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I see guidelines, and plenty of 'em. I don't see nothin' bout no methods of enforcement in there (e.g., "You will be stripped naked, tarred, feathered, and beaten with red licorice whips"), as per your question. Or did you perhaps mean something else?
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I do believe it states somewhere that you are not to purchase or cut anything without the costume director having seen swatches and sketches first. If this is not done you may not be allowed to wear the costume.
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Of course, if you heed the guidelines, there's little need for enforcement.
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Not heeding the guidelines is generally the first place that these things go sideways: So how do you enforce guideline heed-ance?
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Don't allow a costume to be worn that doesn't adhere to guidelines.
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I think what's being asked is: have you ever actually done this in practice in your group since putting out these guidelines? Had a performer show up in an unapprovable costume for an actual performance or a dress rehearsal, and forced them to go home or change into a different costume, and redo the offending costume before performing in it? Or is enforcement still in the gentle, theoretical stages?
There's no question that the guidelines are thorough and fairly clear, nor that it would all be hunky-dory if all performers conformed readily to the guidelines for the groups with whom they work. -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.Fortunately, I have a crew that believes in the standards for the most part. Otherwise, they wouldn't be in the group and would join something less stringent.
I have told people to change their shoes, or hat or tell them that I didn't want to see something they were wearing at the next show. I've asked people to help someone make something work better before letting it on stage. I've also told people who I knew were thinking of circumventing the standards to talk to the costume director NOW.
I also have a small crew, and in some cases I accept something a bit substandard for the sake of having that body there, and gently steer in the right direction.
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I've got an idea. We hack into everyone else's system and replace their costume guidelines with this. Surely we have folks who could do that? Once people see these, will they want to go back?
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They won't want to go back only if they are already snobs or proto-snobs. For far too many, costume standards are a box to think outside of - a challenge to beat rather than a standard to meet.
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It takes just as much energy to get it right as it does to get it wrong.
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This is a fact lost on people who would rather simply copy the ‘ren faire prototype’ garb they see their friends in. In fact it seems that it is often friendships that inhibit costume guideline adherence as people don’t want to tell their friends “No” when it comes to a bad costume decision. Then again, the two times that I have been a groups ‘Costume Director’ I found that it was pretty easy to say, “Look, I know you really want to get this right, and I am here to help you…” as an good (and friendly!) intro for correcting issues with garb choices.
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Here's ours:
www.saintives.com/essays/costuming.pdf
They are enforced similarly to Rydell's. And they must pass Freida as well. No backsliding later, either. We make a lot of our own trim - blackwork, inkle, cardweaving, etc - that's part of our gig. -
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In St Ives, our guild costuming is far more stringent than the faire's requirements so if you can make it past Kara you can make it past Freida. We get a fair number of newbies per season and have a lot of people willing to help get clothes together that will pass muster.
In St George South, Jeff not only requires a stringent level of authenticity but also restricts that within a specific theatrical "llook" for the group. This prevents the "fleey of couches" look that can happen if every member is sporting clothes in brocade. ;-)
Making my dress for George's was interesting for me because Jeff and I don't always agree and neither of us is new enough at this to back down, LOL! Still, the whole thing works because I am willing to accept that he is in charge of the guild's "look" and will generally adhere to what he wants. He still insists I must have gotten him drunk to allow the bullion trim I used, but I did have to over dye the forepart & sleeves from Salmon on black to burgundy (which I'm not fond of), and I am not allowed to wear the tall hat anymore. It's too late for the style of the dress. I've made a pleated Italian bonnet to replace it. people.tribe.net/b5065345-...e23db38b16 -
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To add to Alyxx's note, my clothes for Ives are linen shirt, biggins and bloomers, heavy linen skirts for my lower middle character and wool skirts for my upper middle character, and wool bodices and sleeves for both.
For St. George South, my new outfit is linen smock and partlet with tons of blackwork, wool and cotton velvet skirt and bodice with cotton upholstery-weight forepart and sleeves, decorated with a ton of glass beads; Jeffrey has inspected it every step of the way ;-)
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As GM of St Lukes, the merchant class at NCRF, I am the one who both creates (created) and enforces the costuming guidelines.
I don't have a link to our costume guidelines posted online or even handy right now, because currently they exist only in our handbook which is one whole pdf file and I am not posting that here.
