This weekend was Saxony-Anhalt day in Weißenfels and they also had a parade with "historical" clothing. I was very shocked of some garments. Don´t get me wrong, I have nothing against inspired historical clothing at carnival or if it is for some private meet-up, but at something like this I want to see at least almost historical clothing (means it looks like a historical person would have worn this).
So here are my three no-gos for historical clothing:
1. Don´t inform yourself about typical cuts
Each periode has a typical shape and if a garment not at least fits it, it´s not historical. I don´t want to see a bust seem at a rococo dress, especially if it should be a countess. Why is it so difficult to look up something like this in a book or the internet. I know so many good sites that offer this information for free (and also some German ones).
2. Use cheap fabrics
I have nothing against cotton and in my opinion for a parade you also can use it for medieval clothing, it looks far better than this cheap shiny carnival fabric. Of course it´s nice to use authentic fabrics, but if this is too expensive or you can´t get it at least use fabrics that look authentic. If it looks cheap and like carnival it fails.
3. Use plastic accessoires or wrong accessoires
Rococo women had no hand bag. A pompadour bag is cute, but Marie Antoinette would not have used one, because it was not invented in her time. You should inform yourself what was an authentic accessoire in your chosen time and not go with what everyone believes. Most normal people have no clue about history in general and historical clothing especially. And many are not interested. But that doesn´t mean you can do what you want.
But the uniforms were very nice. Why get men nice historical clothing?
