The Costume Mercenary

Happy New Year from the Wishing Tree (and some blurry photos of carnival costumes)

2012-01-24T14:06:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Things will be slowly, slowly churning back into motion over the next few days. It's been a good few days, including some amazing fireworks (you can go catch the highlights on youtube, if you so wish) and I even found time to go visit the famous Wishing Tree at Lam (literally "forest") Village.

Recovering from the Weight of our Wishes

The Wishing Tree has had a long and glorious tradition. The process is simple: you write your wish on a bit of paper, attach a mandarin and throw. The aim is to get lodge the mandarin (wish and all) on the branches of the tree. It can be seen in many a Hong Kong drama, often in some sort of melodramatic scene where someone is tearfully and desperately hurling a mandarin into the tree (as it storms around them).

The original tree suffered from the weight of all our wishes (or more specifically, mandarins) and a branch broke in 2005. Since then, they've built a plastic tree for people to throw plastic mandarins at. The original trees are still alive and recovering, but I'm sure there's some sort of pseudoprofound metaphor about the state of modernity we can extract from that little story.

Around New Year, it seems, a market has sprung up around it (with the help of the tourism board). There have also been floats and Chinese Opera and many, many things. I was only there briefly to throw a plastic orange, eat traditional Hong Kong egg waffles and see Rampage Carnival (or that was what I caught their name as).

There is also the triple temple to Tin Hau (Queen Mother of the Western Skies), Long Mu (Mother of Dragons) and Man Mo (Twinned gods of Literary and Martial matters). Though it is clear who is favoured as only Tin Hau's section was bustling with worshipers.

There is also an award-winning toilet, I'm not sure why it's relevant, but it's definitely there. I'm sure it says something else that it's probably bigger than the temples in size.

(And here's a photo of me in a coat inspired by Georgian riding coats, with rose buttons and blackwork. It should get its own blogpost one of these days.)

All the best and there are some (blurry) photos of Rampage Carnival under the cut.

Egg Puffs! (aka Egg Waffles) It takes some skill to handle four skillets at the same time. It amused me that his skillets had a little crown etched onto the handle (since he is the "Great King of Egg Puffs", as per the sign.)

Hakka braised pork (and rice) cooked in traditional-seeming woks. There's a lot of other food about, including all of Hong Kong traditional street food.

The traditional Chinese Opera stage, too small for anything else it seems, but the open-air stage is rather too small as well.

This is where you hang your traditional style wishes should you wish them anywhere near the Original Wishing Tree. Wishes, it seems, come in two sorts now. There's the ones seen above, a bundle of thin printed paper, traditional-looking, replete well wishes and phrased as a lengthy petition to the heavenly bureaucracy. (You then write a more specific wish in a designated area on the form.)

The other sort is printed on pink card, with a very modern typeface. It features tick boxes next to rather more standard seeming well-wishes.

So as you can tell, making forms of wishes has been something of a tradition around here. But somehow still I like tick boxes less.

The Welcome Sign outside Lam Village

And finally, this was pretty awesome. Also hats off to the dedication of the performers who are doing this in 8°C. I didn't expect to see this and it really cool. Though I can't help but wonder how such costumes would stand up to the rigours of a larp event.

Preview: Embroidered Elven Robes

2012-01-22T01:41:00.000-08:00

Due to the nature of the embroiderers and them reluctant to take on any orders that don't involve fewer than a dozen garments, we have been experimenting with designs and have come up with this elven ensemble, drawing quite strongly on elven aesthetic of the Lord of the Rings films. Though as said before, there's something very oriental about the garments and it came easily to people who were accustomed to making tangzhuang.

The whole outfit doesn't really fit me. It's a couple of inches too wide in the shoulders and hangs more than a little oddly. The wide sash (maroon faux silk with a silver white embroidered design) makes the whole thing neater than it really should. The sash is just pinned to me in the photos (being on the large side) but there are snap buttons.

The elven coat is a dark green wool (very much the same lovely medium weight wool as that of the tail coats), though we've also done a couple in a much lighter fabric, a faux silk. It's fully lined in green faux silk and the buttons are small, round and in gunmetal grey, fitting into tiny little satin loops. The stretch velvet robe is unlined (and really quite rough). We've more made it to show the effect of a complete outfit than selling large numbers of them.

And yes, these are indeed more blurry photos. I'm having some problems with the camera battery and long story short, it might be a little while before we're seeing really good photos on the blog again. But hopefully we'll sort this out.

Also, if you have any commissions, I do recommend sending them in the next week or so. The official deadline is the February the 3rd, after that it's very unlikely we'll be able to do any custom work.

If you're interested in our Elven designs, do have a look on the items we have in stock on the Character Kit website. These embroidered coats (sash included) are likely to cost something in the region of £95-115, depending on how the maths works out at the moment. Unfortunately due to how the extra surcharge on single item orders with the embroiderers, custom versions would likely cost about £15 more than the standard.

More photos of the embroidered elven robes under the cut.

Clasps, Buttons and Musings

2012-01-17T08:44:00.000-08:00

I found some clasps recently in my wanderings in the land of Haberdashery. They're quite nice. We've not really used clasps that much in our cloak designs, mostly favouring buckles, the more subtle hook and eye as well as ties under the arm.

I suspect these won't end up as cloak clasps, at least not until we've sold more of our current stock. I'm liking the idea of them down the front of doublets or being used to lace up dresses.

(They're not photographing very well and there's another brighter one under the cut, but the lighter coloured clasps are completely washed out.)

There aren't as many designs for these colours, but it was still intriguing to find these colours for alloy buttons. Bright copper we've actually used before in the Inventor's Apron Dress, but the others not so much. I do like the pale dull gold. There are generally a lot more options for colours if we ever decided to embrace plastic buttons but the Designer and I both have a dislike for them (though I concede they can be useful when you want a lot of buttons on a thin fabric and the weight of the metal would make the garment sag).

Dr Watson's Costume from "Game of Shadows"

2012-01-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

I was watching Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows at the cinema the other week and happened upon Doctor Watson's costume in a glass case. Out came the camera phone and here are the few snaps.

Jenny Beaven reprises her role as costume designer (there's a nice little interview with her in the wake of the first film on frocktalk). Clothes on Film also did a Q&A with her and some commentary on the first glimpse costumes from the trailer.

The scarf (left) is particularly interesting as she says: The idea was that Mary had knitted it for him (Watson) and Holmes therefore absolutely hated it! I chose colours she would have thought he would like, and he loves it because she made it for him.

The scarf seemed to have a journey of its own as it gets taken off, claimed by gypsies (etc) during the course of the film. Other fascinating costumes in the film for me were Holmes' disguises which seemed to have to be good but not good (tipping the hand to the audience). Irene Adler's gorgeous pink bustle dress and dark blue coat from the first film is reprised and all the gentlemen wear some very smart suits in various degrees of actual smartness

I suspect you'd probably get better detail of the dvd when that comes out, but I still thought it would be cool to quickly share this.

A closeup of Watson's costume under the cut.

Borrowed Costume: Xiao Long Nu

2012-01-15T10:40:00.000-08:00

Yang Guo raised his head; he saw a white jade hand lift the hanging curtain, a girl entered. The girl wore an old fashioned delicate white dress, it was as if her body was covered with smoke and mist, she looked like she was about sixteen or seventeen years of age. Apart from her black hair, her body was as white as snow [...] he thought that she was beautiful, but without comparison, exuding an icy and emotionless aura.

from Divine Eagle, Knight Gallant, Book One, Chapter 5, translated by "Noodles"

The white-clad Xiao Longnu is one of the main characters in Jin Yong (aka Louis Cha)'s Return of the Condor Hero (though it is more accurately rendered Divine Condor and his Heroic Companion or Divine Eagle, Knight Gallant, as per the online translation of the novel). She is quite possibly the one of the most iconic characters of wuxia, especially given some rather consistent costume design throughout the many, many adaptations.*

Xiao Longnu is the leader of sect, the Tomb of the Living Dead. She is cold and dispassionate, cultivating a martial art that discourages any outward expression of emotions since an early age. She is the mentor and lover of Yang Guo, the non-avian titular character. The taboo nature of their relationship and their struggles with the disapproval of the pugilistic world fuels most of the plot, though the Mongolian invasion forms the backdrop to the story.

She is in many ways an archetypal Lady of War, being both hard as nails and characterised by her almost inhuman grace (she sleeps balanced on a tightrope). She can practically fly through her knowledge of the art of lightness and is, I believe, inspiration for many of the subsequent iterations of the trope in wuxia. That said, Jin Yong did largely found modern wuxia as a genre.

Divine Eagle is the second book of the Jin Yong trilogy, though it stands well enough alone. Depending on how you count (that is, if you exclude a certain slew of spin-offs made in the 90s), Divine Eagle is the most adapted of Jin Yong's wuxia novels. Like anything that has been extensively adapted, fans debate about which version was the best. The '06 version is probably the most accurate in the details and extravagant in production values (this fight is beautiful), though the '83 with Andy Lau and Idy Chan is probably the most beloved in Hong Kong. The anime is probably the most approachable since it periodically broken up by "footnotes" explaining the many of the underlying conventions of the genre (such as qi, qinggong and pressure point strikes aka Touch of Death). The internet is also rife with comparisons on Xiao Longnu's various incarnations in the serials.

More than any of the other novels though, Divine Eagle is a love story, or love stories, even, as most of the characters are motivated by love. The Scarlet Immortal is primarily motivated by her deep hatred of her ex-lover (the book opens with her slaughter of his entire remaining family). The feud between the Taoist Quanzhen ("Complete Truth") Sect and the Tomb of the Living Dead come about due to the extremely repressed romance between their founders. Passionless Valley even has a poison that kills you when you think of the one you love.

Some of the plots do seem overwrought and melodramatic to the modern eye, and for a genre that is often sold on its fights, there is a lot more going on (and early tv adaptions certainly did not have the budget for hugely elaborate fights). Questions of the rejection of society (and societal judgement), the price of honour and patriotism come up. And, of course, as the frequently quoted poem asks: "What is love?" (Which makes it really very good inspiration for anyone seeking to run an Exalted game.)

The outfit is based predominately on the outfits worn by Liu Yifei in the 2006 version. It consists of three layers: a white sleeveless inner dress, a short lacy cross-collar top with long sleeves ending in lace cuffs and a large white robe. There is also a wide lace sash that is then secured with a white cord. Both this and Xiao Long Nu's costumes in the 2006 serial are quite interesting in how its very much it is a fusion of modern materials and ancient styles. Lace of the sort used for her cuffs, for example, was certainly not known in the Song dynasty. One of her variant outfits also features white cloth "petals" over her breast and some lovely white-on-white embroidery on her over robe.

Though we didn't make this costume (see here for the full story behind the shoot), it is possible to commission something like it (or something closer to any of the original Xiao Longnu robes from the various serials) from the Costume Mercenary. Email us for more details. Also, Character Kit sells an excellently weighted 38" larp-safe Chinese Jian (£50).

More photos of me pretending to be Xiao Long Nu under the cut.

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* For those who have seen Kung Fu Hustle, Xiao Long Nu is revealed to be the name of the formidable Landlady (and Yang Guo, her husband). They appear in the subtitles as "Helen of Troy" and "Paris", which isn't quite the same.

My uncle's response to seeing these photos was an exclaimed "冷如霜" (literally, "cold as frost", a paraphrased quote from the novels).

Needless to say, cosplaying her is really rather vain.

Flembic Splendour: Purple Polonaise

2012-01-15T07:37:00.000-08:00

part of a series of Maelstrom-related Portraits

done by Chris Brett

The wits' salons, most notably di Racines, are more cultured, offering a place of social discourse, literary discussion, and philosophical debate. These are places where the intellect is glorified, where wit and repartee are the weapons of choice.

The Purple Polonaise has already had it's post (where the details of the garment were far more visible), but there is a still a lovely sense of character to these photos, which I find with some surprise were still stuck in the drafts folder of the blog.

The polonaise is certainly too serious seeming to be what my character has called her "business dress" (it is by default the most silly thing I have brought to any given event), but there is a nice air to it. Perhaps it's just the documents in my hand that lend the set a more scholarly air.

The Designer and I produce an in-character newspaper for Maelstrom named the New World Chronicle, a copy of which can be seen in the photo. It's more work than we'd ever really like to admit to, usually working through the night before an event and printing at six in the morning. We've seen competition come and go - newspaper editors seem to have a terrible habit of dying. The Pioneer, I believe, lost at least one an event until they ran out. As such, The Chronicle has become longest running newspaper in the game, and it is probably safe to say (given the winding down of Maelstrom) that we will remain so. It still amuses me to ask for the five pfeck the paper costs, a sum that people frequently claim to not have on them due to being far too paltry.

Looking back, it must have been insanely ambitious (and still is) to have four non-base-ten currencies with fluctuating exchange rates. But it was damned splendid. Is suspect after it ends (last four events this year), we won't see its like again in some time. That said, I do have the pleasure of being involved in PD's currency creation once more (this time, for Empire - though the actual site appears to be down at the moment).

