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(Yeah, one of those "Capital Q" questions. Not deep, or profound, but something worth thinking about.
A little background:
Having lost one of my flashdrives (hopefully a temporary state of affairs) I have been surfing around trying to relocated some of the items on it. In so doing, I ran through the Atlantian A&S links -
Interlude I LOVE the Atlantian A&S links. And deeply respect it, since (even with a CMS) it's got to be a bugger to maintain. I wish we had anything like it - but then again, why duplicate the effort when they probably do it better, anyway. /Interlude
First off, I enjoyed for a moment the thorough-going delight of finding my site amongst them. :-D Then I followed a few hither and thither. This, combined with a few local folks doing some sewing got me thinking:
First, I do understand that, while - in general - the level of information available has increased and we know more than ever we did before, there are and will always be beginners who are just at the start of their journey. And, it should also be noted, that not everybody sews, or cares to, nor is terribly into costume at all.
And yet, I wonder....
WHY do we still teach "How to turn a T-shirt into a T-Tunic" classes and encourage people to use those horrible metal grommets? Why do we deliberately steer people into GeneraGarb, instead of probing for interest? All right, yes, they might make a cotehardie and decide in a year that they want to do Viking or 16the century... but is the cotehardie then of any LESS use to them than a polyester man-dress matching neon leg bandages?
If you teach somebody to do something the wrong way - either they will do it the wrong way all their life, or you will have to painfully unteach them before you can teach them the RIGHT way. And they'll be mad/resistant/despairing about all the time they "wasted" doing it the other way.
It isn't THAT hard to come up with simple, authentic outfits. So what if you don't know who you want to "be" yet?
I'm going to be really politically incorrect here and point the finger. At those folks in all the local groups across the Known World who've been SCAdians since rocks cooled. They make their own garb the wrong way... and they make a concerted effort to get a hold of the newbies in the area and teach THEM to do it the wrong way. It. Makes. Me. Crazy. It perpetuates bad SCAdianisms and Renn Faire atrocities that we ought to be moving beyond more quickly than we have as yet. (The same is largely true in Heraldry, but that's a separate rant and one I can't work out how to help with yet.)
I've said all that to say all this:
Compiled on my F'lists from DW and LJ are a host of Superior Costumers from across cultures. If you're in agreement with me on the need to get to people FIRST - I have a request for you. There isn't any firm timeline on this one, so go think this over, and let me know how you feel.
I'd like anybody willing to provide me with an article that includes pattern sketches and basic fitting instructions for the relatively simple but eminently authentic (not down to the tiniest details, but at least free of grommets, bad nylon trim, zippers, and velcro) outfit. Along with a few recommendations for accessory acquisition (style of shoe, belt, etc). I would very much like to hit the "highlights." - Viking, Bliauts, Cotehardies, Burgundian Houpes (Asa?), German, Italian, English, Spanish, and possibly Irish if anybody has anything.
When complete, I want to do three things with it:
Make it available on my website as a .pdf document
Provide it to Novus Sodalis, the MK group that dedicates itself to welcoming newcomers and guiding them in the right direction
Make it known that any like group in any Kingdom can freely download it to provide to new members.
Sooo.... anybody want some Kool-Aid?
A little background:
Having lost one of my flashdrives (hopefully a temporary state of affairs) I have been surfing around trying to relocated some of the items on it. In so doing, I ran through the Atlantian A&S links -
Interlude I LOVE the Atlantian A&S links. And deeply respect it, since (even with a CMS) it's got to be a bugger to maintain. I wish we had anything like it - but then again, why duplicate the effort when they probably do it better, anyway. /Interlude
First off, I enjoyed for a moment the thorough-going delight of finding my site amongst them. :-D Then I followed a few hither and thither. This, combined with a few local folks doing some sewing got me thinking:
First, I do understand that, while - in general - the level of information available has increased and we know more than ever we did before, there are and will always be beginners who are just at the start of their journey. And, it should also be noted, that not everybody sews, or cares to, nor is terribly into costume at all.
And yet, I wonder....
WHY do we still teach "How to turn a T-shirt into a T-Tunic" classes and encourage people to use those horrible metal grommets? Why do we deliberately steer people into GeneraGarb, instead of probing for interest? All right, yes, they might make a cotehardie and decide in a year that they want to do Viking or 16the century... but is the cotehardie then of any LESS use to them than a polyester man-dress matching neon leg bandages?
If you teach somebody to do something the wrong way - either they will do it the wrong way all their life, or you will have to painfully unteach them before you can teach them the RIGHT way. And they'll be mad/resistant/despairing about all the time they "wasted" doing it the other way.
It isn't THAT hard to come up with simple, authentic outfits. So what if you don't know who you want to "be" yet?
I'm going to be really politically incorrect here and point the finger. At those folks in all the local groups across the Known World who've been SCAdians since rocks cooled. They make their own garb the wrong way... and they make a concerted effort to get a hold of the newbies in the area and teach THEM to do it the wrong way. It. Makes. Me. Crazy. It perpetuates bad SCAdianisms and Renn Faire atrocities that we ought to be moving beyond more quickly than we have as yet. (The same is largely true in Heraldry, but that's a separate rant and one I can't work out how to help with yet.)
I've said all that to say all this:
Compiled on my F'lists from DW and LJ are a host of Superior Costumers from across cultures. If you're in agreement with me on the need to get to people FIRST - I have a request for you. There isn't any firm timeline on this one, so go think this over, and let me know how you feel.
I'd like anybody willing to provide me with an article that includes pattern sketches and basic fitting instructions for the relatively simple but eminently authentic (not down to the tiniest details, but at least free of grommets, bad nylon trim, zippers, and velcro) outfit. Along with a few recommendations for accessory acquisition (style of shoe, belt, etc). I would very much like to hit the "highlights." - Viking, Bliauts, Cotehardies, Burgundian Houpes (Asa?), German, Italian, English, Spanish, and possibly Irish if anybody has anything.
When complete, I want to do three things with it:
Make it available on my website as a .pdf document
Provide it to Novus Sodalis, the MK group that dedicates itself to welcoming newcomers and guiding them in the right direction
Make it known that any like group in any Kingdom can freely download it to provide to new members.
Sooo.... anybody want some Kool-Aid?
