My research, let me show you it
I'm putting this out there because I've been told more than a few times by various people, lately, that my research isn't getting "out there." It's been "out there" on the web since the year 2000, free of charge, but last year I decided to pull down almost all of my dress diaries and web pages with the research for a couple of reasons. Namely, the organizational structure of my previous website incarnations were unprofessional and cluttered, and I wanted to make things look a little more polished (this was when I was applying to graduate programs and thought it might behoove me to make a more professional site, in the off chance my application generated enough curiosity do a web search). This meant that the old articles such as the French Hoods research pages were taken down, retooled, edited and then put back up on the website as PDFs. The content actually never went anywhere, and the only thing that changed was the delivery method of the information. This also was meant to help deal with some plagiarizing I had found over the years, by making the information less copy-paste accessible. True, people can still plagiarize with the PDFs, but at least they're going to have to work for it rather than just highlight text, copy and paste it into their document without credit.
Also, in July 2009, Your Wardrobe Unlock'd published my most comprehensive research on the French Hood, so under the terms of the publication contract, I took down material on my site that related to the article so as to avoid any issues with simultaneous publication. After the terms of the contract ended, I put the research up on Modehistorique.com where it has been since January 2010. Apparently, however, people are having difficulty finding it. Short of making a massive blinking neon sign pointing to the research section of my website, I'm not sure what else I can do to make it more obviously right there.
Do people just have an aversion to PDFs?
Anyway, here is where you can find PDF downloads of my current research. I may begin putting dress diaries back on my website in the future, because it is nice to be able to go to a site and see the breakdown of how an article of clothing was created, but that's on the back burner for now. Dress diaries take a lot of time to create and lately I've been pretty short on time as far as costuming goes. I know they're popular (heck, I was one of the first handful of people doing them waaaaaay back during the dark ages of the internet days of Geocities) and I know that's part of what helped build the popularity of this site in the first place, so I am aware that they are part of the attraction of this website and when I removed them last year, I think my readership interest has suffered as a result.
What I would like to hear from those of you reading this, are suggestions on how you'd like to see my research presented on the web. Do you even visit my website for research? Did you even know that I have research on my website?
Also, to help answer some questions pertaining to my patterning methods (because this is also a question I've been asked a lot recently), I've begun to put that information onto all the costume pages. I will just state here, for the record and as a general rule, I drape/draft all of my patterns myself, with the very occasional assistance of others (I have a fabulous dress form that is close enough to my shape, which makes things a million times easier). As for my sources, I rely on Patterns of Fashion for the general schematics of patterning for 16th and 18th century clothing when necessary, but I do not use commercial patterns or books such as The Tudor Tailor. My personal stance on books such as The Tudor Tailor is that they are helpful in simplifying the steps to achieving the correct silhouette, but they do not replace primary source research or secondary source diagrams such as PoF. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I have used The Tudor Tailor to draft up a costume (first time was for an overcoat I use to keep warm at events, and the second time was when I used a pattern that aurelia100 had drafted up for the Princess of the Mists to make Her Highness a last-minute overgown for Estrella. The pattern was on hand, so I fit it to Her Highness and went from there). This is not to knock books such as this in the least, just to clarify that it is something I keep on hand only to present to people who are looking for a general overview of the 16th century that isn't skewing it towards fantasy.
Accuracy is something I really try to strive for. That's all.
Also, in July 2009, Your Wardrobe Unlock'd published my most comprehensive research on the French Hood, so under the terms of the publication contract, I took down material on my site that related to the article so as to avoid any issues with simultaneous publication. After the terms of the contract ended, I put the research up on Modehistorique.com where it has been since January 2010. Apparently, however, people are having difficulty finding it. Short of making a massive blinking neon sign pointing to the research section of my website, I'm not sure what else I can do to make it more obviously right there.
Do people just have an aversion to PDFs?
Anyway, here is where you can find PDF downloads of my current research. I may begin putting dress diaries back on my website in the future, because it is nice to be able to go to a site and see the breakdown of how an article of clothing was created, but that's on the back burner for now. Dress diaries take a lot of time to create and lately I've been pretty short on time as far as costuming goes. I know they're popular (heck, I was one of the first handful of people doing them waaaaaay back during the dark ages of the internet days of Geocities) and I know that's part of what helped build the popularity of this site in the first place, so I am aware that they are part of the attraction of this website and when I removed them last year, I think my readership interest has suffered as a result.
What I would like to hear from those of you reading this, are suggestions on how you'd like to see my research presented on the web. Do you even visit my website for research? Did you even know that I have research on my website?
Also, to help answer some questions pertaining to my patterning methods (because this is also a question I've been asked a lot recently), I've begun to put that information onto all the costume pages. I will just state here, for the record and as a general rule, I drape/draft all of my patterns myself, with the very occasional assistance of others (I have a fabulous dress form that is close enough to my shape, which makes things a million times easier). As for my sources, I rely on Patterns of Fashion for the general schematics of patterning for 16th and 18th century clothing when necessary, but I do not use commercial patterns or books such as The Tudor Tailor. My personal stance on books such as The Tudor Tailor is that they are helpful in simplifying the steps to achieving the correct silhouette, but they do not replace primary source research or secondary source diagrams such as PoF. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I have used The Tudor Tailor to draft up a costume (first time was for an overcoat I use to keep warm at events, and the second time was when I used a pattern that aurelia100 had drafted up for the Princess of the Mists to make Her Highness a last-minute overgown for Estrella. The pattern was on hand, so I fit it to Her Highness and went from there). This is not to knock books such as this in the least, just to clarify that it is something I keep on hand only to present to people who are looking for a general overview of the 16th century that isn't skewing it towards fantasy.
Accuracy is something I really try to strive for. That's all.