A similar dress would cost in the region of £130-40.

One more photos of the purple polonaise under the cut.

Blurriest Photo Yet: Purple and Silver Embroidered Tail Coat

2012-01-14T08:13:00.000-08:00

So I was at a wedding with a confectionery theme (hence the bouquet of comically oversized lollies and ridiculous smile) and I was wearing one of the embroidered tail coats in purple and silver. Aside from the more feminine cut, it's more or less identical to the male ones. The coat is also a lot closer to bright purple than byzantium, but indoor lighting hates me.

I thought I'd just quickly share the photo before I forget and hopefully there'll be some better photos of the garment in the near future.

Return of the Watercolour Sketches

2012-01-14T07:42:00.000-08:00

Chinese New Year is around the corner and everyone in the clothing industry, from the haberdashers to the cloth merchants to the tailors at the workshop (as well as every other industry) are going home and calling it a year. I've not much I can do for a little bit, so I'm taking to opportunity to dig though some of the old sketches I haven't found the time to paint and, well, paint them up.

To a certain extent, these aren't just ideas that weren't as good (and thus didn't quite get coloured first time round). Some are just abandoned because I'm not a very organised person, or I was too timid to put paintbrush to page. I was once told that you should always scan, then pain and ink. Then you could always go back and do it again a different colour. The Designer used to work in the glory that is Microsoft Paint and we would recolour drawings in it with the flood tool (the Flembic military dress went through half a dozen colours before we went with blue). We should probably do that again.

The above is of layered Persian outfits I was toying around with for Odyssey. I'm not entirely happy with it; I should have probably been more ambitious with the patterns, but drawing is hard (and I'm also out of practice).

There are a lot of rumours regard Empire and among them what the costumes inspirations would be. I'm still hanging back from actually drawing anything for it, but I do seem to have hit a vein of high medieval dresses in my sketching past, so here it is (to the right and bottom). Perhaps I'll be able to pass it off as some Empire culture or another in a few more months. (Insert smileyface here.)

The other seems to be some of the preliminary sketches for when I was dabbling with ricepunk. Revisiting that sketch and visiting Shanghai has got me thinking again, so I'll probably post about that at some point.

Further Adventures with the Embroiderers

2012-01-13T09:34:00.000-08:00

The first of the batch of embroidered tailcoats have returned and I'm not quite sure what to do with how yellow the gold is. I'm not entirely happy, but they are otherwise rather spectacular. The cuffs are deep and the back now bears a small embroidered pattern just above the slit (as opposed to being blank).

The coat is made of sturdy wool, fastens in front with hooks and eyes and has a double row of ornamental buttons. There are

I'm developing a deeply love-hate relationship with the Embroiderers, to put it simply. Among other things, they do appear completely unable to understand the difference between gold and yellow (the current solution is to work around them and buy our own embroidery thread, but it's rather annoying that it has come to this), but their work is otherwise very good.

The new back flower seems more unbalanced in the photos than they do in reality, but I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out. It is, the tragedy of only being able to afford to run so many prototypes. But we shall see. The effect of any given garment isn't really obvious until it becomes part of an outfit and is on someone. It's why fashion photography can get so abstract.

Some hopefully these coats will all be on the website in a month or so. There will only be one of each colour combination in each size, but there will be a plethora of colours (including purple; the one of the shown is technically maroon).

So watch this space.

Also, a more detailed photo of the "wreathe" on the back under the cut.

Preview: Borrowed Wuxia Costumes in the Studio

2012-01-12T11:56:00.000-08:00

This was more or less an exercise in vanity and cosplay. I had the opportunity to dress up as Xiaolongnü, elegant, indifferent and hard-as-nails heroine of Jin Yong's Return of the Condor. I also got to play around with most of their costume rack (which included many other fascinating costumes not appearing in these photos).

There isn't a terribly big market for wuxia, much as I've been using many of the elements in designing elven costumes. It's just not a genre that necessarily translates to live roleplay very well, though the Designer and I do have some notes and plans (nothing concrete). That all said, I did enjoy playing around with giant sleeves and flowing robes. We should have more of that, just generally.

What was rather amazing about the experience was watching the stylist do my hair: it's not a wig. She swiftly and efficiently built the whole coiffure out of my hair, additional braids, other extensions and, of course, various hair ornaments.

Due to these being studio photos done by a professional photographer, they have been tinkered with, that isn't actually a bamboo forest (unlike with the scholar and red robes shoots at the Durham Botanical Gardens, which is odd to think I was actually in China this time) and there is an utterly excessive amount of make-up on me.

I suspect I'll write more on the actual characters being portrayed in the individual posts, though I can't say I'm not a little embarrassed at comparing myself to characters famous for if not defined by their beauty (the photo on the right being an impression of Yang Guifei). But as said, this is largely an exercise in vanity, and if we ever do end up running that wuxia live roleplay system, I suppose we've got some publicity shots on file.

Also, if you're seized by a sudden desire to own a larp-safe Chinese Jian, Character Kit offer an excellently weighted 38" one for £50.

Shanghai's Museum of Textiles and Looms

2012-01-12T09:11:00.000-08:00

I was in Shanghai recently and had a chance to pop into its Textile Museum. I had the misfortune to forget the decent camera and the one on my phone (along with my phone) gave out after the second floor, so there aren't exactly a plethora of good photos (excellent writeup with photos of the later floors on the blog, We Drive East).

The lady to the right is Huang Daopo 黄道婆 who seemed to have been one of the founding lights of the textile industry in thirteenth century China. It's actually almost refreshing to see a figure celebrated like that, but then, I've probably read far too many pseudohistorical and fantasy books where and interest in embroidery or textiles is portrayed as a useless "feminine" frippery.

The exhibition gets a lot better as one progresses to the later floors. Perhaps unsurprisingly, little survives from dynasties before the Qing and what there is doesn't end up in this particular museum. But still, there is something very odd about having a glass display case solemnly filled with photographs of costumes instead of, well, costumes.

To the right is a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) rank badge, though only a replica of one. It is of brocade rather than embroidery, which is interesting. I suppose this is where I link to the rank badge I embroidered for the steampunk magistrate outfit last year.

Also interesting is this timeline of textile technology that I came across when looking up links for this blogpost. It's a nice overview, though obviously I'd advise going to look up something more authoritative if you're using it for anything.

Under the cut are a few more photos from the museum and a few ramblings.

Brocade for the Emperor's Robe (replica), Ming Dynasty

Brocade for Emperor's Golden Dragon Robe (replica) Ming/Qing and diagram for how it fits together (apparently)

Of course, when you're Emperor, getting purpose-made brocade for your outfits isn't really a problem. Which is intriguing, I suppose, since when you're trying to replicate this effect nowadays, you pretty much have to settle for joining two different bits of brocade together.

For some reason, Swarovski paid for this... thing. I don't really know why. That dusting of white? Crystals.

Brocade with Lions Play Ball (replica), Ming/Qing

Sometimes, the Past has no taste. I cite you this picture whenever someone claims that the Past had better taste and exudes elegance on every level. Because they made this, which is charming, but not tasteful.

"DingQiao" Drawloom

Someone inconsiderate has been meddling with the thread on most of the machines. It made trying to make sense of them rather more difficult. Which is a shame.

From what I can tell, the above is a foot-treadle loom. But it wasn't exactly labelled...

Tat on the Table: Clockwork Pocket Watches and Other Bits and Bobs

2012-01-06T07:39:00.000-08:00

The good news is that I've been talking to our pocket watch supplier and we have some new designs in (as well as a few more of the old). They won't be on the website for a couple of months, but it's still very exciting. The one above is rather snazzy.

Bad news, however, is that they've gotten more expensive. In all honestly, we'll end up absorbing some of that price difference, but we really can't afford to absorb all of it.

In other news, we've got some bits and bobs in. A job lot of exceptionally over the top pewter rings (featuring skulls on skulls on more skulls), a couple of bejewelled mirror compacts and some rings-with-hidden-watches. It has proven impossible to hold the ring open and to take a photo of it at the same time, but suffice to say behind that plastic gem is a watchface. I have funny feeling these items will be crowding the end of the table for far, far too long. But who knows?

The custom-patterned brocade is looking less likely by the day. I'm just not sure we can use five hundred metres of brocade (that's around three hundred waistcoats). Though I suppose we might try to use it with the million cog and screw buttons we have in stock.

Also, the Proprietor and friends have been working on State of Grace, a new post-apocalyptic cyberpunk Live Roleplay Game full of cyborgs, mutants and cannibals (to quote the website). First event is pencilled in for the November of this year. Go peruse the new (if incomplete) website.

(So all in all, not a bad time to head over to Character Kit to buy a pocket watch before the price goes up. They're £16 for the regular sort and £20 for the globe watches.)

Photo of all the other tat under the cut.

Leather Pouches

2011-12-30T07:24:00.000-08:00

We appear to have some prototype pouches, though we're still playing around with ideas for the basic shape and insides. These are without compartments, but I'm still relatively keen on the idea of having a slot against the back wall of the pouch for character cards and the like (or out of character stuff, if you're so inclined).

We're consciously trying to step away from standard medieval/renaissance fantasy designs and dabbling in something different. The one on the left is based on a stylised lamassu (winged lion of Mesopotamian mythology) and the one of the right is the Raven stealing the sun.

It is likely that the next batch may wander back towards more classically fantastical designs, but we felt this was a worthwhile foray. The vambraces, however splendidly tooled, haven't sold that well over the last six months, so we're wary of getting too many of these in. That said, we do need some prototypes to at least show what we can do.

Also, Happy New Year!

Return of the Mercenary, Sheer Opulence from the Embroiderers and Some Books

2011-12-23T11:13:00.000-08:00

I've again found myself neglecting the blog (and emails! Sorry!) but I am back again, with news and photos and costumes.

The rather magnificent green and silver frock coat to the right is one of the new prototypes we've been working on. The Embroiderers seem to have outdone themselves (though in a tragic twist of fate, they have gone out of business, but their machines - along with all the backups - have been bought up by a new company of embroiderers, so we're still in the game). We're still debating whether or not ornamental buttons should be added to the garment (it closes with hooks and eyes). There are vague plans for the embroidery to appear on other garments and new iterations of the embroidered tailcoat from last year are in the pipeline.

There's another dubiously amusing story of mistakes in colours of thread used, but I'll save that for another day. Suffice to say, if you're in the market for a cut price embroidered doublet, it may soon be your day.

Profound Decisions's Empire is glinting at us on the horizon, and at some point, when more information is available, I intend to do sketches for it (like I did Odyssey). But despite all the speculation, there's really a distinct lack of concrete detail to build costumes from. I've heard things like BBC's Merlin and Camelot being cited as potential sources of inspiration, and the word "coolthentic" has been making its rounds, but it's not quite enough to start me drawing. I want the garments to feel like they are grounded in the culture they are supposedly from (even if I'm building an outfit from tat I already own) and I'm not sure I can quite envision it yet.

I've also managed to raid Hilde Bede College's library back when they were renovating earlier this year, so I am sitting on a small mountain of costume books (though many of them are admittedly ancient and in some ways quite outdated in their research). Flicking through them has been very exciting and maybe eventually some of the new sketches inspired from them will make it onto the blog.

I've been indulging in the simple joy of flicking through all the pretty pictures on the various tumblrs on historical clothing, including Dames a la Mode (fashion plates), OMG that Dress, Impersonating History, Costume Reference (does what it says on the tin), The Ornamented Being (pretty things, mostly Victorian) and My Lovely Petticoat. Especially with the tumblrs with an interest in extant clothing, it gets all terribly modern at times (my interest begins to wane once we hit the 1900s), but it's been an interesting pictorial journey.

In other, other news, I've been playing about with Doll Divine's Tudor Scene Maker. It has an utterly mind-boggling number of options and layers to fiddle about with.

Portraits and Costumes: Henry VIII and Wives

2011-10-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

It seems to be a thing that every other historical attraction with an empty room and a tenuous connection to the infamous Henry VIII will have a display of him and his six wives. Or it may simply seem so as I've seen three such arrangements (Warwick Castle; Hever Castle; Hampton Court), two of them in the recent past and have been musing on the subject.

The costumes are all clearly taken from iconic portraits, though some details differ. This set of photos are taken at Warwick Castle. The room was quite dark, so I've tweaked the colours and contrasts on these photos for a little more clarity.

Putting the portraits and the photos of the costumes side by side is a tad disappointing. Henry VIII, for example, isn't as insanely wide as his portrait. The lines of the costumes simply aren't as crisp and clean, or as detailed and opulent. All this is perhaps more fault of the portrait than the costume. After all, a portrait is not a photograph and it is hardly the fault of the costume makers that they cannot reproduce the exact idealised world of the portrait. Equally, the budget for the costume probably cannot match that of a Queen of England's. That, and puffed linings are obnoxiously hard to get right in real life.

