The Renaissance Faire is a peculiar event that sprouted from a high school history project in Southern California during the early 1960’s. It has grown into a sub-culture that spans across the United States, Canada and Europe. Some events are solid historically based events, others are hysterical spectacles of flesh and fantasy, clinging to a thread of Renaissance history…
At Faire you are going to see a plethora of different
cloth…wools, cottons, prints of all patterns (that are mostly unauthentic for
the period), silks, velvets…and copious amounts of...cleavage.
So, making your clothing…or garb as the “rennies” like to
call it, can become very expensive if you are using correct, period appropriate
(16th early 17th century), materials. Let’s face it,
wool/polyester blends and cotton leopard prints can be cheap, and are readily
available at the local fabric store. Let me help you out by saying
that you don’t want use these fabrics…you really don’t, and let me tell you
why. First, they can be hot…plastic/polyester does not
breathe. For faires that have sunshine, humidity or both, this can
be killer, but you will smell period correct. Second…you are making
period clothes…you are putting time and money into something that is really
cool…why not use the right material? YOU will look good…I promise.
Let’s look at your choices:
Wool: Not as hot as you think on a warm day…and
this was the standard material available to everyone in great quantities, and
in a wide multitude of colors (there were more colors available 430 years ago
then there are today if you can believe that). You can get 100% wool
fabric online for a good price. Sometime you can get it for 5 bucks
a yard…Fashion Fabrics Club is a “go to”, and they are
online. Whether you are lower, middle or upper class…you can wear
it…just stay away from purple unless you are a noble…that color is a big “no no”.
Cotton: Yes, they had it and they did use it…so a
shirt made of cotton is fine, but it would have been relatively
uncommon. Block printed cotton was there as well, but it tended to
be expensive. More than likely, the lower classes would not have
worn it…but you can make a case for a lower class person acquiring a block
printed cotton garment through the second hand clothing trade. Like
the thrift stores of today, Elizabethan England had a very brisk business in
used clothes.
Linen: The gold standard. Linen was
the material for shirts of all sizes and castes. Everyone had a
linen shirt. The more wealth you had, the finer the
linen. In fact, cleanliness was defined by a clean, white linen
shirt. You didn’t take a bath, you put on a clean shirt and that
bathed, or rubbed, the dirt and stank away. You still smelled like
last week’s can of sardines, but you thought you were fresh and sparkly…and by
the way, it had to be a white shirt…only dirty, filthy Spaniards wore dyed
shirts in horrific colors such as saffron dyed yellow.
You can get white linen online for essentially the same
price as cotton. It might be a little more expensive, but if you’re
going to do this “faire thing”, you WANT to show off that period correct LINEN
shirt.
Silk: Unless you are a wealthy member of the
upper middle class, or a titled noble…you would not have access to this
material. Silk was profoundly expensive.
Velvet: Again, this was an expensive cloth, made
of silk or wool. You would not have this material unless you were
wealthy or you stole it.
Taffeta: Again, they had it, and it was made from silk. You are correct, it was expensive and you probably would not have had or worn it unless you had money…a lot of money. But there is a caveat…one particular “seaman”, a “gentleman of fortune”, which is a nice way of saying “pirate”…was reported in 1600 to be wearing a black velvet doublet with gold buttons and rose colored taffeta venetians (pants) on the mean streets of London towne.
Brocade: A cloth made of wool or silk with the
pattern woven in. Unless you are a noble, a rich merchant (or the
wife of one), or some exotic foreign national…I would not use this in your
costume. For one, finding period correct patterns in silk or wool
brocade can cost upwards of 100-300 dollars a YARD! Do what you
want, but for me…that is just too extreme.
Those are the main choices…they are all you need…all you
should desire…the cloth that will make your 16th century dream come
true. Seriously though, if you still want to wear the leopard print
corset, it wouldn’t be Faire without you…
Here are some helpful links...
Sartor Bohemia...they make good stuff...but it is
expensive...
https://www.sartorbohemia.com/historical-fabrics/
This is a great article on luxury goods for the Elizabethan
period...it is worth the read...
https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Consuming_Splendor:_Luxury_Goods_in_England,_1580%E2%80%931680