Fun Medieval Photoshoot

Sometimes the timing is just right – a few months ago I was preparing stock items for the approaching market, and  it just happened that a friend and a client was stopping by  on her way to Devon. We had fitting scheduled for her new Victorian outfit, but  on an impulse we  decided to do a min shoot of the stock medieval items – using Amy and me as Models, and accompanied by  Amy’s ferrets and bird.

 You will no doubt recognize Amy ( the owner of Feathers&Flight Historical Falconry) from our precious shoot as she was the awesome Neobedouin and  Neonavajo in our Steampunk Amazones collection

 And so without further ado a plan was hatched –  Amy came over ( not without adventures – blowing her tire  just off the motorway, abut 15 min away from us), fitting was done, pizza consumed and we set about photographing 4 medieval gowns. It was also a test of one of our new backgrounds, so lots of playing with set up, props, lights etc was insured – Pitcheresque Imagery sure had some fun with that!

 late 12th/13th style gowns were first. We did a few product shots and then  tried to do a generic ones involving the pets too:-)

 1. Burgundy wool and silk trim gown, lined with linen – worn over a silk undergown. here with Flynn, the barnowl

2. A wool gown with silk trim

With Mr. Baggins

Then it was time for  15th century.

first – an early 15th century houppelande in silk, lined with linen ( this one is still available  from our shop – here)

 and then a late 15th century Burgundian gown in wool sateen with brocade collar and cuffs

 For this look we tried to experiment  and  stage the Lady With an Ermine portrait look –  but the ferret ( Merry – and he was very merry indeed!) was very excited and the whole thing turned out to be very challenging – lots of fun ( much to the irritation of the photographer, I suppose), but trying to get him to stay more or less still in a graceful pose was tricky ( especially since we didn’t really want the animals to touch the gowns – there was for ale after all)… still we got a few fun pixs!

Merry is all grace and loveliness – but Amy is clearly up to no good here! 🙂

giggles galore…

ewww, what’s that thing??? ;_)

and at last, success 🙂

 And a few behind the scenes shots to wrap it up!

ghastly attack

practicing the fashionably pregnant look. The closest I will ever get to the real thing I think! 🙂

Hope you enjoyed these – I am already looking forward to our next stock photoshoot at some point at the end of June/beginning of July! 🙂

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The Myth of Perfection

A recent post  by Wearing History  shed some light on the weird phenomena that social media create –  what people usually show is just the good sides of their lives, creating the illusion that this is the only side.  But reality is in fact far from perfect:-)

The blog post is well worth a read  – and Lauren also threw a gauntlet asking other bloggers to  help dispel the myth that everything is always ideal  ( another one by American Duchess here)- well, this is my contribution.

I must admit that I am a very optimistic and at the same  a very pragmatic person – and to start with I just couldn’t   find anything worth mentioning – yes, there have been good times, and bad times, but in the end, it all worked out ok, and that’s all that matters. I think I have been very lucky so far – no partucularly serious injuries, illnesses, tragedies, etc –  just some boring everyday reality, really…. So I suppose a few of the  bits below may seem trivial – but trivia are also a part of our lives, so, for whatever it is worth, I decided to include some banal thing here too.

Here we go!

 

 

York, circa 2006. Had a  horrendous toothache – to such an extent that I spent half the day trying to get an emergency appointment with a local dentist – and then the other half with my jaw frozen up and dribbling – but at least pain free…

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Wideacre muster with Grenvilles, August bank holiday, 2008

A  fantastic event – made even more interesting by the fact that one of the troopers brought viral gastroenteritis with him…  he spent the first day and practice in tent, recovering – the following day our CO  got and and was busy ‘purging’ and so unavailable for action. The day after ( luckily Tuesday, so no battle) I spent early morning  hanging out of my  tent, looking at the contents of my stomach. Then had to drive back home, stopping ever few miles  for some more stomach action ( though my man had provided me with a bucket, secured in the passenger’s seat. very helpful). I was  able to get back to solid food 3 days later, was off work for a week. In total, half the regiment succumbed to the virus. And oh, one of the troopers came back with a broken hand ( and he wasn’t even riding.. )

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2 more Grenville events – just before and after my wrist operation, when was  in such pain I could hardly grip my sword… My right wrist is in a brace, carefully hidden in the gauntlet.

and underneath:

 

ouch….

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Peterborough, Katherine of Aragon festival  – looking serene, but my car broke down on the way to the event, on A1. I was already in full kit, and spent 15min trying to coax the pile of junk into some semblance of life. A few well placed hits with a spanner did it in the end, so was able to get there, albeit late – and had no guarantee that I will have a car to go back home in….

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 Holkham Hall  50ties event. It was June, but I was freezing ! more on the event here – Being MM. Also, being a sex symbol had its price – some of the comments from the public, whispered, were indecent – and  there were  a few older gents, who, why posing for photos, cuddles with me and the rest of their family, let their hands stray…. not a big deal, just unpleasant.

Fortunately the company of friends made up for it:-)

 

 Bridal/Georgian photoshoot

 

On my birthday, 18th April. I had a very painful operation on the 13th – just a few days before.  Heavily drugged with painkillers, suffering from blood loss and not able to move my hand, the shoot was not much fun – especially since I had 2 more models to dress up too.  I had to stand in a very peculiar way to hide the dressing….

 

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 Medieval pageant.  The owl crapped on my new silk surcoat.  3 times….