The challenges reminded me greatly of those faced by cosplayers who want replicate (or in some cases simply evoke) a particular costume that exists only on the page or screen.

On the subject of Tudor portraits, I found this portrait archive particularly comprehensive.

Also, here's an iron capotain. It's awesome. Made all the more amusing to me due to the sheer number of hats that have been worn as "armour" (some with more justification than others) over the years.

More photos of the exhibition and some associated rambling under the cut.

Catherine of Aragon, based on the 1530 portrait by an unknown artist. She is apparently holding a bunch of lavender in the portrait.

Incidentally, I'm trying to work out which portrait Andrew Brown rather uncharitably describes as containing the sulk that "does as much to explain the attraction of Anne Boleyn, and so, perhaps, the foundation of the Church of England, as even the very best histories of the period."

I'm not sure what exactly it says of us, the way we tell history to ourselves that the young Catherine, the one of it Sittow portrait is eclipsed by the older, perhaps more bitter woman whom Henry divorced. But it probably says something. She was, after all, wife to him for over twenty years. Her story doesn't start with her old and barren, but it seems more often than not told that way.

Anne Boleyn, with her famous "B" necklace. Among many other things, Anne was passionate about music and played the lute, harp, rebec and virginal. The lyric O Deathe rock me asleepe is attributed to her and you can hear it sung with the lute at The Medieval Lady.

The article Which is the True Face of Anne Boleyn? at the Anne Boleyn Files offers a fascinating summary of the various portraits of her and arguments for and against the accuracy of each. Though I'd like to add that Anne isn't really unique in our ignorance of what she looked like. There's also a gallery at The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn that's very good, though it does include non-contemporary portraits as well.

Jane Seymour, based on the 1537 Hans Holbein portrait, said to be the artist's first portrait done as the King's Painter. The function of this portrait is, apparently, unknown.

The thing that looks like an additional black shawl isn't. It's actually the hanging veils of the gable hood. They seem to have decided not to pin it up into the headdress as per the painting and simply have them hang loose (though having them hang in front of the body does seem rather unusual). Also, for those intrigued by gable hoods, here's a website with extensive instructions on how to make one.

Anne of Cleves, based on the 1539 betrothal portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger. There's quite a bit of commentary on this portrait due to it being one of the deciding factors in the marriage negotiations. It is also said that after feeling terribly deceived by this portrait, Holbein received no further important commissions from the king.

It is observed that Holbein was "more fascinated with the embroidery of her gown than with Anne's personality [...] her eyes are downcast and her features lost beneath the ornate trappings of her dress and hood." So perhaps it is ironic that in this case it is only the costumes that is reproduced, that Anne is very literally overshadowed by her raiment.

Henry's remark on Anne being the "Flanders Mare" has really rather seeped into public consciousness and has shaped her history. The Raucous Royals literally illustrates the rumour with her as a horse (though admittedly as a quick gag with the intention of encouraging young readers to be a history detective).

Catherine Howard, painted on the back of a playing card. There really aren't that many portraits of her, and perhaps because of that, there has been something of a scrabble to find some. Madame Guillotine has quite an intriguing discussion of some of the regular suspects. Tudor History has a discussion on the relatively recent Starkey identification (not pictured). That all said, I'm increasingly uncomfortable with commentators dismissing portraits based on attractiveness (or lack thereof).

I can't seem to find evidence that Catherine owned a book of hours with Ghent-Bruges strewn borders, but it's entirely possible. They were very fashionable and utterly gorgeous items. Anne Boleyn's book of hours, on the other hand, is extensively documented online, including in a British Library podcast. I've even seen it in the flesh at Hever Castle (it is, incidentally, beautiful).

Katherine Parr, based on the 1545 panel painting of her. She is most famous for being the only wife who survived Henry VIII (though technically untrue since Anne of Cleves went on to live quietly up until Elizabeth's reign). She is said to have married Henry despite being in love with Thomas Seymour (brother to Jane Seymour).

I rather like the more exciting colours of the recently identified, formerly Lady Jane Grey portrait. But I suppose it wouldn't fit the display's colour scheme.

Henry VIII, based on the Holbein-esque portrait, even adopting a similar pose. Oddly enough, they didn't go for the even more iconic, perhaps quintessential Henry VIII portrait (the one hyperbolically termed by Derek Wilson as "the best piece of propaganda ever.") Perhaps they decided that they had quite enough red in the display at that point and wanted him to stand out.

Prototype: Embroidered Tailcoat

2011-09-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

Due to the swiftness with which we sold the tailcoat, we never did manage to do photos of this coat beyond running into the garden, hurling the tailcoat on the Proprietor and pointing the camera at him.

The coat is made from a medium weight black wool. Elaborate black embroidery is on the front, cuffs and high collar of the coat. Aside from the tails, the back is plain and dark metal buttons go down the front. The silver faux silk lining has two hidden pockets at the breast.

Looking over the preview of the embroidery, and it really has been significantly more than a week. Many things seem to have gotten in the way. We will reuse the templates of the embroidery, though part of me feels reluctant to do an exactly the same combination of colour and coat shape. Perhaps we can do the silver embroidery on black wool, or perhaps a dark emerald green.

To commission a coat with similar quantities of embroidery from the Mercenary would cost in the region of £120-50.

More photos of the black embroidered tailcoat under the cut.

The Little Frustrations of Costume Research: Museum Websites

2011-09-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

Dress Ensemble, 1790
Museum of London

I would be the first to admit that costumes here aren't by any means the most historically accurate. There are various reasons, including accommodating modern tailoring techniques or simply that the originals were designed for heated ballrooms and not open fields. But the Mercenary does do a substantial amount of research into actual historical clothing.

Which leads me into the rant: the numerous frustrations of museum websites.

(Démodé, incidentally, has a extensive list of museums with extant costumes, though be warned as it is not without broken links. The 18th Century Notebook is also excellent, with extracts from the descriptions. I'm contemplating doing an annotated link page, but I suspect it may descend into incoherent irritation.)

I suppose museum websites aren't designed to provide me with an extensive photographic record of each of its items. And perhaps, the logic is that if one could find the item online, one would no longer desire to go to the museum in the first place.

That said, well over half the items I'm examining online are in store and not on display. And truth be told, backs of costumes aren't always visible in exhibits themselves, due to the disadvantages of space and sometimes, an overly creative curator.

Ball Gown, 1785
Victoria and Albert Museum

Phoenix Art Museum, for example, has a beautifully snazzy flash-based website, but it's slow to load, doesn't provide shots of the back and doesn't allow you to save the photos. Kyoto Costume Institute is pretty good (and now supports permanent links to its items) but short of rummaging through the page source, there's no good way of saving the photo (and really, it's easier to scroll up and down to view a large photo that fills your screen than to operate its odd little "magnify" feature).

The Victoria and Albert Museum has an extensive collection of old costumes and some items are wonderfully catalogued with front and back shots (such as this gown and petticoat). However, some, such as this eighteenth century gown have only one closeup shot of the pleats at the back of the bodice. Equally sack back gown is only represented by its sleeve detail. (That intriguing looking ball gown to the right? Only its back is photographed, though admittedly extensively.) I suspect it's because these photos were taken for Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Fashion in Detail and were used to illustrate particular features rather than to document the garment as a whole. Bowes Museum has a lovely collection, but it's still frustrating to only be able to see the front of this two piece bustle dress, when the description intriguingly tells me that it has a skirt with "main fullness at back for bustle." Same can be said about Gemeente Museum Den Haag.

Colonial Williamsburg's eMuseum, on the other hand, has a deeply frustrating search function and I'm still not sure if "category" is synonymous with "highlights from select exhibits" (it doesn't seem like it should be, but otherwise, the only way to gain access to their textiles section is just by guessing what they've catalogued everything as. Not impossible, but tedious.) Also, they don't like photographing things from more than one angle, but I think we've gotten used to that by now.

Ending the rant on a happier note, Chrome's built in Google Translate, incidentally, has been a godsend. It's not that it doesn't give me occasionally baffling phrases (such as "Future Clothing" from the National Museum of Denmark), but it does provide the rudiments for a rummage around the databases.

The Nerd East Photo-post

2011-09-13T08:06:00.000-07:00

Nerd East seems an aeon ago, but I've finally found the photos from in the recesses of a memory card. This year for reasons saw me quite a lot more stressed than I'd really have liked to be (despite having had quite a bit of help - who, incidentally are all splendid people). I didn't manage to attend any of the talks, games and workshops, except for the one ran by the Durham University Improvised Comedy Society.

All in all, we sold some stuff and met cool people. All without the great inconvenience of travelling for several hours either end. What more can a mercenary really ask for?

Except, I suppose, a photo of the stall for the blog. And daleks. There were daleks gliding about the floor. It was fantastic and is somewhat inexplicable I can't find any photos of them.

More photos and accompanying ramble under the cut.

The independent Cities in Darkness, who run Vampire: The Requiem in the North East. I love the expression on the little girl with the wavy larp-dagger. Though getting her to look at the camera was the feat in and of itself.I have a dozen more where she was looking everywhere else whilst man-with-skull-on-stick asked tried to coax her into position.

This man had an unreasonably cool (and heavy) homemade weapon. Mostly from bits of copper piping, apparently. Also visible is the fireball from the adorable Having A Larp sign.

Part of the sprawl that was the Skian Mhor stall. They do all the things.

The jewellery stalls of Charis Victoria and Reesha Dyer. The latter is wearing the inimitable Gothic Coat, though the enormous train is not exactly in view. Oh, and Reesha is also responsible for what will be the most amazing hat in the universe (Peacock feathers! Everywhere!). She has also recently updated her website so go have a look.

This is an unreasonably awesome dress. Especially after I learnt that she whipped it up in an evening after her boyfriend suggested they go to a costume party of some description.

Fools and Heroes, again showing everyone up with funky banners.

Tied To A Kite. He insisted that his giant banner be part of the picture. We all played a game of Backswords & Bucklers afterwards, run by the writer himself. In conclusion, it does have a pretty cool setting, if (personally) a bit held back by the exceptionally archaic D&D based system.

Eldritch. As seen on the t-shirt.

If I recall, the racks and swords belong to Saxon Violence. I was attempting some sort of interesting composition that I suspect has completely failed.

Urban Halo dreadlocks and jewellery. Quite the last minute booking. I remember being worried that they might not have much of a market among us (despite all the subculture overlap) and then going and buying a friend some dreads for a grumpy old troll character they were going to play.

The Nordavolk Craft Collective. They had some simply amazing leather masks (the ones bought by one of our refs were later put to good use at a Fae-themed event Treasure Trap event).

Having a Larp, plus hat.

Aethertech Industries, who apparantly do military replicas, custom armour and steampunk wear.

Cotton Pierrot Jacket

2011-09-07T14:12:00.000-07:00

This pierrot (a close-fitting, low-necked jacket-bodice with short tails) is made from a black and silver stripped cotton and a grey cotton. It is trimmed in white ribbon. It is modelled after the one of yellow and green taffeta in The Kyoto Costume Institute and this other pierrot at the Metropolitan. These, in theory, in turn inspired this very splendid outfit in The Duchess. There is a rather excellent timeline of women's jackets on marariley.net, which more or less culminates in the pierrot, which were very popular from the mid-1780s through the 1790s.

These jackets were often worn with skirt of lightweight, white "linon", a woven cloth with a high linen-like quality made of thin and delicate cotton. The white skirt in this case is of a cotton-linen mix, but quite coarse in texture.

The choice of the contrasting colours rather makes the pierrot echo the shapes and colours of a men's jacket and waistcoat.

I'm not really wearing it with the correct underpinnings (or really sufficient petticoats) and ideally, I'd have preferred to wear it with a belt and I was definitely missing the delicate muslin neck scarf to give the outfit greater modesty.

The long-legged nature of these croquis do make short bodice-jackets look very strange. Pillywiggen remarked that the figure looks like she's balanced on top of a giant grey rock. Which wasn't exactly my intention, though in retrospect perhaps is inevitable as M. E. Riley did note that "very full skirt acted as a counter balance to the molded top."

These photos were taken at the Hever Castle Gardens, the fountain pictured being the Millennium Fountain. It was getting rather late in the day (the primary purpose of the visit not being photography, after all, and the exercise largely incidental) and the light does get rather unflattering.

To commission a similar pierrot from the Costume Mercenary would cost in the region of £50-60.

More photos of the cotton pierrot under the cut.

Kissing the Old Scissors Goodbye: New Businesscards

2011-09-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

After being the Costume Mercenary for about a year and a half, I've finally had some business cards professionally printed (courtesy of Vistaprint and their introductory offer). The design is still the same as those of my ratty little homemade cards that I had individually cut out by hand (and printed on the old laserjet), those the background is no longer cream.

They are almost perfect. Due to having fanned them out so artistically, it's not entirely clear, but bottom border doesn't line up with the edge. It's probably no more than a millimetre, if that, but the effect is very noticeable when you have them in hand.

