Improving costumes in the renfaire world IDEA
There was a realization from comments by readers in a previous Friend's locked post that helped me to realize that being negative to help educate really doesn't help anyone.
It's like the news... after hearing negative news day after day, I would much rather hear positive news that offer a more upbeat story. Or like children, who will do lots of things in improvements in search of positive praise or a treat. Carrots rather than sticks.
So, while I was trying to nap (I am fighting an infection and a cold) my mind pondered such thoughts, and wondered what I could do to offer carrots as positive messages to improve costuming in the ren-faire world. While I would like to see costume improvements in the SCA world, that seems more of a personal thing. Some people will naturally want to improve their costume knowledge for its own sake, and they will get acknowledgements over time, while others are more into some other aspect of the medieval/modern research and could care less about costuming. That's ok with me.
I know that in the ren-faire world, there are certain accepted norms of costuming, that has been so ingrained into people's mind that change will be slow, if any change will happen at all. Good information is a start to change, and that's what I tried to do with my workshop info on Costuming Myths: Busted. We have books like The Tudor Tailor which is a huge improvement over the old "brown bible" that once told us how to dress for English peasants to nobles. We now have great patterns to use as well from a variety of vendors. And we have pockets of people in various organizations around the world who are doing their best to implement the best in renaissance costuming. We even have an LJ community just for awesomecostume, that needs more pics and praise, I think.
So, with that all rumbling through my brain at nap time, I didn't get much of a nap, but I did get the start of an idea. And I am wondering if people here might help implement the idea in their local area, because I know I won't be able to travel all over. What I am suggesting is an idea, that needs to be fleshed out if that idea is to become something more. And maybe it might even be a bad idea, and I look to the folks here to tell me it's a bad idea, just like they did in my previous post.
The idea in a small nutshell is to attend an event, spend time looking around at the people, actors, customers, whoever... and finding the person(s) and/or group who really, really, really EXCELS in their costume, be it peasant, merchant, gentry, Scots, German, Irish, Italian, Spanish, Flemish, whoever, and then give them a small award/ribbon as appreciation for their efforts. Along with the reward would be a request for photos, so they can be shared online so that others can see their excellent costume, but only if *they* are willing to do so (probably need a model waiver of some sort). I would be willing to host the photos, or we could set up a special LJ, flickr, photobucket or other account for sharing among people.
Basically I am looking to praise people's excellent work, and in that praise, encourage others to improve their own historical clothing as well. I don't want to do a "costume contest" at events because sometimes the very well done yeoman's outfit gets overlooked by the more glamourous gentry garb, or because people know how to work an audience.
Now, the hardest part I see off the bat, is excellence, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Some have a better eye at what is excellent than others, or may gravitate to certain types of costume (say glitsy nobles) that color their judgement. Or they may be too shy to do this, or they may give awards to friends in their groups, and not get farther than that.
Also, those judging are obviously not going to be picked, since the point is to encourage others, and not toot one's own horn. I figure we have our own LJs and various comms to toot our own horns. But not everyone at faire has an LJ account, or toot their horns on the net.
I also have no idea what to call this, or how wide to make this, or what other problems or potentials there might be ... so I open the floor to anyone reading this to provide suggestions. Let me know what you honestly think. Good idea, bad idea, previous experiences you want to share, all are welcome.
It's like the news... after hearing negative news day after day, I would much rather hear positive news that offer a more upbeat story. Or like children, who will do lots of things in improvements in search of positive praise or a treat. Carrots rather than sticks.
So, while I was trying to nap (I am fighting an infection and a cold) my mind pondered such thoughts, and wondered what I could do to offer carrots as positive messages to improve costuming in the ren-faire world. While I would like to see costume improvements in the SCA world, that seems more of a personal thing. Some people will naturally want to improve their costume knowledge for its own sake, and they will get acknowledgements over time, while others are more into some other aspect of the medieval/modern research and could care less about costuming. That's ok with me.
I know that in the ren-faire world, there are certain accepted norms of costuming, that has been so ingrained into people's mind that change will be slow, if any change will happen at all. Good information is a start to change, and that's what I tried to do with my workshop info on Costuming Myths: Busted. We have books like The Tudor Tailor which is a huge improvement over the old "brown bible" that once told us how to dress for English peasants to nobles. We now have great patterns to use as well from a variety of vendors. And we have pockets of people in various organizations around the world who are doing their best to implement the best in renaissance costuming. We even have an LJ community just for awesomecostume, that needs more pics and praise, I think.
So, with that all rumbling through my brain at nap time, I didn't get much of a nap, but I did get the start of an idea. And I am wondering if people here might help implement the idea in their local area, because I know I won't be able to travel all over. What I am suggesting is an idea, that needs to be fleshed out if that idea is to become something more. And maybe it might even be a bad idea, and I look to the folks here to tell me it's a bad idea, just like they did in my previous post.
The idea in a small nutshell is to attend an event, spend time looking around at the people, actors, customers, whoever... and finding the person(s) and/or group who really, really, really EXCELS in their costume, be it peasant, merchant, gentry, Scots, German, Irish, Italian, Spanish, Flemish, whoever, and then give them a small award/ribbon as appreciation for their efforts. Along with the reward would be a request for photos, so they can be shared online so that others can see their excellent costume, but only if *they* are willing to do so (probably need a model waiver of some sort). I would be willing to host the photos, or we could set up a special LJ, flickr, photobucket or other account for sharing among people.
Basically I am looking to praise people's excellent work, and in that praise, encourage others to improve their own historical clothing as well. I don't want to do a "costume contest" at events because sometimes the very well done yeoman's outfit gets overlooked by the more glamourous gentry garb, or because people know how to work an audience.
Now, the hardest part I see off the bat, is excellence, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Some have a better eye at what is excellent than others, or may gravitate to certain types of costume (say glitsy nobles) that color their judgement. Or they may be too shy to do this, or they may give awards to friends in their groups, and not get farther than that.
Also, those judging are obviously not going to be picked, since the point is to encourage others, and not toot one's own horn. I figure we have our own LJs and various comms to toot our own horns. But not everyone at faire has an LJ account, or toot their horns on the net.
I also have no idea what to call this, or how wide to make this, or what other problems or potentials there might be ... so I open the floor to anyone reading this to provide suggestions. Let me know what you honestly think. Good idea, bad idea, previous experiences you want to share, all are welcome.