Delurking here: My take on this, from the point of view of someone who began in historical re-creating costumes by trying to accurate re-create my great-grandmother's marriage photo from c. 1895:
It is exciting to learn about each period, and what was "normal and average" for them, by actually making the outfit, as closely as possible to techniques that could have been used, with equipment and notions known to exist then. So for me, now learning about the Civil War era, to recreate an actual person known to have lived (their clothing--I am NOT a re-enactor), the more I learn about the sewingmachines of hte time, what might have been done by hand, the history of the Industrial Age at that time, what dyes and colors were available, What undergarments were worn to shape the outside, what fabrics might have been available to a specific social class in a particular location, it's all a continuum. Context is, truly, everything. And "re-inventing the wheel", as I had to with the Great-grandmother dress, in order to make the decorative soutache swirls accurately, definitely gave me a much stronger connection; as has making my collars and cuffs for my Civil War era dresses by hand. I would say that for many of us, personal interest is a very strong motivator. Yours in costuming, Lisa A On Sun, 13 Mar 2011 02:26:24 GMT "R Lloyd Mitchell" <rmitch...@staff.washjeff.edu> writes: > > Every time this topic of authenticiy rolls around,......> interpret our knowledge and understanding of what the original might > really have looked like and to replicate it to the best of our own > craft and other sewing abilities. Sometimes as we attempt > to"re-invent the wheel"we might have a personal epiphany to > comprehend the secrets of treasure we are trying to gain for > ourselves. > Absolute authenticity is a moving target, because the more we know, > the more details there are that are harder t0 reach. > That leads into the next question ? where to substitute modern >....... Some of these methods become a labor of > love, a desire to learn a technique for its own sake. .......> Beyond that, as above, it starts to depend on personal interest in > a > particular technique or a desire to learn the techniques of a > particular era. _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
