I'm not now and never was a fan of the TV show "Friends," but it did
yield one relevant cultural insight:
One of the women was moving in with another one who loved antiques
(Phoebe?). The new roommate (Monica?) bought a piece of furniture--an
apothecary's chest, I think-- from Pottery Barn, only to learn that her
roomie HATED Pottery Barn stuff, with its pseudo-antiquity. So Monica
(?) pretended she had bought it at a flea/antiques market at a NYC
location she couldn't recall. When asked what period the chest was
from, she replied "Yore."
I may have the characters wrong (we sometimes watch reruns when
we're drifting off to sleep), but I think the dating of the chest was
absolutely precise. Most people nowadays (and, I promise you, my
college students included) think of time in only a few categories: the
future, now, their parents' "day," and "Yore." For many Americans,
"Yore" applies especially to anything before the American Revolution,
and everything blends together into the look of Yore. That's why
hennins, for example, seem to be appropriate headgear for The Merry
Wives of Windsor?!?!?! etc. So, yes, I'm absolutely echoing what has
already been said here: I just had to share what it's called.
--Ruth Anne Baumgartner
scholar gypsy and amateur costumer
On Apr 23, 2006, at 5:44 PM, Sharon L. Krossa wrote:
At 8:35 PM -0400 4/21/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Designers often use styles from the whole century all at once without
following the time line. They seem to do this more in the 18th
century than any
other.
I don't think they do it more in the 18th century than any other -- I
think rather that the fashion time-span they squish together (rather
than following the historical time line) in general increases the
further removed from our own time period the historical setting is.
So, for things set in the late 20th century, the fashions may compress
a few years, for the early 20th century they might use styles from a
decade or two, for the 19th century they might draw from several
decades at once, for they 18th century the whole century, etc. And
when the setting is medieval, they throw together styles spanning
multiple centuries.
There appears to be a similar dynamic when it comes to cultures -- the
further back the setting, people tend to be happy to squish together
styles from ever more culturally and geographically far-flung places.
(Thus, for a movie set in a relatively narrow medieval time and place,
you might see styles taken from half a millennium of time and culled
from cultures half a world apart...)
Perhaps because the changes aren't a drastic as they are in the 19th
century. Although, I can't tell you how many 1840s and 1850s dresses
get used in Civil War epics!
I think it is more that the further back you go, the less people know
and so care about the various distinctions. (And even if the costume
designer knows, the audience is unlikely to.) A sort of the further
away things are from their own experience -- in time or space -- the
more it "all looks the same" to them effect. (Which also explains why
those who _do_ learn all about a particular historical time/place
don't think it all looks the same -- it's no longer far from their
experience.)
I once worked for an LA designer who mainly did TV. He and his
assistant
were snotty to us hayseeds [they thought] here in NC. His assistant
with his
nose in the air gave me a speech on how carefully they had researched
and how
the designer was a stickler for accuracy. Then he handed me to alter
for the
...
Yeah....a stickler for accuracy alright.
[For those who's period is not the mid 1800s, all those details
scream....and I mean scream... 1840s]
The more I learn about the entertainment industry, the clearer it
becomes that "accuracy" is more an advertising buzz-word (used to
attract audiences) than something truly pursued. That is, it is far
more important to persuasively _claim_ accuracy than to actually _be_
accurate. (I'm know there are exceptions among individuals who work in
these industries -- but in the industry as a whole...)
Sharon
--
Sharon Krossa, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Resources for Scottish history, names, clothing, language & more:
Medieval Scotland - http://MedievalScotland.org/
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