LIVING HISTORY & WHY I DON’T CALL MYSELF A COSTUMER ‖ S&B #2
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- čas přidán 21. 02. 2021
- To be honest, I didn't think I'd manage to put together a video this week, but here we go! Please enjoy my perspective on historical sewing and accuracy while I prepare the pieces of a waistcoat to be made up.
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Instagram - @pins.and.weevils
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Simple Duet by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
This video kept me up at night. I’ve been thinking about it for a week.
I feel similarly about the term "costumer," partially because the term "costume" often feels like it's used by others as a way to discount the work I put into my creations (though I still do use the term occasionally, such as when I'm wearing a historical-ish garment styled to be fantastical). I wore my 18th century shift to my high school graduation (we had to wear white dresses and I was in no way going to spend money on a random white dress I wouldn't wear again), so it's hard to consider that garment a "costume."
I'm looking forward to seeing the waistcoat in full! That wool is divine.
Thank you! I see what you mean about the difference between the two, I definitely see the Star Wars outfits I’ve recreated as costumes rather than clothes. The bit about the shift is iconic tbh
Waistcoat video!!!! Thank you!!!
You’ve articulated so many of the bits of why I’m drawn to historical sewing. I have a deep personal connection with specifically queer history and the feeling of a tangible shared experience. It’s like empathy for people I’ve never met and never will. I love them, however distantly, and I want to feel close to them and I want them to know that they are still thought of, even if it is in abstract
I hope at least some of this made sense lol. I feel these things very deeply in ways that are difficult to articulate, but I think I did an okay job
Also congratulations on changing your major!!
The humanity moment from 2:00 to 2:35 was so wholesome and it my heart very happy.
Thank you!!! I think that stuff resonates for me because part of my own love language is making and mending things for people
i don’t sew or anything but these are so interesting to watch and kind of make me want to get into it!
Thank you so much!!! I absolutely recommend getting into it. ☺️
Follow your interest and just do it. I'm (almost) entirely self taught as I've got Dyspraxia, ADD and Dyscalculia. Trust me Matt if I can make kit (mainly 17th century) anyone can.
Congratulations on the continued uploads!
I couldn’t agree more this is very much the way I view and think about my historical tailoring and the original garment I studie.
Nice waistcoat and Thank you for sharing this lovely video with us.
Thank you so, so much! I’m glad other people share that point of view, I feel like it gives the hobby so much more humanity and depth ☺️
I can not agree more with you on this topic! Acuracy and autheticity is vital to understanding the past, in all aspects realy. They where not stupid in the past, they where more alike us than we might think. They had the same basic feelings, issues and struggles as we do. And thou we have more advanced tecnology and transportation and deem ourself "superior" to our past selves, i belive we might have lost many elements on the way to where we are today.
Love your videos! Please keep them coming. They are very inspiring ❤❤❤
I was watching a video recently about the earliest signs of human language. The complexity in the construction of a very very ancient tool made it clear to the researcher that complex language was a prerequisite to be able to communicate how to make that tool to another early hominid. The more I learn about how things were done in the past the more impressed I am with our ancestors. They were pretty damn smart. Smarter than ME. Beautifully hand stitching an 18th century waistcoat pocket incredibly impressive as that is (and it IS - damn, you’re good!) seems like a very simple accomplishment compared to sourcing and constructing all that is necessary to create a Stone Age spear. You’re actually engaged in bonafide experimental archaeology and what you’re learning with that pocket is way bigger than just a pocket. That pocket is a bit of a tardis - way bigger on the inside than on the outside. :) Another great video, thanks!
Thank you! Your point about experimental archaeology brings to mind Janet Stephen’s work with Roman hairstyles, and the way she changed the way academics translate and interpret the word ‘acus’ by recreating styles such as Julia Domna’s!
@@pinsandweevils I was just looking into this earlier today!
Lovely work Marius ! For my New Model Army soldiers coat I researched the cloth, lining, shape, construction and working methods. I sourced the pattern, the correct weight and dyed cloth, the authentic linen, the pewter buttons, and completely hand sewn it using as near authentic linen and wool threads and techniques as I could muster, before finishing and wearing in around the house to achieved a nice worn-in (not worn out) shape and patina. Yet to most punters it's still "costume". AAARRGGHHHHHHH !!!
I love that bit about wearing it in! There’s something so special about worn, washed, mended, and loved clothing.
@@pinsandweevils Yes indeed. I love that nice worn-in look. My inspiration is a set of photos of Foot Guards newly returned from the Crimea - still very smart and Guardsman-like but with the creases (especially on the sleeves), texture, patina, and genteel fading of working clothes that military uniforms are. A friend of mine who worked as a demonstrator at a historic site in the US wore the full dress uniform of US heavy artillery as his everyday kit and he always maintained that it took him approx. 6 weeks to get it looking proper, with daily brushing and proper storage.
In a few weeks I’ll be working on a colonial Frock Coat and waistcoat both lined. I’ll let you know how it turns out and send you some photos
I can’t wait to see how it all turns out!