I had originally intended to ditch the old design, which only survives in jpg format. After a day of shuffling words and pictures (scoured from the internet for old book ornaments that are out of copyright), I came up with the design to the right. However, for reasons of nostalgia for the old card design, I went with that in the end and in retrospect, I should have foreseen the problems that lower border would cause, especially given how close to the edge it would skim.

But either way, we've committed to a thousand of them now. Perhaps the next batch will see a redesign and will be better.

Back to pretty clothes next post. I promise.

Strange Inspirations from the Hair x Nail Artpiece Parade

2011-09-03T01:38:00.000-07:00

I was rooting through old photos and came across this set taken at the Hair x Nail Artpiece Parade. It almost seems to echo the extravagant and utterly outrageous hairstyles of the 1770s (including, of course, the very famous Coiffure à l'Indépendance ou le Triomphe de la liberté, that commemorated the victory of the frigate La Belle Poule during the battle of Ouessant).

The Artpiece Parade seemed to be a random extravaganza of strange (and dubiously wonderful) hairpieces and fake nails. The latter part my past self seemed to have been rather apathetic about and I have only one photo (under the cut, scroll to the bottom)

But yes, it is strange and somewhat interesting.

In other news (and very tangentially related news), extremely talented Reesha (of Reeshiebeads) has been working on an Amazing Peacock Hat for me, so watch this space. I am very much looking forward to having a giant bird on my head.

More photos of this insanity under the cut.

I only seem to have taken one photo of the Nail Art that accompanied the hair pieces, but judging by the existing photo, I'm not entirely sure I lament the loss:

Preview: A Wander Down South

2011-09-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

The Mercenary has been wandering around down south and had the pleasure of visiting Warwick Castle and Hever Castle. Due to a convoluted series of logistical problems, it was far more efficient to wear my Maelstrom costumes during these visit. Indeed, it was a useful excuse to myself for costumed frolicking.

Due to having a camera with us, we also did a number of photos in the beautiful gardens of Hever. These probably aren't the most exciting of dresses.

(Also, I'm quite fond of the above photo because of the way the print of the dress is echoed in the birch of the tree.)

The Costume Mercenary Returns (and Her Adventures at the Gathering)

2011-09-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lengthy several-month hiatus on the blog. Events have been chaotic (but when are then not?) and things on the design and production front have slowed to make way for the various events.

Since I last wrote, we've done costumes for half the cast of Opera Novella's Rigoletto; supplied Maelstrom with several hundred new coins; been to Nerd East, Nemacon and the Gathering; ordered a thousand business cards. Half a dozen projects have come to fruition and just as many (if not more) have been stalled. Half the year's Profound Decisions events have come and gone, including my first (and second) Odyssey event.

This is also my only photo of the Gathering. I'd managed to bring my camera but not the all important memory card. The phone managed this single snapshot of the stall before it croaked. Suffice to say, the Proprietor and myself were both there, in his leaky tent, peddling our goods. Thank you for buying things, as well as dropping by and saying Hi.

The weather was distinctly suboptimal for the most part and I am still very grateful to those purple-clad angels who descended to rescue us from our moisture apocalypse. All I recall is a flurry of activity, numbing cold and far too much rain in my eyes and the wind began to tear apart the tent. As the Proprietor shouted instructions at me, these amazing people showed up and helped us peg down the tent, braving the torrential downpour. I've no idea who you are, but thank you!

The Proprietor has been at the LT for years, but it was my first time and it was very interesting. Given how the market stalls were an out-of-character area, I can't say much for the plot or even the roleplay of the event, but here is a list of a few moments that I really enjoyed:

Seeing a father drag a pink-clad little girl into our stall. He presented her with a number of elegant "elven" weapons, but she kept shaking her head, finally saying quite resolutely, "But Daddy, I want an axe!"
Due to the aforementioned moisture apocalypse, I had to knit the Proprietor a pair of emergency socks from whatever wool and needles I had on me. I can't say I'm not rather proud of being able to make up a sock pattern on the fly.
Running into a fight, going down and being separated from the Proprietor's character. In character, I was utterly lost and had no idea what I was doing. The plan had been to create a character so that I could sit at the back of the Prince Bishop's campfire and sing songs for the evening. Being waylaid by demons was not part of plan.
Seeing small children bicker about the rules and telling each other to pull their blows. It was all needlessly adorable.
The sheer number of people who played with the giant monster claws. Because the urge to rend is hilarious.

Exquisite Hand-Tooled Vambraces

2011-06-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

Frankly, these are utterly exquisite. I do think our leatherworker has outdone herself this time.

The designs are adapted from stock images, ranging quite widely from celtic beasts from the Book of Kells to heraldic beasts. There are some rather obvious attempts at tapping into recognisable motifs of the various live roleplay settings, including a green scarab bracer for Odyssey's Egypt (unlike real world Egypt, Odyssey's Egypt is rather more keen on green than blue.) There's also a very classical-seeming hippocampus (see left) again for Odyssey and various celtic knot-beasts.

There is a plan taking shape to commission some our local artists like Amy Clarke and Christopher Worth to design such armour for limited runs. Though it is (unsurprisingly) somewhat dependent on how well the vambraces do in the coming months.

And so, the tooled vambraces are finally available at £40 a pair on the Character Kit website.

More photos of the vambraces under the cut.

Flembic Splendour: Military Dress

2011-06-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

part of a series of Maelstrom-related Portraits

done by Chris Brett

Current fashion is with the embroidered frock coat, although an impressive military uniform is still a popular choice amongst the rakish.

This dress was designed for the military-themed "Parade Ball' that the Flembic Ladies held at a Maelstrom even some years ago now. It is made with a navy light wool-mix (suiting, actually, now that I think about it), with yellow cord for the braiding and buttons from ebay. It was designed to be worn with white underskirts and a hoop skirt, but here it's worn with black trousers and a white linen shirt.

This was one of the very first pieces the Designer and I collaborated on, back when we were still drawing our concept art on paper dolls from a museum website's "design your own outfit!" children section. The picture was then scanned, tweaked and coloured (and repeatedly, indecisively recoloured) in Microsoft's Paint.

The decision was to have something that fit with the theme of the ball (uniforms and military parades) but still appear frivolous, with an undertone of a silly lady playing at being a soldier (rather than the a dashing lady who's actually in the military and shoots a dozen fallen before breakfast, which is rather more the norm in Flambard). The blue was chosen to match the outfit of a gentleman of my character's acquaintance at the time.

The beautiful rose scabbard is made by the inimitable Tim Baker (though chronologically could not have been worn to the aforementioned ball, but artistic licence and all). The sword was borrowed from the local fencing society.

To commission a similar coat-dress ensemble from the Mercenary would cost in the region of £180, though this is a very rough estimate due to the original being made quite some time ago, so you should probably just get in touch.

More photos of the military dress under the cut.

Prototype: Embroidered Tailcoat Preview

2011-05-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

Just got the embroidered pieces from the embroiderers and I'm really very chuffed. It's not yet a wool frock coat with embroidered front, cuffs, collar and so forth, but the pieces that will become it look amazing. We tried to pin the pieces to a mannequin, but it's not particularly informative or impressive, so I'll leave it for the moment.

This is one of the more ambitious prototypes we've been playing around with (between and around other less blogable items). The story is that though a convoluted series of contacts, we've managed to get in touch with some embroiders who are willing to work with us, stepping well outside their comfort zone of monogrammed dress shirts, posh bathrobes and company aprons.

Truth be told, it's isn't quite perfect. Or rather, there is the rather fundamental error made by the lovely people at the embroiderers (it was supposed to be silver?!) but I'm still very much in love with it. There's something rather compelling about blackwork.

Hopefully there'll be photos of the completed tail coat in a week or so.

Also on the embroidery front and under the cut (if somewhat less impressive): a golden swan to go on a knight's particoloured surcoat.

Vambraces Preview and Holy Symbols on Strings

2011-05-22T09:37:00.000-07:00

Remember the hand-tooled vambraces prototype from a few weeks ago? Well, things are finally moving and hopefully the first batch will be done by Nerd East and you, dear reader, will be able to view (and purchase) them in person.

I'm really quite excited about them. There's a lot more work to be done, but here's a photo of two of the designs (a winged scarab and a phoexnix) undyed.

I've also been running around looking at pendants and things for a friend (raw materials for troll tat) but I've come across some reasonably good looking bits and pieces, possibly useful for those looking for holy symbols. The double-headed axe, for example, is good for DUTT's Morvana. The scales are good for Astalon. If you're looking for any symbol in particular, drop me a line, I can keep my eyes peeled for you. Pendants like these would cost in the region of £1-2, mostly depending on size.

Poison Pendants and New Buttons...

2011-05-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

I am utterly in love with the style of these buttons with its use of two colours of alloy. I found them the other day and am toying with them right now. Unfortunately, due to it featuring the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom as its design, there's really not many live roleplay systems you can wear it in. It was adopted in 1837, so perhaps we could do something with it in the context of Victorian Steampunk.

If you fancy them, I'm really rather keen to see them on a garment, so do drop me an email.

I'm also negotiating the sourcing of little poison pendants. They're little tiny box pendants, absolutely adorable, wonderfully subtle (though perhaps almost too subtle, I'm not sure there is much that fits in them). But hopefully they'll be coming to Character Kit soon-ish.

A Flembic Jenny: High-Waisted Waistcoat and Shirt

2011-05-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

part of a series of Maelstrom-related Portraits

done by Chris Brett

A highwayman is his own man, proud and confident in his own abilities. Every child knows their names every man will buy them a drink, and it is considered good luck to have them attend weddings and funerals.

The high-waisted waistcoat is of hunter green faux suede, edged in brown velvet ribbon. The shirt is of white linen, false drop shouldered. It has moderately puffy sleeves and a ruffled band of white linen. The waistcoat is actually the ancestor to the black one seen in the Ricepunk Traveller post, though this one actually has a zip down the back and the painted wood buttons on the front are purely decorative. It has two spacious flap pockets.

I was instructed to throw forward the pistol as the shot was taken in many them, to give the photo a sense of motion. I'm not sure how well that was captured, but the somewhat odd positions of the arm is something of a direct result from that.

The beautiful rose scabbard, I believe, is made by the legendary Tim Baker. The black trousers, I confess, are simply Tesco's Teflon-coated stain-repellent "back to school" trousers, from the boy's section. As explained in the preview post, "Flembic Splendor", the object of the photoshoot was very much to show characters from Maelstrom and thus it seemed in keeping with that I actually wore my character's costume instead of, say, opting for some fall front breeches. (That said, all the posing suggests a level of coolness absent in Odette, but artistic licence and all. I think Chris described the photos as presenting an almost film poster version of the characters - if you detect a passing similarity in style to the Sherlock Holmes posters, that was one of the original inspirations apparently.)

The black domino mask is from a fancy dress stall in the Durham Indoor Market, the belt a charity shop and the pistols are from Makai Larp. The winged pendant is disassembled from one that had a garish treble clef and strange cross-eyed cupid. These photos were taken by Chris Brett.

To commission a similar waistcoat would cost in the region of £30-40 and £15-20 for a similar shirt.

More photos under the cut.

Prototype: Hand-tooled Vambraces

2011-05-02T23:31:00.000-07:00

I've finally managed to get my hands on the tooled vambraces prototype (it was trapped in the limbo of the postal service for far too long). After the business with the the tooled notebooks (now available from Character Kit at £13), I had tried to convince them to attempt making simple vambraces with tooled designs. The details aren't quite right, but as a prototype I'm rather pleased.

The design, incidentally, is taken from the pages of the Book of Kells.

Wool Coat Prototypes: Red Military, Triple-Caped and Red-Lined

2011-05-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

The red military coat (Large, prototype cost £75.00) is made of a bright red wool-linen blend and lined in faux silk. It features bright gold buttons and fully double-breasted. Its cut is simple but hopefully effective.

The triple-caped watchcoat (Large, prototype cost £120) is made from a wool-linen mix. It is single-breasted, and features the buttons of chaos and exciting flared cuffs. It can be seen as the predecessor to the other caped greatcoat we did in a commission, but I do actually prefer the single-breasted look since it's a little more streamlined.

Wool coat (prototype cost £130.00) of midnight blue and distinctive shape with bright red faux silk lining and heavy wool-linen mix. It features gunmetal silver buttons with a curling fern design. The deep cuffs are decorated with red braiding and there are two hidden pockets.

Flembic Splendour: Zone Front Dress with Pleated Detail and Peplum

2011-04-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

part of a series of Maelstrom-related Portraits

done by Chris Brett

The duel may be to first blood, or to a set number of passes or shots, or until one party yields, or until death, depending upon the nature of the offence, and by agreement of the parties concerned.

