We've had a few comments that seem to misunderstand the purpose of this blog, so just for clarification:
- This is a blog for snarking as entertainment and education. If you dislike that kind of thing, it won't be for you. The jokes here are aimed at the clothing itself, and not at the makers, unless the makers have done something specific to earn a comment - such as seriously mislabel their creations or make misleading statements about them, or grossly overcharge.
- This blog is focused on professionally made costumes, costumes which are being sold, and costumes which are prominent and influential. We do not snark what Joe wore to his first event last week; that would be unfair and petty. We do, however, snark the movie or website that gave Joe the wrong idea in the first place.
- Medieval costuming is a learning process. Research is still being done, sources are still being discovered, and the field is much too large for anyone to know it all. If you spot a mistake in the blog or somewhere else, please comment on it! This is also why our comments are aimed mainly at myths and bad costuming itself, and not at the people making it - perhaps they're learning, too.
- While this blog is flippant and hopefully sometimes funny, we are attempting to make it helpful as well, by providing suggestions and links to good resources as well as warnings about suspicious sources. If you have any resources we should add, please do comment and let us know about them.
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I'm glad to see a couple of posts in this calendar year! The 104 posts in 2009 were wonderfully entertaining, and I'm hoping for more! Between being in the SCA, and teaching a costume history class, I need the chuckles that I get from your snarks and insights. It helps me cope with all of the really bad stuff that I see out there, far too often!
ReplyDeleteGFT, your comments are a clever mix of substance and snark - visually stimulating with a poke in the eye. i have a question about the proper identification of a Renaissance headpiece for a woman. Would you be kind enough to contact me?
ReplyDeleteI dunno, every time I get the urge to do Tolkien-esque or pseudo-historical costuming, I come and browse through here to remind myself that it's not worth the time and effort to make something fun if I have nowhere appropriate to wear it to.
ReplyDeleteI don't LARP any more due to the local group talking crap about me because of my weight, can't really afford to take time off work so I can drive for hours to do a convention, and none of what I'm interested in would be acceptable at SCA events or even the local fantasy styled ren faire, as your blog so eloquently illustrates.
So thank you. I've saved tonnes of money by not giving in to my urge to have fun with clothing, and I've also managed to avoid not making a complete fool of myself and shaming everyone who takes it more seriously than I do.
Keep up the good work!
If you aren't having fun with clothing, I'm afraid that blaming everyone else - LARPers, work, the SCA, us - isn't going to help. Don't forget that you'd also need to blame someone for not being able to dress up on Halloween, for not being able to arrange a local mini-convention, and for not being able to dress as you like outside of work.
DeleteI have costumes that are not historical at all; I don't wear them to historical events. But I do wear them.