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My wedding. It was the first time Lucas hunted with me in the morning – and then we rode after the ceremony ( more on the event here – Victorian Wedding) . But a few months later he fell of a horse when we were riding in Pland, and fractured his vertebrae. He spend 3 months in a corset, and it healed but the picture above is one of the last pictures ever of him riding – the risk to his spine is now too great :-(((

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A very  hot day  in Hereford ( more on that here ). It was boiling  hot and I was drenched in sweat. Moreover,  with a heavy period, I suffered from cramps all day long – but the real problem was the fact that throughout the day  I felt  liquid running down my thighs, straight into my boots- and could not check whether it was sweat or blood….   Was happy to find out it was sweat, and was not leaving bloody footprints…

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Holkham 2013 – just a fortnight later our garage caught fire. Lost all my stock, lots of private stuff and despite insurance cost me a few grand. Still we got a nice photoshoot out of it!

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One of the effects of the garage fire was having to move house –  we found a nice place, a pricey one, but just on the  borderline of affordability.  We moved on Friday, and on Monday my husband was made redundant.  We did the shoot for the Summer dress while we we living off savings,  in a limbo of unemployment,  staying n a house we could not afford to rent. It did turn out ok in the end, but these were 5 very stressful months!

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 Georgian Ball, March 2015.  Completely lost voice. Some may argue though, that it was in fact a blessing on that occasion :-))

 Well, there you have it –  life is not all beer and skittles, silks and balls – reality does creep in. And so it should, it would be boring otherwise! 🙂

 And oh, the last one – my workroom  looks like that.  About twice a year.  For about half a day. Then creative chaos creeps in – and on every other day it looks like a fabric bomb has exploded.  A few times…  and sometimes there is too much work to spend time tidying… :-((

The most common mistakes in historical costuming/re-enactment – and how to avoid them!

 Over the years I have been asked about  a variety of problems within historical costuming – and how to avoid them. I have already written a few posts on different aspects such as the look, fabrics, etc – but here …

Victorian riding habits – bespoke and stock items

We have recently been doing a few habits, so I thought I put a post about them together:-)

Over the winter I have been working on a  bespoke one – based on my 1885 version , but in luscious bottle green superfine wool, with  burgundy braid decoration. The colour combination worked very well and suited the client’s colouring ( and the horse’s ) well – and we were lucky enough to grab a few photos when we delivered the habit to sunny Devon.

Another bespoke habit  for another client is  happening  too, I will post the photos as soon as the work is finished and we get some pictures.

In the meantime, let me introduce to our latest batch – somehow earlier habits, destined to become stock items.

It all happened as  I was working on a certain secret project ( details soon)- we had a horse booked for a side saddle at Historic Equitation, and the day before I found myself  ending the commission work earlier that expected – so had a few hours free, and  6 metres of some rather lovely green cloth…. the temptation was too much! I  went for the simplest look I could think of: no decoration, purely utilitarian,  roughly 1860 look -with big skirts and plain, short bodice  – based on this look.

The cloth was fantastic – it draped beautifully. W e used the habit for the shoot and for some riding, and had a short photoshoot at home too – with and without petticoat ( period solution as either  corded petticoat or turkish trousers in the same fabric ( so that when the skirt billowed at speed while riding, the legs would be modestly covered). As  you can see, the skirts are very long  to cover the legs, and although they look lovely when mounted, they are a bit of a pain while walking.  Ladies either carried the skirts, flashing the petticoat, or used buttons t o hitch them up – as  shown on this fashion plate from La Mode Illustree

btw, lots of more images on my Pinterest board 

I was wearing a corset,  white blouse and a velvet ribbon neckband,styled my hair and restyled my top hat a bit  to achieve the look:-)

skirts on a petticoat here ( shamefully modern bridal one….)

Once we were done with shooting, I  shared the photos and  put the habit in our online shop – and was flooded with likes, shared, questions etc – and the habit sold within 12 hours, surely  a record! not only that, there is now a queue of side saddle ladies awaiting news whether it fits the lady  who bought it – just in case she returns it….

As a business minded person, I just couldn’t  ignore this situation – and since   had a bank holiday looming ahead ( which I had hoped to leave free  to rest – silly me…), I decided to act on it.  Luckily I was picking some cloth for commissions from my wool merchant, and while at it, I picked a few lengths suitable for habits…

A very busy time with a sewing machine followed –  and I just managed  to get 2 habits done for another scheduled side saddle session – this time with lovely Jane on her Zara at a very well kept Wakes Manor Livery Yard

I experimented with a slightly later look for these two – the first one was  based on  a fashion plate from Harper’s Bazar, 1873 ( the sitting lady)

I used the lovely soft dove grey cloth, edged with black and decorated with velvet ribbon.

Work in progress…

It is a size ( or even two) too big, but with a loosened corset it looked  well enough – sadly I didn’t have a size 14/16 model  at hand ( working on it..)

The habit is now available in our online shop, at a discounted price -details here

The second habit was based on this one from the MET 

I liked the edge treatment and tried to emulate – I used piping and topstitching combination

and  it fitted me well  – really like the look!

Then it was Jane’s turn – it fitted her well too –  and kudos to Jane who wore a corset for the first time – and not only wore it, but rode and jumped in it too ( part of  a secret video project I am currently working on..)

 and yes, there is a corset underneath all that!

 This habit is also available in the shop – Here

 I have enjoyed making these – and now have plans over summer to work on a few more models in a few sizes options – I already have nice berry coloured cloth and dark green twill put aside for the purpose:-). Although they are stock items,  each habit will be a little bit different, so that  each is unique – nothing worse than going into the Historical class  and finding another lady wearing the same model! And of course if you want something special there is the bespoke option with fittings (  and a different price bracket too….)

Many thanks to all involved in the project so far – greatly appreciated! And a big thank you to the photographer – images courtesy of Pitcheresque Imagery