This zone front dress is made from turquoise faux silk taffeta. The dress has a front closure with hooks and eyes, a cut away skirt and a peplum on the back of the bodice. It is worn with a black lace and satin underskirt. It is trimmed in white and pale blue ribbon roses. Among other dresses, this draws inspiration from garments such as this pierrot, pleated gown and such zone front gowns of the eighteenth century.

Ideally, the dress should be worn with a white underskirt instead of a black one, but due to the limited capacity of my backpack (the adventure down south were detailed in the preview post) we had to make do with the black lace, which has very much my most versatile - and thus my standard - underskirt.

The Upper City are generally expected to mourn for two years. A wardrobe of black is adopted. No ornaments were worn, except jet, for the first year. To appear fashionable during times of mourning many would dye their clothing black. Gentlemen wore black cheviot suits with broad crape bands on their hats, and black gloves.

Despite the seeming presence of a wind machine, all the floaty swirliness was caused by me swishing the shawl by hand. A lot of the practice from the days when I was swirling much heavier wool cloaks stood me in good stead. Whilst looking rather dramatic, much of the detail of the dress, especially of the pleats on the bodice and the peplum are lost.

The black lace shawl was actually a present from a character named Captain Shadow to my Maelstrom character (I regret to say I never ran into him again. It is, however, a gift that has come in handy more than once.) The sword was apparently borrowed from the local fencing society and the pistols from makai larp. With the exception of the backlit lace-hurling photos, these were taken by Chris Brett.

To commission a similar dress from the Mercenary would cost in the region of £90-100.

More photos of the zone front dress under the cut.

Collection of Coat Sketches from the Paintbox

2011-04-09T01:07:00.000-07:00

Mostly just a post of all the coat designs I've sketched in the last month or so. As said somewhat flippantly before, coats have somewhat become our mainstay. Perhaps in part because there's a certain leeway in our culture for wearing more flamboyant coats in everyday life (less so dresses and doublets). This is probably to do with mainstream fashion churning out a plethora of military-style coats for the last couple of years.

That, and after a while you don't need any more frilly shirts or black breeches. But a new coat would define a new character.

Anyway, here's a collection of coats. Many rather bright colours and due to my rather finite drawing skills, much of what may end up being patterned brocade in the final product is plain colour here.

I'm also playing around with new templates and these women are slightly less skinny and completely made of legs. This is probably a good thing.

Oh, and I do did think there was something rather badass about the buttoned-up collar coat to the left, with a dash of cyberpunk thrown in. Though it may just be the purple hair.

A couple more sketches under the cut.

Preview: A Plethora of Coats in the Garden

2011-04-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

The last batch of coat prototypes have finally been photographed. Albeit rather simply in the garden rather than anything more exciting. Pictured with this post are the slightly dashing red wool coat with the gold buttons and the triple-caped coat.

Due to time and weather constraints (including my brief scorning of the diurnal lifestyle), we haven't been able to really get this going and the decision was made that we should just get it all done and on the blog. The results adequately show the clothing, which should be enough, but never seems to be. Especially after the beautifully evocative photos of the studio shoot in Wales, I can't help but feel this is a step backwards. But they're never going to sell if they're not on the website.

The weather's warming and the general interest in woollen coats is probably rapidly diminishing, but it does seem to be the Costume Mercenary's emerging speciality, so here they are in their wintery glory. They are somewhat plainer than some of the older coats with bright brocade linings, but being prototypes, there's always the temptation to make they a little more generic so they're a little widely applicable.

In the same flurry of photography, we also managed to do the last of Character Kit's new batch of latex shields.

Of course, they're also going to be up on the Character Kit website shortly.

Prototype: Basic Drop-Shoulder Shirt

2011-04-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

After the musing on the basic larp shirt many, many months ago, we've attempted three basic designs encompassing three approximate periods that larp frequently covers. They're by no means comprehensive or historically accurate, but they function well enough as basic items to be worn as the base layers of more complex outfits.

The first few basic larp shirts are now available from Character Kit for £15. There's also the basic laced shirt and basic eyelet shirt. If you catch us at events, you'll probably find some of the previous prototypes that have a variations on these design elements. It's very much of an experiment to see what people are interested in.

More photos of the basic drop shoulder shirt under the cut.

Maelstrom Coins!

2011-04-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

Aside from the post on the Rule7 Forums that started it all and the odd cryptic facebook update, the plans for the Maelstrom coins have largely been kept under wraps. In essence, I'm attempting to find a cheaper source for Profound Decision's much lauded coins mostly by trying to convince people who make my buttons that they also want to make me coins.

Still not sure if they're making the cut (not being exact replicas, they're a little lighter in the hand and the finish on one seems off), but we'll see.

There isn't much more to say other than look at the pretty picture and if you happen to be running a large system (or a small one) and happen to want some coins, you might want to speak to me.

Preview and Overview: Flembic Splendour

2011-03-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

Long story short, Chris Brett was looking to do some photographs of Maelstrom characters for a university project of his. After some deliberation and calculation, I agreed to embark upon an epic journey down to Wales with a massive backpack filled with kit.

This went quite a lot better than last time we did a studio shoot to say the least.

The series is more something I did that incidentally happens to feature quite a bit of the old Mercenary's catalogue rather than something that was shot with intention of promoting the clothing.

Chris had wanted a series of photos that showcased the flamboyance and pageantry of Flambard, the country that never was (as they say) and as part of that he was wanting to depict actual characters. He had at first wanted to do all the cultures, but that proved rather too ambitious for the limit of his project.

Due to the nature of depicting actual characters, these photos are rather more Maelstrom-specific, and indeed, Odette-specific than normal. The photo to the left, for example, includes a reference to The Prince Edmond Duelling Club.

The Designer has long teased me about my reliance on wall-based posing and the sudden lack was an unexpected, if interesting challenge. There was a lot of silly dancing and messing about between the rather more dignified shots as I vacillated between poses. We had more than a few props to play with (including Chris' beautiful blunderbuss and a saber borrowed from the local fencing society).

The effort isn't perfect, nor was the selection of costumes. Had I known about the dark backgrounds in advance, I would have likely chosen fewer dark-coloured dresses. I even had a slight wardrobe malfunction with the zip on a particularly old dress.

But yes, I should be posting some more of the test shoot photos (as they are the digital ones) over the course of the next week or so. I'm still debating whether or not I should take the opportunity to insert digressions into Flembic culture. Equally, I may well be seduced south again by the lure of the soft studio lighting for future costumes. Opinions?

Prototype: Steampunk Tailcoat

2011-03-13T18:23:00.000-07:00

The blue version of the unisex velvet and brocade tailcoat is very much like the green, with its brass clasps, decorative buttons, brocade revers and faux silk lining. There is more musing on the design on the previous pages, but suffice to say it is good to have some photos of the blue version.

The Archaeologist did say it made her feel 90% more dashing than she normally felt.

This velvet tailcoat is available on Character Kit for £75. It is also available in green and black. Unsurprisingly, to commission a similar tailcoat (but in different colours, with different buttons, in a different size) would cost a similar amount.

The linen frilly shirt (£15-17) and the stretch silk circle skirt (£25) worn by the Archaeologist are both from the Costume Mercenary. The half-handle dagger is also from Character Kit.

More photos of velvet and brocade tailcoat under the cut.

Commission: Ten-Gore Cotehardie

2011-03-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

The dress is made of a beautifully light real silk in forest green and a wine brocade. Its cut mimics that of the Ten-Gore Dress (found at Herjolfsnes, Greenland). It fastens down the front with golden ivy leaf buttons, which also decorate the inner brocade sleeve. The green-and-ivy trim is the same as that on the Forest Cloaks. The tie at the waist has dangling off it two larger ivy leaves.

Of course, the concept sketch for this banquet gown was on the blog a few weeks ago. This is essentially a mash-up of the two concept sketches. As mentioned before, the false sleeves were part of the plan to make the dress lighter so that that she wouldn't overheat during the many rounds of céilidh.

We never quite managed to corner Vicki for photos of her banquet dress beyond a few snaps at the candlelit banqueting hall, but Richard Hornby has very kindly lent me his photos of her in the garden. The entire process took a total of twenty minutes and we have all since learnt that taking photos of green dresses in front of green backgrounds is a poor idea. Incidentally, these photos have been colour-tweaked.

To commission a similar gown in real silk and brocade would cost in the region of £100-110. It would, of course, be cheaper in less extravagant materials.

A few more photos of the cotehardie under the cut.

Prototype: Linen Waistcoat and Fall Front Trousers

2011-03-10T14:10:00.000-08:00

Long linen waistcoat, lined in cotton. The linen is pale blue and grey with a distinct herringbone weave. It is also laced at the back with black thonging and has brass celtic beast buttons.

The fall front trousers are of thick white linen and feature the aquila buttons. They are much like the breeches, but longer. Less historically fashionable but certainly good in larp and easier on modern eyes. The black version were worn with the green steampunk tailcoat.

To commission similar fall front trousers or breeches would cost £15-7. A waistcoat would cost in the region of £30-5.

More a few more photos of the waistcoat and trousers under the cut.

Commission: Zevran's Leather Armour

2011-03-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

Another commission with strong influences from Dragon Age: Origins, though this time the light leather armour for a Zevran Arainai cosplay. It's also done by Julie Knox, she of the Morrigan's Goatskin Skirt, the Oriet armour and the Monster Pauldrons.

Due to the person who commissioned this not wanting it any more, you can purchase this very set of armour for £180. Aside from looking like Zevran, it may be useful for Profound Decision's Odyssey: the Great Game.

Making something that was never designed to exist in the physical realm functional and wearable was quite a challenge for Julie. Rendering human-looking elbows and knees is quite tricky, even for the highly complex graphics departments of today.

After a lot of squinting, we realised that the armour (and many of the other models in Dragon Age) was designed to purposefully obscure the joints with thick "padding" so as to no need to accurately render elbows and knees. However, such padding on human joints would make them uncomfortable, if not highly awkward to move.

Very few of the characters in Dragon Age bother wearing anything under the armour and again, this made doing the photos rather awkward. Again leather on skin isn't exactly very comfortable. In the end, we used the basic eyelet shirt under it and our model got to keep his trousers.

We didn't really have any conveniently blonde, long-haired men around, though the Designer did suggest that all we really needed to complete the Dragon Age look was to splatter our model with a bottle of fake blood.

As always, the swords are from Character Kit. They're a little small, strictly speaking, to be swords from Dragon Age, but the perspective seems to make up for it a little.

This very set of armour (roughly a men's size medium, drop us an email) is available for £180.

More photos of the Zevran leather armour under the cut.

Commission: Steampunk Magistrate

2011-03-06T10:25:00.000-08:00

The steampunk magistrate consists of a real silk surcoat (or chao pao, 朝袍, literally "dynasty robe") and a hand-embroidered rank badge (also known as a "mandarin square"). The surcoat is fully lined, edged in a slightly lighter shade of green and has engraved jade buttons and side pockets hidden in the seams. The mandarin necklace Jha has made herself.

The outfit was designed for Jha's steampunk persona, a Qing Dynasty colonial magistrate hot on the heels of opium smugglers. She was hoping to introduce education about the Opium Wars to steampunk events and was planning her character around it.

More photos and discussion of the steampunk magistrate outfit under the cut.

In the original sketch, the lady on the left is wearing a chaofu (or pufu), the blue/purple-black gown that was introduced as a sort of uniform for all mandarins in 1759. It's made in silk satin traditionally. It's unlined for summer, lined in cotton for autumn and spring, lined in fur (or just trimmed) during winter. We went for a dark green for the robe in the end as Jha's character is based in Malaya, which was Muslim by the time of the Qing Dynasty, and green is a very Islamic colour.

Pufu with larger sleeves also existed, mostly so that things like sleeve edition books and small dogs can be kept in them. It was tempting, but slimmer did mean more manoeuvrability and Jha had wanted a persona who would "move around a lot."

The lady on the right in the concept sketch is wearing a very loose interpretation of a qifu. Those are meant to be dragons (I know, not very convincing). There's quite a lot of symbolism layered into the garment, but the take away point is that before the pufu was introduced, the square would just be pinned onto this much busier robe. It'd be rather more expensive and the embroidered square gets a little lost in it.

The outfit as it is has been rather pared down from its historical ancestor. We have neither the piling collar (though the idea of one with a serrated, cog-edge does still appeal) or even the more elaborate underlayers of court robes (usually of brocade and satin, with heavily embroidered panels).

Most of the interesting symbolism is happening on the rank badge, in which we opted out of the traditional iconography of the various ranked animals and went for a complete metaphor. We had the idea that if we were in a China that idealised the mechanisms and the mechanical/logical workings of machines, we can extrapolate that the symbolism of animals may be replaced with cogs and gears of various sorts. Such that the mandarin, whilst wearing it, exemplifies the virtues of the machine and is part of the great machinery that is the Imperial Bureaucracy. This is to be mirror the "schematic diagram of the universe" of the qifu.*

The badge design is based off the bearings of the Han dynasty compass (the magistrates are the guides of the Empire) with interlocking cogs in the centre of it (done in cotton DMC thread).

