Activity in the Parlor
At one particular Civil War reenacting event when my group was fairly new, a fellow reenactor gave us a great compliment: your set-up is so real and the fact that you look so comfortable and at-home in your clothes presents a real-life picture. He mentioned how we move in our costumes as if we were living in them.
I think that’s key to portraying a character from history. A historical costume does SO much to place us into the past, to feel like we’re there.
It happens all the time to actors. They frequently say that they knew the character on paper, but when they put on the costume it came to life for them, allowing them to bring realism to the part.
To truly bring history to life, whether in an acting role, reenactment, or simply playing dress-up, you have to feel like your costume is your everyday clothing. Like you simply went to the closet or trunk this morning and chose that garment to put on. A garment that would reflect your activities for the day.
Are you washing dishes? Going to visit neighbors? Attending a ball?
Imagine your costume in your historical wardrobe as something you might have in your own modern closet. Today, what would you pull out for house chores or go to the movies in?
How do you behave in your modern clothing?
We wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time. And for most of that time we don’t consider our attire much. We put in on in the morning then go about our day. Only if it’s a special outfit or new are we mindful of it. The same goes when wearing historical clothing.
I remember showing off my first Victorian costume to my young nieces – an 1883 polonaise made from the ever popular Past Patterns #904.
Jen's 1883 Polonaise
I gave them a chance to put the dress on to see what it was like. My eldest niece, Tabitha, was so stiff! I told her it was ok to move her arms and not walk like a mummy. It’s a bodice and skirt – not a body brace.
I think as modern people wearing period clothing we forget that our ancestors were living in a different world. A different society where behaviors were not as we know them. They wouldn’t be driving in small, stick-shift cars or bumbling along in a subway.
They wouldn’t be afraid to eat spaghetti or ride in a carriage with dust blowing. They simply dealt with the circumstances of their daily lives.
So I challenge you….
Next time you put on that corset and bustle, think of them as your own clothing – something you might wear a few times a month. Don’t be afraid to move in those unfamiliar garments.
Remember a secret to looking like you stepped out of the past is to move as they did. Your clothing is only there for functional purposes. Well, that, and to make yourself look good. 
What do you think? Do certain garments or costumes change your mindset with how you behave and move?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve spent a good many years directing actors who have to wear corsets. At first, they really balk at moving in them. But once we work on making that structure an extension of their bodies, as integral to their shape/structure/movement as a modern bra or spanx is today, they find they are better equipped to deal with the clothing as a whole and the mannerisms of their period characters. Costuming from the skin out is a great advantage to building a character. It can also serve as a great preparation technique: with each layer that goes on, we imagine absorbing it to our bodies and simultaneously putting on a layer of the character.
Bring a kid in period costume People never beleive that they ever had any fun wearing all that clothes, my son has the grass stains and holes in pants to prove them wrong.
The secret is to actually wear them several times a month… My daughter grew up in period dress at our historic farm and attracted many visitors becoming a junior docent. Including children, pets, and pastimes makes it real.
hi, I am looking for information about others who wear 19th century costume as everyday clothing and ware. are there others who do this? any groups?
thanks, CarylAnne
This is very true. If you treat your period attire as ‘clothes’ and not ‘costume’ you think about yourself and what you’re wearing differently! I have 18th Century Clothes, I have 21st Century Clothes, and I have Central Asian Clothes (spent 3 years overseas). Do I feel comfortable wearing them for Halloween? Nah… it’s feels awkward to put on my clothes and all of a sudden call them “costume”! So finally this year I’ve made myself a kirtle. It has NOTHING to do with any of the history that I love – it’s a maid-marian-dress, a princess-dress. It’s a costume. Course I used a good ‘historical’ pattern and did a decent job sewing it, cause that’s me. But I don’t know enough about the period to know much of anything at all – it’s a costume.
And I’m so happy to finally have a costume!!! Lol!
I have done a fair amount of high quality amateur theater, both on and off stage. I once bought black lacy underwear to put on under Miss Lynch’ s (the teacher in Grease–stage, not movie, version) dowdy dress. Even grumpy old women have sexy dreams; it made my characterization of Miss Lynch. Have to dress from the underwear out. The clothes fit right and move right.
I do wear my costuming as clothing! I work 40 hours a week at an 1890s living history farm outside Chicago and every morning put on my work-a-day wrapper. I encourage the rest of the staff and the volunteers to use their clothing as a tool to help them understand the daily lives of the farmers we talk about. I always find that the days when I’m the most physically comfortable are when I stick as close as possible to the clothes of the time, foundation on out. There’s a reason they wore these clothes the way they did, and you just don’t appreciate drawers until it’s 10 degrees outside and you’re using an outhouse in full gear.
I have always loved history, but have never had the opportunity to portray it as a reenactor (it’s one of my dreams). Because of this dream, I have been working on making a historically accurate “outfit”–from the skin out. I have 2 “prairie” dresses that I made as I was learning how to sew period dresses. Now, I wear them several times a year just around the house. I have found that it’s just as easy to clean the house in my old fashioned dresses as in my jeans.
Thank you for this article! I have just attended my first two reenactments (as a reenactor) the past two weekends and remember commenting to my sister that, “These ladies don’t know how to wear a skirt–let alone hoops!” Personally, I am comfortable in my Civil War (i.e. War Between the States) outfit partly because I wear skirts the majority of the time, anyways, and partly because I have made and worn various other historical costumes many other times.
On a related note: “wearablility” is definitely something that I think about when I am choosing and making up a historical outfit because, just as you said, I want it to feel natural–especially if I am going to be representing history in some form or another. I also try to stick to things that will suit the occasion–such as not making my c. 1860 day dress to go over my ball sized hoops–for a raid reenactment in Florida! I didn’t have time or money to make a smaller pair, so I just used multiple skirts and petticoats. After all, Florida was not well-to-do in the 1850′s–and even less so in the ’60′s…