comment or post in own journal...or both)
I was told many many years ago that sequins were not period. Oh the plastic monstrasities of the 1970's aren't period but, Lord have mercy, were spangles ever period. From additions on trim, to covering entire garments (I think there is a jacket at the V&A half covered with spangles and then there is that German hat), spangles/sequins were very period. The sad thing is I got rid of some old saris because I believed this myth so much... silk saries with metal embroidery and sequins...antique.

Comments

[spikywheel.livejournal.com]

Cotton is not period.

All women in the rennisance wore corsets - everywhere and in every station.

[isabelladangelo.livejournal.com]

:-) I've heard a lot of people fall for the first one. I like telling the people that fall for it about the sheep tree....

[pepperbeast.livejournal.com]

I'm torn on how to approach this with people. It's true that cotton did exist in period. It's also true that overall cotton clothing in Europe before the 16th century was very uncommon and that for many times and places within that scope, it was vanishingly rare to non-existent.

Also, "X isn't period" _is_ sometimes shorthand for "X isn't known to have been used in my land and century".

[isabelladangelo.livejournal.com]

Very true. I also think that people sometimes get so segmentated into their area of research that they "forget" just because their time & place didn't have it didn't mean it didn't exist for the entire group (SCA/Renaissance/Rev War/ect) scope.

[pepperbeast.livejournal.com]

I think ones like "cotton is not period" and "faceted stones aren't period" may be the product of oversimplification.

[silverstah.livejournal.com]

I will admit, I fell prey to the 'pink is not period' myth, many years ago. Thank goodness I actually opened a book and discovered that no, really, it's just fine. ;)

[isabelladangelo.livejournal.com]

::giggles:: Pink is fine. Purple is too....it's that darn maroon made out of the blood of a thousand small sea creatures you gotta watch out for. :-)

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

(I found this page through a friends friendlist and wanted to play.)

Knitting and knit garments are not period.

[isabelladangelo.livejournal.com]

Welcome!

I've heard of people falling for that one before too. Maybe someone got confused and thought crocheting and knitting were the same thing?

[sstormwatch.livejournal.com]

One of the first costuming myths I was given was that peasants never ever wore anything white, so I had to buy cream and ivory cotton, more like muslin, for my first chemises. I've since found out that linen gets whiter as it ages, even dirty coarse linens shed dirt. I am much happier with white linens to wear, instead of ivory cottons.

I've heard a lot of them (mostly from ren-faire), and have debunked a few, which I have here.
http://www.kimiko1.com/research-16th/CostumeMythsWS/index.html

I had not heard the one on spangles, so if you don't mind, I will add that to my list.

[isabelladangelo.livejournal.com]

Ah, the "white is evil" myth. I've heard it.


Feel free to add the one on spangles. I think the german hat is in Norris and the jacket is at the V&A. I know there are plenty of writtings on "spangled" garments on period to keep anyone busy. It might have been that she was just scared that I was going to come in with some horrible plastic sequined thing and decided it was safer to tell me they didn't exist back then...at all...in any form. :-)

[pepperbeast.livejournal.com]

If I hear that one, I usually say, "Nonsense! If you have piss and sunshine you can have white linen!"

(I do tend to prefer the slightly less glaring natural-white or ivory stuff for lower-class wear, but it's still fairly white, especially after a few launderings.)

[molly-world.livejournal.com]

Faceted stone aren't period. Except that there's a Viking Age find that has carnelian beads with (rough) faceting...it's not a modern brillant cut...but definately faceted.

Also...all early period clothing was coarsely woven and extremely narrow in width...teehee...I even wrote an article purpetrating those myths in my youth, hahahaha.

[isabelladangelo.livejournal.com]

:-) The coarsely woven one always makes me wonder where the heck it came from. I can figure out the paths of a few of the myths but all I can think of is that it was one of those "barbarian" myths....

[jehanni.livejournal.com]

I personally think the "coarsely-woven" myth (and corollary toe-catcher stitches you see in Kountry Krafting) are the result of "modern" people assuming "primitive" people were more clumsy--emphatically not true!

When I was in New Zealand for a teaching exchange program, the intricate Maori woodcarving motifs were a marvel. One of the guides pointed out that the introduction of metal carving tools allowed already extremely skilled Maori carvers a level of detail they had not been able to achieve with shell and bone tools. While true, the average hobby woodcarver looks at both pre- and post- metal tool carvings with awe.

Skilled craftspeople take pride in their work, and strive to perfect it with the tools they have on hand. Modern people who've never done crafts are often completely unaware of the muscular memory that crafts require: it's most like athletic training, and in (sweeping genrealization) all crafts, the more you do something, the better you are at fine detail, precision, and replicable results.

People were the first machines before automation: some of them had the skill and perception to correct their output mid-creation in ways machines still cannot do.

Finally, when the value of the time required to achieve a result is less important than the cost of materials (There's no TV on a winter's day; why not embroider for the cold months?) it's amazing how much time you can choose to spend on making an object beautiful.

[pepperbeast.livejournal.com]

Peasants didn;t have time to sew, so they just left their hems and necklines unfinished.

sstormwatch has an excellent collection of costuming myths (http://www.kimiko1.com/research-16th/CostumeMythsWS).

[isabelladangelo.livejournal.com]

OMG! I haven't heard those! That's hilarious! I have heard the variation that Peasants didn't have time to sew so they only wore hand-me-downs.

[jillwheezul.livejournal.com]

Tussah and spun silks (i.e. what we commonly call raw silks, dupioni etc.) were not used in period. Absolutely false through all of the medieval period. However, it was not silk of the first quality.

The Byzantines, silk specialists even had a precise name for this silk - koukolarion and Marco Polo had some at his death. The Armenians practiced wild silk sericulture and did not reel silk. They supplied silk up to the Viking lands - one of the Birka finds is of this type of silk.

Sericin was often left in the warp threads because they were stronger that way, even though they did not dye as well as silk than had been degummed.

[pepperbeast.livejournal.com]

That's very interesting, and approximately doubles my knowledge of period silk production :-)

[isabelladangelo.livejournal.com]

Heard that one. From what I've been told and read, a silk similar to dupioni was used for curtains/bed linens/ect in the 16th c in Italy. It wasn't used for upper class clothing because it was a "poor man's silk". (I think it might have been used only as drapery/upholstery due to the strength. The same reason we have apparel and upholstery fabrics today...)

[pinkdiamond.livejournal.com]

That women's clothing in any other period but our own was ridiculous and uncomfortable and lead to diseases.

[pepperbeast.livejournal.com]

That depends what kind of diseases ;-)