To commission a similar outfit from the Mercenary, drop her an email.

--

* "The qifu is a schematic diagram of the universe... the lower border of diagonal bands and rounded billows represents water; at the four axes of the coat, the cardinal points, rise prism-shaped rocks symbolising the earth mountain. Above is the cloud-filled firmament against which dragons, the symbols of imperial authority, coil and twist. The symbolism is complete only when the coat is worn. The human body becomes the world axis; the neck opening, the gate of heaven or apex of the universe, separates the material world of the coat from the realm of the spiritual represented by the wearer's head" (Volmer
1977)

Prototype: Naval Coat

2011-03-03T08:01:00.000-08:00

The naval coat is made from dark blue wool fully lined in a thick white cotton. It's a coat with a good, very solid weight to it. There are two flap side pockets and two hidden pockets. This is much more of an officer's coat, rather different in colour and style to the Portuguese uniform a few weeks ago.

We're not entirely happy with the coat as whilst it's correct to have the pockets firmly to the side, it does rather make them somewhat inconvenient to use. There's also finite use for a coat that doesn't close in larp.

It'd probably be good for an Admiral James Norrington cosplay if one rolled it in the mud enough.

The coat is worn with a dress shirt that is the model's own and the white linen fall-front trousers are available by commission from the Mercenary at £15.

To commission a coat in similar materials would cost in the region of £140-150. The prototype is available for £135 and you should be able to buy it from the website in a few days. The impatient can simply drop me an email.

More photos of the commodore's coat under the cut.

Not Quite Waterhouse's Miranda: Linen Kirtle and Cotehardie

2011-02-24T19:50:00.000-08:00

The underdress (or kirtle) is in red linen and is laced under the arm. The overgown (or cotehardie to use the more controversial term) is in a coarse teal linen and is buttoned down the front.

Not half as windswept and certainly without the sinking ship, but still slightly reminiscent of John William Waterhouse's Miranda which was what inspired this simple medieval-esque ensemble. The sketch was done quite a few months ago, though without much intention of ever being made then. The shape of the sleeves have altered somewhat and we added the buttons down the front. It does seem a shame to have the lovely red linen kirtle is almost completely hidden by the overgown. It is possible to construct it as one garment like the banquet dress recently sketched.

There's a temptation to ramble about the colours and symbolism, repressed passion and unleashed tempests, but it seems somewhat far-fetched. And the Archaeologist would probably never forgive me.

Like the rest of Shakespeare's work, the Tempest has been having a healthy afterlife. Most recently, The Tempest recently been made into a film with albeit quite a different aesthetic, though their costume designer, Sandy Powel, did get nominated an Academy Award for her work in it.

The orc dagger and other weapons are, as usual, from Character Kit.

To commission a similar kirtle or overgown individually would cost in the region £40-50, though a set would cost £70-90. To buy the prototype set (sized to a UK size 16, but somewhat adjustable) from the Costume Mercenary would cost in the region of £70.

More photos of the Miranda under the cut.

Red kirtle:

Commission: Onontakhan Shirt and Trousers

2011-02-22T07:27:00.000-08:00

The Onontakhan Shirt is made from brown linen with faux suede insets. The drawstring trousers are of the same brown faux suede. The feather-form is also worn.

The basic shirt design is based loosely on this sacred shirt, without the fringing. This is not meant to represent any actual indigenous peoples of the Americas beyond the fact that the fictional race and culture of the Onontakhan are inspired by them in a variety of ways.

The Onontakhan of Profound Decision's Maelstrom campaign are one of the native factions of the New World. The almanac (itself an in-character document laden with prejudice) describes them as such:

They stand as tall as any civilized being but dress in furs and hides that they take from the creatures they hunt. Like a dragon, their bodies are covered in fine scales, though theirs are of various colours and patterns.... they use arrows and wooden spears tipped with flint to hunt and have no knowledge of the practices of civilized people such as farming, architecture and commerce.

We dispensed with the snakeskin makeup because we were afraid we might get some on the clothes, which we did make us feel like we were playing "Cowboys and Indians" and can't help but feel a little sheepish about it.

Both glassfibre bows seen in the photos are available from Character Kit, at £50 and £55 (the shorter and the longer, respectively).

The jewellery (or to use the technical term from around here "tat") has been seen before with the Carthaginian Philosopher. It was made from chicken bones (from stew we were making) and beads (wood and bone, mostly from the now liquidated Lebeado) and suede thonging. It's not meant to be accurate, but along with the feathered mantle and the bow, it actually seemed to fit together to make an outfit rather than just be a shirt and trousers someone just happened to be wearing.

To commission a similar set of shirt and trousers from the Mercenary would cost in the region of £30-33. The feathered mantle is available for £60 on Character Kit.

More photos of the Onontakhan outfit under the cut.

Uniquely Beautiful

2011-02-21T14:51:00.000-08:00

Moment of odd pride, a friend of a friend asked if she could usea photo of Loretta in the riding coat for The Uniquely Beautiful Project. For what it's worth, it's a 1-year challenge to celebrate the beauty of real women. If you're curious, go pootle over and have a look (Loretta's Day Seven).

Yes, mild ego boost in ability to take half-decent photos.

Preview: Mirroring the Pre-Raphaelites

2011-02-19T23:59:00.000-08:00

The anachronisms of the lady in pseudo-renaissance dress reading in an Victorian/Edwardian room almost blew the mind of the Designer when he saw the photos, though I suppose thinking back to how Jane Morris and her friends used to swan about their Victorian houses in pseudo-medieval splendour, it has a strangeness that I rather like.

Which could arguably be said to be the theme of the day since there are also heavy inspirations from Waterhouse's painting, Miranda - the Tempest (the 1916 one, not this earlier Miranda). We did joke that the river Wear, picturesque in its own right, isn't quite the stormy sea and the Prince Bishop (our local river cruiser) probably isn't up for sinking in the name of painting re-enactment.

So I'm really rather glad we didn't succumb to the temptation to simply do the photos in the garden. And the Archaeologist (my lovely model of the day) needed to go to Palace Green Library anyway.

We were in Durham Castle for the most part and there were three outfits in total, though the various layers got their own photos. The steampunk tailcoat of the previous post appears again (apparently with the power of making anyone feel significantly more dashing than they felt before), but in dark blue. There are some plans to do some of the black as well but I think we're running out of ideas of how to make the next set more different.

We brought some of the swords and they were duly twirled, as were braids and daggers. There was the reprimanding of impertinent bollards and dodging passer-bys. The Archaeologist even duelled a small child holding a stick when playfully challenged (and died a very dramatic death).

Grey overcast days have delayed these photos for almost half a week and it all seems to spite me as it was now too bright. Most of the photos turned out utterly sun-drenched and we seemed to be battling overexposure. I had wanted some shots with the castle keep in view, but between the bright sunlight and the camera's auto-adjustments, the castle was nowhere to be seen (see under the cut). Looking at the photos now, it's tempting to attribute some form of science fiction cloaking ability to the keep (after all, it's not as old as it looks).

More photos in the days to come and the disappearing castle under the cut.

Durham's extraordinarily stealthy castle. Must write to them to complain about that misfiring cloaking device off.

Concept Sketches: A Mostly Medieval Banquet Dress

2011-02-19T23:37:00.000-08:00

For all the dresses on the blog, we don't often commissions for them and certainly not to design them froms scratch. Perhaps it's due to their inherent lack of practicality (and frequently very character-specific nature, for those in larp and believe in the curse*) . So I was rather pleased when I was asked to do a banquet dress.

For those who don't live around here, Durham University Treasure Trap hosts anual banquets for current members past and present (and friends!). It's a weekend of dancing and drinking, feasting and fighting (the tournament for weaponsmaster is traditionally held the day after the banquet).

The dress was supposed to be light (as despite being held in Feburary, the hall is almost always very warm) and easy to dance in. It was also to be green.

I was intent on using these golden ivy leaf buttons (and we ended up buying the supplier out of them, which is very inconvenient for any future designs hinging on them), which seemed to dictate at least a touch of the elven.

A meander through costume books later (for all their faults, John Peacock's books are good for that sort of spirited, illustrated gallop through western costume history), we had settled on the high middle ages and sketching happened (the results of which illustrate this post).

Of course, there are also the green dagged sleeves.*

Hopefully there will photos of the lovely woman in her own dress next weekend.

--

* In live roleplay, it commonly believed that you will have doomed your character the moment you buy them character-specific kit. They will likely die within an event and you will never be able to wear that gorgeous frockcoat/ dress/ shirt/ armour/ jewellry ever again.

* The Designer has been teasing me for some time about the fact that the only character in my alleged novel who had any physical description (clothing or otherwise) was wearing green dagged sleeves. I have, apparently, an obsession.

Prototype: Velvet and Brocade Tailcoat

2011-02-13T22:34:00.000-08:00

A sort of unisex version of the steampunk velvet tailcoat. In the button-related negotiations and the consequent chaos of the various revisions, we ended up buying significantly more brass mock-filigree buttons than were needed for one coat. Staring at the several gross of remains, we decided that the design can't have been that bad if we managed to sell off both of the surplus coats.

The full-skirted tailcoat is made from cotton velvet with brocade revers and lined in faux silk. The buttons are all decorative and the garment fastens in the front with two brass clasps.

With the swords and the filigree mask, there's something of a particularly eccentric highwayman, perhaps with steampunk (or even clockpunk, given the excessively frilly shirt) inclinations, leaping on unsuspecting travellers from his giant cog.

In retrospect, I do prefer the sketches with the double-breasted front (see under the cut) instead of the brass clasps, but this does make the garment more flexible in terms of sizing and gender. Originally conceived of as a woman's coat, it works remarkably well on male model (which is a nice change of pace from me modelling too-large male coats).

The brocade tailcoat is currently available in Mens Medium and UK Ladies 16-18 for £75. It comes in black, royal blue and emerald green. To commission the tailcoat in other colours and sizes would cost more or less the same amount.

The green greaves are from full set of unique green armour Clockwork Firebird Designs has been working on as a custom commission. It has matching vambraces and a suede jerkin.

The golden filigree mask is from Reeshiebeads (custom-made, £20). The swords are a Scimitar and a Fey Longsword, both available from Character Kit. The brocade tailcoat is also worn with a linen frilly shirt and fall-front trousers, both of which are from the Mercenary.

That is also quite possibly the longest credits list I've had for a post like this. Which goes to show steampunk highwaymen are by far the most overdressed of all the dandies that have appeared on this blog. Perhaps I should keep it shorter with a string of links and morph into a photoblog...

More photos of the steampunk velvet tailcoat under the cut.

Sketches:

Prototype: Steampunk Waistcoat

2011-02-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

If you recall, the Mercenary had ordered a great deal of cog-and-screw buttons not so very long ago and we've been wondering what to do with them. And such is one of the solutions.

The steampunk waistcoat is made of faux suede (coming in midnight blue, black and brown), lined in faux silk. It's a fully double-breasted waistcoat with two flap pockets and one hidden pocket. There is also a half belt at the back for a more dapper shaping.

The buttons add a touch of steampunk to the otherwise quite normal waistcoat and the hidden pocket gives it greater utility.

The double-breasted nature of the waistcoat means it can be won three basic ways, as can be seen in the prototype double-breasted waistcoat.

In a fit of faulty memory, the Mercenary has managed to photograph the brown twice but the black not at all. This should be remedied in due course and there will be some photos of the midnight blue one. I would call it navy, but it is much darker than that. It wasn't until we held it next to the black did we realise that it wasn't quite black.

The giant cog is part of a public sculpture about the founding of Durham Cathedral (Bishop Aldhun, Dun Cow, etc) and is, in fact, actually a pillar segment. The linen frilly shirts won by both models and the fall front trousers are both from the Mercenary. The felt topper is from the ebay. The rather battered musket pretending to be a hunting rifle belongs to the Proprietor.

The first few steampunk waistcoats are up on the Character Kit website for £35. It's available in black (large only) and brown (medium and large).

Photos of Photos of Costumes

2011-02-10T13:01:00.000-08:00

It feels more than a little strange taking photos of photos.

The photobook catalogue-thing arrived today and I'm really rather pleased with it.

After the Designer suggested I should have photos of past commissions and assorted other absent costumes with me when manning a stall, we wondered about the various options. A slideshow was suggested but power supply is hardly guaranteed when you're predominately a larp trader. We toyed with having an album with traditional photos in it or a home printed catalogue and after much vacillation (and math) decided on the above.

It's a tidy little photobook, roughly A5-sized, good to stand on a stall at events (like Nerd East, which is happening sometime in June). There's just over thirty pages to it. The whole thing took two fretty, sleepless night to arrange and perfect. The web-based programme was easy enough to use and was very friendly up until I wanted to put text in. Then aligning it became a nightmare as there was no way to zoom in or institute a snap-to grid. Much squinting and finger-crossing later, it looks regular enough.

