Lamentations of a Living Historian

I don't like to vent, but occasionally I have to. If you're reading this blog, you probably have as strange of tastes in leisure activities as I do, so maybe you'll find this interesting, or maybe it'll piss you off. Here's my vent: Costumers are driving me nuts.

I get it, people like to dress up in clothing that makes them feel something different than how they feel on the inside. Look at any high-ranking military uniform from any historic empire and you will see exactly what I'm talking about. I make and wear historic clothing with for the study and experience of 18th century life, and to hopefully have that occasional moment of true living history. I am a living historian.

The modern people that like to make clothing, whether it be historic, historically inspired, or fictional, only to wear them, are called costumers.

In the past few weeks, I've been at odds with a few costumers with an arrogant yet highly sophomoric knowledge (and attitudes) of the 18th century, history in general, and research. The individuals that I speak of typically are self-declared experts in 18th century reproduction clothing.

They have made such declarations after making a few historic costumes, using modern techniques, by reading a few non-academic books or websites. When confronted with citing sources or constructive criticism to make their clothing better, they immediately deflect and wonder how you, someone not making silk court clothing, would ever challenge their expertise, for you only dress in linen and wool; whereas, they dress in silk.

Ok, so that's a hyperbolic simplification, but it does sum up a few conversations that I've had. If you want to be a costumer and have no interested in historic authenticity, that's cool with me. Please do it away from the living historians so that our inboxes are not commonly getting spammed. It would also be nice, if you would stop giving the general public incorrect information, but I don't think that's going to happen any time soon.

My experiences have led me to create My Two Truths of being a good living historian:

1.  Research is Hard, the Application is Harder, Proper Recreation is Near Impossible, but it will lead to the occasional true moment of existential living history.
2. History is uncomfortable, but confronting the uncomfortable is necessary to understanding and learning from our past. 

Research, research, research. Do it! 

Research is the key thing that separates the living historian from the costumer. It is very easy to watch a movie or TV show, look a portrait, or extant garment, and find a way to make a copy. You could probably find a pattern, fabric, notions, and have a plan to make something that looks like what you're trying to recreate.

Will it be historically correct? Hell no. You did an hour worth of googling. Did you think you'd have a museum quality reproduction? People who have been doing this for decades still learn new things every day. They get this knowledge from studying original garments and reading primary sources on how the clothing was made. I understand that 99 percent of us do not have the ability to perform a hands-on study of an original, but there are plenty of academic books on the breakdowns of experts who have published their findings.

Sorry, but a costuming or coffee table book with no credible or "this is how I do it" is not a citeable source. It may be good information, it may even be the correct information, but levels of research need to be appropriately classified based on bona fide accuracy.

Research is difficult, whether it be uncovering the methods for making clothing, then actually doing it in the style, or cooking on a hearth using an 18th century recipe. It takes a long time to gather all the information, that you can then apply to actually do something with it.

Luckily, museums and universities are embracing globalism and putting vast details on the internet that you used to have to travel all over the world to see and hope that you noticed every detail the first time.

Confront the Uncomfortable and Learn

History is uncomfortable. Humans have been doing terrible things to other humans probably since the beginning of our existence. The time period that I research is full of all sorts of atrocities to 21st century society. There's slavery, indentured servitude, public torture and punishment, execution for entertainment, classism, sexism, racism--you name it, it's there. 

Pretty much every deplorable societal trait that modern society hypocritically likes to think that we've evolved beyond, existed in the 18th century. You can't rewrite it (just as 200 years from now, we won't be able to rewrite the terrible things our society has done or ignored), you have to confront it or else you won't learn from it and truly change it. Unfortunately, a lot of this institutions still exist in this country (slavery being one of them, albeit under a different name)

History is not silk gowns and embroidered suits. If you don't want to get dirty, stick to the conventions and photoshoots, and leave the history to the professionals.