This video means a lot to me. Thank you for making it! I love history and, by extension, historical fashion because of humanity. I love that in these moments of looking at the past, at holding old objects, or seeing them through museum glass, or recreating them to the best of our 21st century ability, we can connect to someone, no matter how much time has passed since they lived. That's why I love dead languages too and think it's incredible when people sing ancient songs with recreated ancient instruments. I love that the distance of time shrinks for a moment and that person from thousands of years ago and I are both appreciating the way the song makes us feel, even if the version I'm hearing can never be quite the same as the original. History is beautiful because of the stories it tells and the way that we can learn more about ourselves in the process. There are ugly parts of history too, of course, and they shouldn't be ignored. But there are also ugly parts of today and we shouldn't ignore them either. There's so much to learn from history and from the real lives people led. Anyway, thank you again for making this video. I hope that you take care!
Thanks
Nice video! Inspires me to get some hand sewing done that I've been avoiding :^)
In complete honesty; the reason I'm going into archeology? It just felt right. Shifting through other peoples trash from centries ago to get a hint at how they lived; learning about the farmer instead of the soldier, it felt right to me. The same with 1920s suits and wanting to sew, sure i havent made a single thing yet, but i have a plan of action, and thats more than enough for me
Exactly! I feel like it’s easy to get hung up on the bigger picture or the ways in which history is removed from us (weird, foreign, sensational), but I’m going into archaeology as well because I love those little glimpses of shared humanity
@@pinsandweevils I love experimental archeology, making things with what they would have had to fill in the gap.
Half of the greatest questions are what people never wrote down because they thought it would never change, the essence of change? Idk what im trying to say tbh
So true, even if I've only made a few costumes that are just historically inspired, once I made them and wore I suddenly realized so many things about how people lived in the past and sparked new interest. Like, corsets were actually really useful and petticoats keep you so warm! Btw I'd love to watch longer videos where you share further thoughts on these things
You are so well spoken and your points in this video are so so poignant. I’ve never really been drawn to the history of clothes and fashion, but has really opened my eyes to how much clothes can tell us about the people who came before and how much emotional resonance they hold.
Thank you so, so much! The reenactment stuff I do is all very heavily tied to the archaeology part of my major, and there are some very cool stories about discoveries/breakthroughs made by experimental archaeologists, like Janet Stephens!
YESS A WAISTCOAT video!
Thanks for uploading so much lately! I really enjoy watching your videos. I thought your comments were so interesting too. I rewatched The Crucible a few months ago, and despite not enjoying it nearly as much as I did in high school (lol) it made me think about what's going on today. Yes it's crazy that people believed in witches so much that they started hanging people, but when I look at the things people believe in today it really makes me think we aren't very different than we've ever been. I think the average person looks at people from the past and thinks they knew nothing and life was awful and now we know so much more and we are so advanced, but when looking at something like the Salem witch trials and then looking at some of the conspiracy groups of today, humans don't seem that different. And I think there's so much about being human that we have lost in the past 100 years or so, and for me historical reconstruction is a way to connect with some of those things we are missing. Anyway, thanks for your thought provoking video!
I guess to me study of the extant garments and of stories and history is enough to feel close to the past. I don't need to spend hours sewing a shift, if I can machine sew it in a jiffy and have the pleasure of wearing it already, maybe even more pleasure, cause by the time I'd finish hand sewing it, I'd hate it and wouldn't want to touch it for months. LOL
If I were to make a garment for, let's say, an exhibition, for people to see how it was made in the past, then sure, I'd make it as close copy as possible, but otherwise, not so necessary for me, and especially with clothes I will wear in everyday life, in some sense it would make those close feel more "costumey" to me, like I was is some play making clothes, and not in modern times.
But that's me, and it's fun that we all can have different opinions. The fun stops, when I see negativity on both sides, like people who only recreate things for pictures will make fun of people hand sewing, cause "it's not a real thing if you haven't lived then", or people who recreate things to a tee degrading work of the other side, cause "it's not real if it's machine sewn".
That’s absolutely valid! I don’t think there’s one “right way” to experience that closeness. And I feel the bit about hand sewing, it does get frustrating!
Marius is so cool. His videos are always so interesting!!! (Don’t know if you will see this and if you do you probably get this all the time, but as a big classical literature fan I have to ask. Did you get your name because of the character in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables? I mean only the best by this, it’s my favorite book.) I am so excited to see more videos!
Thank you! It’s funny you should ask-I chose the name Marius mainly because my original first name was Maria. I was named after a family member, and didn’t want to give that connection up when I came out as trans. However, Les Mis is a book that’s been very important to me since high school, and it definitely influenced the decision!
I’m also wondering where do you get most of your fabrics?
I mainly order from Burnley & Trowbridge in the U.S., and then a variety of different places in the U.K.!
Herts Fabrics (Chemical Ali) and Bernie the Bolt are good for quality mainstream fabrics and are my go to suppliers. Sometimes if I'm not feeling too fussy I've been known to buy from Pound-a-Metre (but don't tell my pards).