(For those who are wondering, that's the black cassock, triple-caped coat, steampunk waistcoat and laced gambeson in the photos.)

Preview: a Wander by the River

2011-02-09T13:33:00.000-08:00

Much as the ruined chapel has provided us with many beautiful photographs, it seemed to be getting a tad repetitive, so today the Designer led us to the broken railway bridge. On the way there we did stop by the giant ~~pillar segments~~ cogs (last seen in the photos with the steampunk pirate) which appear with the tailcoat.

1896-1897 map of Durham,
map from Old Maps

We ended up cheekily festooning the cow statue with our coats, in vain attempt to keep them out of the mud (photo under the cut). The nearby bandstand is topped with the cricket pun, "Lest time bails you out."

The ruined railway bridge we use in many of today's photos was part of the passenger service from Durham Elvet to Sunderland. It wasn't particularly popular and in the latter years of its forty-year history ran for only one day a year (that day being the Miner's Gala in July). The Durham Elvet station has since been demolished and apparently an office block stands where it once was.

The beautiful golden wire mask in the first photo is made by the lovely Reesha Dyer (of Reeshiebeads). She makes many gorgeous (and some slightly silly) things at very reasonable prices. A mask similar to the one pictured would cost in the region of £20 from her.

The laced leather vambraces are from Clockwork Firebird Designs (also on etsy). They're hand-dyed a lovely shade of green and have matching greaves.

The weapons are a scimitar and fey dagger, both normally available from Character Kit, though both tragically out of stock.

Commission: Morrigan's Goatskin Skirt

2011-02-06T08:39:00.000-08:00

This skirt is made from leather and goatskin. It was commissioned as a cosplay piece for Morrigan, the witch of the wild, is a mage from Bioware's computer roleplay game Dragon Age: Origins.

Her character design has changed significantly from her concept art to here appearance in the Sacred Ashes trailer to her actual in-game model. Her skirt appears rather softer and more tentacular in its earlier incarnation, not to mention the dramatically different shirt.

This goatskin skirt is based predominately off this piece of concept art. The in-game model wears a much neater version, with the dropped belts being much more rigid and regular. The much messier, organic look of the concept art works far better with reality. It did, however, take far more belts than originally thought.

It was only the skirt that was commissioned from us, but for the purposes of these quick photos, Julie did throw together a red cowl and deployed an eldritch spear to complete the look.

A set of leather armour for the character Zevran was also commissioned. We may get some photos of that eventually, perhaps even, the new owners willing, some at the convention they're going to.

To commission a similar skirt would cost in the region of £150, though this may fluctuate depending on the cost of materials used.

A few more photos of morrigan's skirt under the cut.

base skirt when undyed:

Pale Green Linen Pet-en-l’air

2011-02-03T18:56:00.000-08:00

This pet-en-l'air and its ruffle-frill trim is made of pale green linen and lined in cream cotton. It is fastened down the front with hooks and eyes, as well as matching pale green satin ribbon.

This "pet-en-l'air jacket" (as it is called in the collection, though it has also been called a casaquin or caraco) is based loosely on one in Manchester Art Gallery, dated to around 1780-90. According to the gallery description, the original was reputed to have belonged to Eva Marie Veigel, wife of playwright and actor David Garrick.

The original pet-en-l'air has become rather popular online and has appeared on a string of tumblr blogs, including OMG that dress, Historical Fashion and Defunct Fashion. It has also appeared on Fuchsia's 18th century dress blog, where it was called a "little temptress of a very short pet-en-l'air."

Needless to say, this is not an exact replica. It is simplified somewhat in its construction and is shaped to fit a significantly less heavily corseted form. However, like the original, the sacque back has narrow pleats stitched down at shoulders and loose below.

The ribbon ties across the front are on the messy side and can perhaps do with being shorter (though this make them trickier to tie). The button-loops at the inner edge of the elbow-length sleeves could also do with adjusting shorter to accentuate the gatherings.

The pet-en-l'air was worn with a dark purple faux silk skirt, a white cotton voile chemise and a wreath of very silly desiccated red roses.

It was rather late in the day when these photos were taken and the bright, yellow light seemed to push it to the side of overexposure.

To commission a similar casaquin in linen or cotton would cost in the region of £50-55.

More photos of the linen pet-en-l'air under the cut.

Commission: Dashing Asymmetrical Naval Uniform

2011-02-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

The coat of the uniform has appeared in the post entitled Dashing Asymmetrical Military Coat, though somewhat less dashingly worn in those set of rather hurried indoor photos. In the same post can be found the photos of the replica uniform (Soldier of the Portuguese War Fleet, c. 1761, taken at the Macau Maritime Museum) that this outfit was based off. Almost all the design decisions were made based on extensive squinting at the replica uniform rather than further research (which was for the most part incredibly fruitless).

The coat, waistcoat, breeches and gaiters are all made from the same soft dark blue wool. The coat has two inside pockets and is lined in faux silk and red wool. The mock-braiding is for the most part unremarkable, but the ensemble does features almost a hundred shiny gold buttons. The high-collared frilly shirt worn under it all is in white linen.

It does appear we have yet to perfect what we're doing with the gaiters, (having conducted further research, I can now say that they're supposed to be buttoned to the bottom of the breeches). We may be seeing a new incarnation of them in the near-ish future.

The sword is an Eldritch and the pistol is the same replica derringer we've been using in just about every shoot since the beginning of the blog. The photos were taken next to Cadbury's chocolate factory in Bournville ("Bourn" for the river and "ville" for the fashion for naming things in the French fashion).

To commission an ensemble in similar materials from the Mercenary, including coat, shirt, breeches, waistcoat and gaiters, would cost in the region of £180. The coat by itself would cost in the region of £100.

More photos of the dashing asymmetrical naval uniform under the cut.

There's a Spider in My Living Room! or living with Clockwork Firebird Designs

2011-01-27T14:39:00.000-08:00

Gracewing (the woman behind Clockwork Firebird Designs) often fills the house with many exciting things. She uses the conservatory as her workshop for the most part and interesting things are produced on a fairly regular basis. More recently, I came into the living room and found Gracewing in full drider kit (she had realised that she hadn't any photos of her awesome spider-butt and needed some for her website). It was briefly extremely intimidating and more than a dash surreal.

The photo to the left is taken by Many Lemons. The ears, arm, greaves, tail and corset in the photo are all by Gracewing. Due to their immense popularity, there are very few detail shots of the items. Do email her if you fancy something along those lines (or not, with commissions, the limit is your imagination, after all).

Gracewing has just launched her etsy shop which is now stocked with a variety of leather pouches, scabbards and vambraces. She also has the beautiful Black Raven Corset with suede feather-shapes (also seen in the drider photo to the right).

We did some photos of Gracewing's leather goods and I modelled (using that term very loosely) the tooled leather cat ears (from the Crown of Gears range). The Pillywiggin adamantly disbelieves it's actually me in the photos and stated it had to be someone else wearing my face.

Of course, such posing wouldn't have been possible without Wongfu Productions' Poser! putting me in touch with my cultural heritage.

It really isn't very dignified at all, but it is apparently very funny (I'm sure the rest of those photos will be unearthed for the outtakes post when that happens).

And on the mercenary note, the coat worn by Gracewing in the catgirl photo is the steampunk tailcoat. Similar ones are soon to be found on the Character Kit website in a range of colours.

Prototype: Dieselpunk Greatcoat

2011-01-26T09:36:00.000-08:00

The Dieselpunk Greatcoat is based on the Steampunk Pirates Concept Art we did a while back. It's not quite as flared as the original sketch and there are various other differences, including the collar not quite coming out the way I wanted it to.

The Mercenary had located some double-sided faux-suede-and-fur material in rifle green and leafing through the steampunk pirates concept art, it seemed like a good idea to attempt a coat from it. The material has a lovely weight to it and rustles satisfyingly when handled. There was enough to make one greatcoat and one sleeveless surcoat from the end of the roll, the latter of which will be appearing in a later post. Because of the nature of using the double-sided material, there is no lining to hide the slit pockets in, which are thus visible on the inside of the coat.

The coat also features two spacious patch pockets (including one on the arm), double-breasted fastening and our so-called buttons of chaos.

I had bought some embroidered badges to function as insignia on the coat, but we were collectively indecisive about which ones to attach so the greatcoat remained without them for the photos. Buying badges was rather an adventure as it seemed that the world demanded a great many designs of things on fire, including Betty Boop, Jesus and Hello-Kitty-but-a-skull. There were also equally inexplicable skulls with an H on its forehead, which also come in the following varieties: on fire or surrounded in tribal swirlies. I also found a great number of once-neon-coloured miffies and chococats in a bargain bin.

We tried to avoid anything with words or acronyms on it, to keep the kit more multipurpose. We're quite fond of the winged skull since it seemed like it would make fine insignia for an air pirate, despite it being really lots larger than the other badges. Perhaps it would tip the design into feeling more anime-inspired.

Worn in the photos by the Proprietor with the white frilly linen shirt, brown waistcoat and green tricorn, the overall look seems rather Freiboden rather than anything else. That said, the Anthropologist still calls it the Haslanti coat. Departure from the classic white-and-brown/black bomber jacket colour scheme into rifle green does obscure the cultural cues we were going for originally, but as always, the Mercenary works within the confines of the materials she finds.

To commission a greatcoat in similar materials would cost in the region of £110-120. For a fully lined greatcoat the cost would likely be closer to £150-160.

More photos of the dieselpunk greatcoat under the cut.

Commission: Dark Blue Triple-Caped Greatcoat

2011-01-22T11:30:00.000-08:00

This voluminous coat is made from a dark blue wool-linen blend and is lined in a bright red faux silk. It is double-breasted and triple-caped, with deep red-braiding-trimmed cuffs and brass buttons.

The Designer and I had joked of coats with four shoulder capes, but it does seem that with a wool coat, three is the limit. It is already rather heavy around the shoulders. The capes are also lined in red so as one moves, the flashes of brilliant red can be seen. As the Proprietor put it, it is good to own kit that looks best when a bit messy.

Greatcoats were apparently also known as cape coats or watchcoats, the latter presumably from them being worn on watch, especially in winter. For all it's faults as a book, there's a rather evocative passage about watchcoats in Moby Dick:

To be sure, in cold weather you may carry your house aloft with you, in the shape of a watch-coat; but properly speaking the thickest watch-coat is no more of a house than the unclad body; for as the soul is glued inside of its fleshy tabernacle, and cannot freely move about in it, nor even move out of it, without running great risk of perishing (like an ignorant pilgrim crossing the snowy Alps in winter); so a watch-coat is not so much of a house as it is a mere envelope, or additional skin encasing you. You cannot put a shelf or chest of drawers in your body, and no more can you make a convenience closet of your watch-coat.
Moby Dick, "The Mast-Head", Chapter 35

The dark blue greatcoat is worn with a white linen frilly shirt (£15 from the Mercenary) and a charcoal waistcoat with six pockets and rivet buttons (£35). The felt top hat was from ebay and is rather fine.

To commission a similar watchcoat from the Mercenary would cost in the region of £160.

More photos of the dark blue watchcoat under the cut.

Commission: Red and Blue Dungeonpunk Gambeson

2011-01-21T03:27:00.000-08:00

This is very much a recolour of the dungeonpunk gambeson but with less asymmetry. It's made of dark blue faux suede and red linen, with gunmetal grey fastenings.

Much of the fiddliness of the original gambeson is present here. There's the vambraces with dagger loops, large pouches and the basic weaponsloops on the back.

Due to it being a commission, the gambeson doesn't exactly fit the Proprietor very well. It's a tad on the small side on him, but it's a reasonable quick snap of what it looks like for the website. Not all commissions end up photographed, after all, most of it depends entirely on whether or not we have the time and a convenient model at hand (or just a hanger and a white wall).

To commission a similarly fiddly gambeson from the Costume Mercenary would cost in the region of £160.

Tooled Notebooks

2011-01-20T13:20:00.000-08:00

Whilst looking for a (belated) Christmas present for a friend, I ended up in conversation with a lovely woman whose surname happened to be a homophone of mine (yet another detail that is not longer hilarious after the fact). Some negotiation later, I had walked away with a number of notebooks with hand-tooled leather covers. They're quite nice and first few of these will be available at Character Kit for £13 each.

I had sourced the embossed leather-cover books (£5 from Character Kit) some time ago for the Proprietor and the various clockwork globe watches. We've no idea if these will sell, but we shall see.

In Other News: The books, along with many other things will be going to the York Science Fiction and Fantasy Society Convention this weekend. Or more specifically, on the Sunday morning. We should also be going (with Character Kit, of course) to the Roundhouse Trading Kit Fair in March.

More photos of the leather notebooks under the cut.

A Union of Blood and Lies: A Medieval Murder Mystery

2011-01-20T05:22:00.000-08:00

It was amid a week of archive-diving between running around like a headless chicken that I found these old posters. I was having debilitating, if dull problems with a petulant printer-scanner as well as a struggle with an increasingly erratic sleep cycle. Finding this didn't exactly make my week better, but it did briefly amuse.

