Monday, 27 April 2009

Let's pick on the Franks!

Echoppe Medievale has a really beautiful webpage (though the art looks more Renaissance than Medieval to me).  Too bad the actual clothes don't live up to the hopes inspired by the splash page.  What are they selling? The usual goth style with a contrasting front panel and lacings from bust to waist, though they offer it in non-Goth colours.  Also, a whole lot of... well... I don't really know how to identify this:




I'm coining the term, 'Medieval Cubism.'  Not that it's really in any way Medieval.  This is a case of 'historic' costume getting polluted by modern aesthetics, just as blatantly as in the clothes of blushing Pre-Raphaelite damsels.  The only difference is that Pre-Raphaelite clothes weren't BUTT UGLY.

They've also got some shapeless sacks from the Tentmaker-turned-Seamstress school of fashion...






I'm not even going to try explaining the inaccuracies, because everything is wrong.  All I'll say is that the second of these two is a really sloppy take on Princess Kriemhild.

One final snark: I've seen a lot of gowns like this one being sold as 'Medieval' on the reenactment sites of Europe...



There is nothing Medieval about it.  This is just a standard modern crushed velvet and embroidered cotton dress from India.  And if you browse the little vendors who show up on college campuses, you can get it for a damned lot less than 69 Euros.

You'd think the land of Charlegmane and the Merovingians would take more pride in their history... and have the courage to use more colours than red, black and puce.

2 comments:

  1. Seriously, seriously unflattering, extremely simply made, and the material looks cheap besides. You could make most of those with about $15 (USD) of material, two hours, and a basic sewing machine. I'm not sure why you'd want to.

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  2. The Indian dresses don't look too bad to me, but everything else is a big ol' case of YUCK.

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