Someone at an event snapped a pic of me in my rust velvet Rock, which is a 16th century German doublet. I’m also wearing my Tellerbarett, or “platter hat”, which gets a lot of compliments. (Or sometimes cries of “Wide load!) Since I have lupus and really shouldn’t be in the sun, the Tellerbarett actually serves as a hands-free umbrella for outdoor events, which is my secret agenda in wearing it. (Well, and it’s impressive, and people can easily find me on a crowded field if they need to.) The rust velvet was a gift from a friend, the olive brocade was a remnant at a discount fabric store, and I actually shelled out and bought the trim at an SCA event because I liked the colors so much.

At the demo on colonial men’s clothing: I’m in the orange coat, Joshua is in the green one, Brandon is in blue. You can see the class differences between us – monied professional, lowly apprentice, even more lowly indentured servant. Bella’s outfit, as a constable, is between mine and Joshua’s – she has a frock coat like mine, but not as fancy. Colonial costume is still all about class – Brandon’s is a slightly poorer copy of Joshua’s, which is a slightly poorer copy of Bella’s, which is a slightly poorer copy of mine, which would be a poorer copy of that of someone like John Hancock or the Royal Governor, which would be a poorer copy of the English court, which would be a poorer copy of the French court, which set the opulence standard.

You can see how the boys’ hats aren’t cocked, and they have kerchiefs instead of a cravat, and no lace or ruffles. They are wearing “jackcoats”, the short coat of “every man jack”, which was later shortened to “jacoat” and, in the post-rev-war era, “jacket”. I’m wearing a frock coat, with fancy pockets and “lacing”, or narrow braided trim. To get trim of the right color and look, I hand-braided DMC embroidery floss, six strands of it. It’s narrow and probably won’t be noticed much, but I felt it definitely gave a “finished” look.

Some reenactment groups have a “ten-foot-rule”, meaning if it passes reasonably well at ten feet, that works OK. Some are much stricter and don’t allow beards (which would kill all of us except Bella), visible machine stitching, or any non-period fabrics. Luckily ours is a ten-foot-rule group, because even with all the hard work I did on these period outfits, they aren’t good enough for the Concord/Lexington people. That’s OK – we have fun anyway.

  Our family is also in the Hubbardston Militia, a Revolutionary War reenactment group. Reenactment groups have a higher standard of authenticity than recreation groups like the SCA or commercial practically-fantasy groups like Renfairs. Like Renfairs, they are for the public, not each others’ entertainment. For these costumes, I ordered patterns actually based on extant historical clothing. You can’t see it here, but the pants are incredibly complicated, with 11 buttons and various flaps and hidden pockets. It took me until the fourth pair to get the hang of them.

My first set of colonial men’s clothing was for my wife Bella, who cross-dresses for the militia so that she can shoot black powder guns. (I’m going to make her female garb as well, so that she can either choose to play my wife or my brother-in-law.) I don’t have a photo of her in her garb yet, but it’s coming. She’s an ensign with the militia (or is she a lieutenant now? Can’t remember…). The boys are too scared of guns to be militiamen, and I’m too crippled to march, so I’m the company doctor, Joshua is my apprentice and Brandon is my indentured servant. When I get my medical kit posted, I’ll be putting up pictures of that as well.

Anyway, this was a militia meeting with a small luncheon feast – Major Scott, his wife, and our family combined on the period food. (That’s Major Scott in the blue vest at the top; I believe that his wife did his garb, although he is commissioning a frock coat from me.) I gave a class on men’s clothing of the time. (When I have enough women costumed to do one, I’ll have a class on women’s clothing.) Here’s Joshua getting the food ready. The boys served it to the table in the “officers’ quarters”, where the Major, the doctor (me), and the nurses ate lunch. Everyone else fended for themselves outside on the porch or around the fire.

Next: the outfits themselves.(But lastly, here’s Joshua serving the food.)

Kaspar in his blue coat and tunic, and his fashionable-for-a-peasant floppy hat! From my research and staring at paintings, it does seem that the lowest peasant classes at this time were wearing a much older and simpler form of clothing than the people with money. For his coat and tunic, I used the information I found in an article on early 16thc German peasant clothing. I also looked at paintings by Peter Brueghel, Dürer (one of my all-time favorite artists), and others. Kaspar is very religious and we’re thinking of decorating his hat with pilgrimage medals. We also want to make him a period crutch. The Canadian crutches he uses occasionally are too modern. I’m also thinking of making him livery with our household badge.

Here is Rodrigo fresh from the fencing match. I didn’t make his doublet, but I did make his pants, complete with his first codpiece. And he promptly took a rapier right through the gold satin, requiring repairs. Sigh.

I will post separate pictures of us in our garb, especially Brigitte whose dress is very elaborate. First, there’s me. (Yes, the sword is from Somewhere East Of Here. I took it off of a Turk, who didn’t need it any more, being dead.) I happen to like autumn colors very much. The picture doesn’t show it well, but the arms and legs each have different patterns of slashes. The yellow trim is a form of traditional German ruching; the pattern is called Ear of Wheat, which is why I liked it. I actually don’t know if it’s period to the 16^th century and haven’t been able to research that, but I added it anyway. I made this garb about two decades ago, actually, when I was a lot less interested in authenticity.

Then there’s Joschka, in his “good clothes”. Brigitte took the pictures and insisted on facing everyone into the sun, so we’re all squinting. Joschka likes green and brown (and his Rev War persona, my apprentice Joshua, wears the same colors). The sleeves detach from the doublet, as did many people’s sleeves in the day.