It was one of our first attempts at a photoshoot (indoors, in this very living room, with a white bed sheet over the curtain rail). This was before we learnt many things, including how difficult coordinating multiple people into a photo was and how much superior outdoor lighting was. I do remember the Proprietor complaining how awkward it was to hold the goblet at an angle that was pleasing to the photographer.

For the most part, the kit visible in these photos are from the Treasure Trap Armoury, though I do remember the red and black cloak belongs to the Proprietor himself. I have this strange urge to unearth the velvet dress and robe I was wearing from behind the wardrobe now.

The event was written by the Anthropologist and myself as a rules-light event to try and hook in new players who might be interested in larp but entirely sold on the idea it might just be playing-D&D-standing-up. We were essentially trying to sneakily trick people into larping by pretending it was a murder mystery. It was met with mixed success. A solidly good time was had by all (or so I was told) but outside attendance was disappointing, mostly due to clashing with a number of other events including end of term exam revision.

And that's the amble down memory lane over with...

The Case of the Missing Raccoon: A Steampunk Adventure

2011-01-19T04:02:00.000-08:00

Yes, that is a photo of the Proprietor using a telescope as a sight on pistol.

Raccoons are sly, tricksy beasts, you know.

As can be surmised from the silly photography, we were out with the camera and the new costumes. We've had a busy few months and are sitting on a large heap of updates and things to be posted off to their new owners. We're also working on a prop-related project that's turning out to be more logistically complicated than originally thought. It's all very exciting, if a little chaotic.

So we're back to old favourite of our nearby locations, Chapel of the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene. We had wanted to borrow the Proprietor's 'coontail hat, but it was not to be found. In the end, we did without and the photos are rather less silly (and perhaps more offensive). The costumes done included a "native" shirt and trousers for the Onontakhan culture at Profound Decision's Maelstrom, a three-tiered caped coat, some waistcoats and a dieselpunk greatcoat.

See under the cut for the full preview.

An Extravagance for the Eye: Early Renaissance Gown

2011-01-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

The gown draws heavily from gowns of the early renaissance, specifically of Venice. It's a veritable patchwork of period elements that will no doubt make the lovely people over at GoFugThyself want gouge their eyes out.

But it is rather too tempting to dabble in the described by some as an "extravagance for the eye." Especially after revisiting the sumptuously costumed if extremely problematic Dangerous Beauty (there was once a page of caps on the Period Movies Blog, but it seems to have vanished).

Whilst certainly inspired by history, this gown is by now means accurate and in some ways, that I'm wandering around a dubiously romanticised recreation of Venice in the photos is rather appropriate. I am neither wearing the fascinating and very fashionable chopines of the era nor do I have my hair in an exciting headdress.

The giornea and sleeves are of black silk velvet and the shift is of cotton (the sleeves aren't quite long enough, but it was the only out of the wash at the time). It's all laced together with black ribbon (and may I add it takes forever to get into this dress - it really isn't a gown for someone looking for quick costume changes.)

The lighting in many of these photos is so strange because of the fact that we aren't actually outdoors as they are taken at inside Macau's Venetian, hardly the "dreamed of city." The camera seemed to go into overcompensation with the lighting and the results are certainly interesting.

It was when I was looking for the exhibition photos of the asymmetrical naval coat that I unearthed these photos from my trip to Macau almost half a year ago. It had seemed appropriate to gamble (read: play slots) with an over the top "Marie Antoinette" gown on and once I was on that train of thought, swanning through The Venetian in a similarly themed gown was only a small step away.

More photos of the early renaissance gown under the cut.

A Length of Linen, with a Rider-Waite Tarot Theme

2011-01-03T15:16:00.000-08:00

There isn't much of it left, but I couldn't resist: white linen with a Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot print. That is indeed the Empress (with her crown of stars) and the Ace of Wands (though it seems to be sprouting more foxgloves than usual). Many of the smaller motifs also come from the deck (the sun and the moon, from their cards respectively; my eagle-eyed friend has also spotted the winged lion's head from the two of cups, there are others, just keep staring).

For those who aren't immediately recognising the images, the Rider-Waite-Smith is one of the most iconic and widely used tarot decks out there. Numerous modern decks have drawn inspiration (and often basic layout) from the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot. A brief gander at Aeclectic will throw up a plethora of beautiful decks drawn in the RWS tradition (including the Real Art of the Tarot, a really rather swoon-worthy incarnation). They were originally commissioned from Pamela Colman Smith by Arthur Edward Waite and was the first to illustrate the minor arcana.

(I did briefly wonder about the copyright of the RWS images used and it does, perhaps unsurprisingly, have quite a lengthy and complicated history.)

I'm very much in love with it, though I have no idea what should be done with it. There's about two and a half yards, enough for a shirt, a waistcoat (perhaps even two), a skirt or the contrast of something.

Given the prominence of the Empress and the Ace of Wands, I suspect this isn't exactly the print for everyone, but if you feel inspired, drop me a line.

New Year and Directions

2011-01-03T14:26:00.000-08:00

It's been almost a year of this blog (and the business) and it is also New Year (Happy New Year, by the way), so it seems appropriate to reflect a moment on Directions and where this is all going.

The blog itself has ranged far and wide in terms of content. I feared at first it would just be an endless wave of costume picture (would that have been a good thing?) with the occassional concept sketch thrown in. Briefly, I toyed with discussing inspirations and clothing history in greater detail. Equally, more snippets from my daily life seems tempting (espeically when my friends do geekily awesome things), but how far do people really want to read about me bitching about my latest cold? I often find cool things online, but does the Escapist's cosplay gallery really need my linking to it?

In the next few weeks, I'll likely be experimenting with what goes on the blog. There will still be many costumes, but I may become even more verbose than I already am. You have been warned.

The business itself still lacks a certain direction (this skit seems curiously appropriate). My primary market is still, in theory, larpers, but I've sold to all sorts of people and I'm not sure if I should be trying to expand exclusively in that direction. I seem to draw what I think is pretty and/or functional and go from there, but really, how many Tudor-larps are there? Is trying to eek my way into the territory held by many giants of goth and alternative clothing?

Though that said, I've a bucket of steampunk buttons so doubt over markets aside, the Mercenary will be focusing on clothing that can shift some (if not all) of that in the near future. There are a number of waistcoats with them on the horizon and perhaps some more colours of the steampunk coat (or maybe just the blue one, the red gets very little love).

Anyway, Happy New Year.

Chance Encounters: Scrap Metal Statues

2010-12-29T08:05:00.000-08:00

I was wandering in Birmingham's Christmas Craft Fair earlier in the month and encountered these amazing metal statues of the iconic Alien and Predator (from their respective franchises). I've since managed to lose the business card from the stall, but going through the camera memory card, I still wanted to share the photos.

This is where I discovered there's quite a quite a few metalcrafters working in the scrap metal sculpture business (this blogpost got delayed as I was lost in the pages of Metal Art and Yumimodal). I think the stall I saw might have been affiliated with Robosteel (who were featured in Wired no so long ago and are based in the UK), but the name doesn't ring familiar, so I'm really rather baffled. So if you recall wandering in the streets of Birmingham, do share. And yes, aren't they awesome?

A few more photos under the cut.

A Surfeit of Steampunk Buttons

2010-12-26T13:19:00.000-08:00

It's more or less Boxing Day, so it seems appropriate to open with a belated "Merry Winter-related holiday".

I picked up the big box of steampunk buttons the other day, so I'm currently staring at thirty gross of them in gunmetal grey (they're all in a giant ferrero rocher cardboard box, which led to an amusing incident with my cousin). A lot has come about because of these cog-and-screw buttons and it does feel somewhat appropriate that our first big order of buttons is of them. Needless to say, we'll be seeing them on an awful lot of garments in the near future. We'll probably be starting with a number of waistcoat prototypes and we'll see from there, but if you fancy anything with these buttons on it, don't hesitate to drop us a line.

Commission: Dashing Asymmetrical Coat

2010-12-23T07:40:00.000-08:00

Apologies to all about the month-long absence. I spent most of it running about the country and failing at Nanowrimo. We've also been plagued by various post-related problems, including late parcels, lost parcels and returned parcels. It's all really rather discouraging.

I had vaguely intended to post this coat on Jane Austen Day but we didn't manage to get the photos (or the coat, for that matter) done in time.

The coat is based on an asymmetrical naval coat that fascinated me at Macau Maritime Museum (photos of the original naval coat under the cut). It's part of a commission for a military uniform; there's a waistcoat, breeches and boot-toppers not pictured. It's made from a dark blue wool, lined in bright red. It features bright gold buttons and some rather subtle black ribbon around the buttonholes.

It's most interesting feature is its odd asymmetry of the folded tail on one side and the exposed lining on the other. The two visible pockets are ornamental, but it does have another two in the lining to compensate.

Meant for a man taller and broader than myself, the coat doesn't exactly fit, but I thought passes for a thigh-slapping sort of look, not unakin to Elizabeth Swann in her bright red British uniform in Curse of the Black Pearl.

Photos of the Maritime Museum exhibit and a few more of the coat under the cut.

The exhibit informed me that uniforms of the Portuguese War Fleet were not standardised until 1761, when "a regulation was passed defining the uniforms for the various ranks operating on board."

From the left we have a Sergeant of Sea and War; a Captain of Sea and War and a Soldier.

Preview: Deep Red Elven Gown

2010-11-30T08:51:00.000-08:00

This deep red elven gown with beaded trim, inspired by the many beautiful gowns of the Evenstar (and more specifically the Cranberry Velvet Gown) though this doesn't feature the interesting seaming techniques of the original and instead of a scoop neck, it has an unusually wide bateau neck (born out of the fact that the gold beaded trim is straight and thus stubborn about turning corners). The sleeves aren't as huge as would be ideal, but we ran out of fabric and it seemed as reasonable a compromise as any. The whole dress feels oddly delicate and I have some fears about the durability of the beaded trim. On the other hand, the overall effect is more than slightly opulent.

The red of the velvet is deep and luscious, closer to a rosewood or a carmine than the photos would immediately suggest. The shifting colours of the silk velvet and the bad lighting made for less than ideal photos. (Which makes this a preview of sorts. The lighting was temperamental the day we did the photos and I wasn't pleased with the results. With time and reflection, they seem good enough to appear in the blog but I do intend to do them again when given the opportunity.)

I've also been scouring Lord of the Rings for costuming cues of late and it hasn't exactly been the most rewarding experience. Tolkien is vague at best when it comes to descriptions of clothing. The primary aspects I could really pin down about elven clothing seems to be that its grey, shining and iridescent.

At the sight of Arwen, Evenstar of her people, Frodo confides in Gandalf:

"At last I understand why we have waited! This is the ending. Now not day only shall be beloved, but night too shall be beautiful and blessed and all its fear pass away!'"

Unfortunately, there is little about her appearance one can glean from the preceding passage other than that she was glimmering in the evening, with stars on her brow.

Diamante are all too easily abused in ornamentation and iridescence isn't something that works particularly well beyond princess dresses of little small children and stage costume, and even then I find the concept questionable. This all feeds back to the development of modern tastes and the idea of "tacky" - something that didn't really exist before the widespread use of cheap, bright colours and cheap sparkly things (like diamante). But more on that with the next spate of elven sketches.

To commission a similar gown from the Costume Mercenary would cost in the region of £150 in stretch velvet and £180 in silk velvet.

A few more photos of the elven gown (including a blurry details shot of the beaded trim) under the cut.

A blurry detail shot of the beaded trim:

Commission: Black Linen Cassock

2010-11-25T15:52:00.000-08:00

This cassock is made of black linen. It's unlined and is fastened with a row of gunmetal grey buttons down the front that give the cassock a mild steampunk edge. It has three deep pleats at the back, plain cuffs, piping and a standing collar.

It was commissioned by Femina Necans, who is modelling the garment herself in the photos. The Designer and I were unable to convince her that she wanted the cassock to be edge in purple or red (like the high ranking catholic cassocks). There was some debate as to where we should move the front pleats so as the garment interfaced with breasts, but overall it can't be said to be the most exciting of commissions. Also seen in the photos is the silver-lined Necromancer Cloak, with gunmetal grey rose buttons (like those on the Red Rose Coat, but larger).

With the cathedral in the background, we did joke that we were taking photos for some form of female priests campaign or the Miss November of a priestly fund-raising calendar.

We toyed with giving the whole set a more vampire-hunter feel with more props and taking some by the weather-worn tombstones in front of the cathedral, but in the end, none of those came out particularly well. Still with the cassock worn open and armed with the gun (from Evenlode Studio) and the Tallows dagger, I fancied this brought to mind Solomon Kane (except more Catholic).

There isn't more more to say of the cassock, save if you would want one like it, it would cost in the region of £50-55.

More photos of the black linen cassock under the cut.