Tudor Leather Daddies. Ruffs. And more.
I had a delightful time at the Elizabethan Costume Symposium held recently in Berkeley. It was put on by a costume guild and felt both very small and very big. Special guests included the Tudor Tailor team (yes I got a book and yes I got it signed), but I have to say ALL the presenters brought not only deep nerdyness over language and clothing, but also an appreciation for starting where you need to when it comes to costuming.
To prep for this, I deep dived into some Tudor 101 texts, which I’ll share below. I need to focus on my VirtualJaneCon presentation this month, but after that I think I’ll be devoted to making the best RenFaire fit I can.
Some nuggets from the presentations:
- Leather was actually pretty common for men’s jerkins. (Though the Tudor Tailor team stressed it was NOT super common to be black leather. Whatever, I’ll still enjoy this excuse to bring some leather into a wardrobe.) (You can get a pattern here.)
- A chicken makes a great accessory.
- Starches came in all sorts of colors (yellow, pinks, blues). And since you have to starch ruffs, well this is opening up some opportunities.
- There’s a bunch of public domain needlework books and resources out there.
Tudor Fashion 101
- How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England: A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves, and Braggarts by Ruth Goodman – A fantastic look at language, dress and more. I really appreciate the details around insults. I found this a great way to just immerse myself in the non-Victorianized Elizabethan era as it would have been. (Amazon | Bookshop)
- How To Be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Tudor Life by Ruth Goodman – Much more nitty-gritty about daily life, but I appreciate the details around dress and language. If you know nothing outside of public school about this time, this book is where you should start. It debunks a lot of myths and assumptions. (Amazon | Bookshop)
- The Tudor Tailor: Reconstructing Sixteenth-Century Dress by Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davies – Start here if you are easily overwhelmed with too much info and want to dive into costumes/fashion. This covers many basic pieces and can help you make a simple wardrobe for a middling class person or gentry (or beyond, if you take some time to research and be precise in materials). (Amazon | Tudor Tailor)
- The Typical Tudor: Reconstructing Everyday 16th Century Dress by Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davies – A much much deeper dive into Tudor dress. I highly recommend for anyone who loves data and extant examples/research. This is a textbook level work, which still includes patterns (including knitting!). (Tudor Tailor)
- Tudor Monastery Farm – Not a book, but I adore watching this. It’s a living history experiment and I learned so much about daily Tudor from this show. Ruth is an allstar and Peter is a fucking idiot, but we love them (Amazon )
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