It's 5 a.m. You wake up and decide to write a historical novel or scifi/ fantasy novel set in a different world. What are your characters going to wear? If you watch Buck Rogers (TV series) and wonder where does princess Ardala get her horn headdress? Where the sisters of Paul Atreide's mom get their steeple hats in the movie "Dune"? What is the source of such fashion?
You can these strange fashions in the ebook "
Evolution of Fashion" written by Florence Mary Gardiner in 1897. She writes a delightful book with illustrations, sharp wit and sprinkles it with poetry. You can download this book (many forms including Kindle)from
Project Gutenberg for free! The middle ages contains a panorama of extreme fashions which includes steeple and horny hats for women, long pointy shoes. I draw this example of a long shoe that lifts the toes with a long chain that attaches around the calf. Fathom a room full of guests in such attire. Ahhh...It's not time travel, but the next best thing.
"
Dress Design" written by Talbot Hughes is available for download (free) at the Gutenberg Project. This author includes beautiful photos of real women wearing historical clothing. The author writes with fashion designers in his mind by including drawings of patterns for clothing. Beauty is the embroidery that flourishes on crisp fabrics that have endured through time. The book covers clothing from 500 A.D. to 1875.
Which one should you download? Both! Both are free. Florence Mary Gardiner gives a more touching account about humanity with bridal and funeral customs in different countries. Both authors despise the chignon hairstyle! Wow! Really? I googled the chignon hairstyle: a roll of hair bunched at the neck....hmm...
Please check out my 25 second animation "Stomp" which features medeval shoe.
Thank you for reading my blog! Hugs and smiles!
P.S.
I am
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I also had fun visiting Froggarita.
In my spare time I like to try new things. I took four photos and stitch them vertically with GIMP software ( free open source). Each photo is 640 x 420 pixels. I took the photos with a low resolution camera ( camera binoculars which I purchased for $ 20 ). I wanted to proove that you don't need an expensive camera to take beautiful photos. I was walking in my neighborhood when I took this picture. Too often I stare at the dry sagebrush and complain how dry and twiggy it looks. The soil is pure clay. When I look at my photo I realize that I live in a beautiful place even though the winter lasts 7 months and there are no trees. It is interesting that I needed a mechanical device, my camera, to tell me about beauty.