Ry, if you are interested, I could snip them and send them to you. The guidelines are very detailed and specific in regard to both color and fabric among other things.
I can assure you that our groups' guidelines are stricter than even our faires' guidelines. Molly pretty much knows that if I have okay-ed it, she doesn't have to worry about it not meeting the faires' guidelines. She often teases me about it.
How to enforce? For me, it's about expectations. At the beginning of the relationship, I set out the rules and I make sure to tell the prospective member that our goal is authenticity and that they will have to abide by the group rules over the faire ones, which are less strict, All fabrics are approved on a case-by-case basis. I really haven't have any problems with once expectations are set and agreed to.
I'll also take this moment to say that everyone in our group is onboard with correct costuming and I have never had to say anything to anyone. We have around 30 active members. I am very proud of this and of them. :)
~Val
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The general model for the Country Garden Dancers is RenFaire Peasant.
Women: shift or shirt, two circle skirts, bodice, bloomers, socks, shoes, belt, hat with floral garland.
Men: shirt, breeches, jerkin, belt, socks, shoes, hat (we've been trying to get the men to have foliage in their hats, but they like their feathers).
Our Color Palette was determined by RPFS's main Costume Director. We are to have bright colors, our troupe's Costume Director had dictated no colors starting with P (pink, purple, pastel, etc.), as few shifts/shirts of unbleached or off-white as possible and bloomers cannot be a color that could pass of any type of skin tone (We tend to get very lively with our Turn-Singles and skirts do fly).
We don't have to have a specific fabric type, but there's currently been a liking for texture. Personally, I'm slowly working on changing my skirst over from upholstery weight cottons to canvas weight linen, my shift and shirt are linen as are both my sets of bloomers.
Enforcement, is similar to what others have mentioned here. Everything has to pass Sara (our CD) and Frieda (RPFS's CD) and backsliding is a no-no.
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Our guild lines are basically like Val's written but not on line. We have gone by (the old) Cirga rules and then refined then for us. I haven't had to much of a problem. I am the one that checks costuming and ultimately approves it. I did just recently have a person give me a hard time about wearing a hat. She has done faire for many years and knows the rules. Told her if you don't wear one of the two you brought with you then one will be provided for you and it will be a biggins. She said she hated those and hence wore her own hat. She was testing me to see how far she could push me. However for the most part everyone is fine and things are understood upfront.
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We are a merry band of peasants and merchants and what we should look like is here.
stbrigidshearth.googlepages.com/wh...ike
The site has yet to be updated with photos and information for the past season, as we have been too busy with life. :) So the photo's are a little outdated. Everyone had a new set of clothes this year, and we are even better looking than these pictures show. But I believe the descriptions will hold even under our new management.
As far as inforcement, that is up in the air since as I said we have new management for next year. However, since she has been helping everyone (even from other guilds) make their garb for the last couple of years, I don't forsee anyone currently in our group having garb issues.
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You probably want to get the muffin caps out of the men's head coverings section, as one thing that came out of all our conversations in the last year or so was that they seem to only have been worn by women. Unless your boys are particularly girly (or want you to think they are), the muffin caps should go.
Otherwise, that all looks really good! Not that I'm surprised.
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I love this line from your handbook: "Leather - within reason. We’re Peasants, not Dominatrices."!!! Love it!
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Reading Kristin's post and guidelines. Thinking, "God, are these ever well-written: funny, informative, pleasantly opinionated, etc., etc., etc." Cut to the chase/flip to the end. Of course, the Cursed Squittiletto, Scott Perkins, at it again. I should have know. Poor Kristin's married to that joker. But I bet Kristin helped. Hateful couple. <<Grumble!>> Cute. Funny. Articulate. Generous. <<Damn their eyes>> <<Grumble, Grumble>> <<At least they're a safe distance in the god-forsaken North>>
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"Chemise: A long-sleeved shirt with or without a collar. Just like the men, except usually long enough to reach at least the knees and split all the way down the front."
May I ask why the ladies chemises are supposed to be fully slit down the front? I've not heard that requirement before, and wondered why? -
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Kimiko, I don't think anyone actually has a fully split chemise...just the T-necked style. Square-necked smocks and gathered "faire-style" chemises are also acceptable.
Becky/Beatrix
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I think this is a fair-ism that started by trying to approximate an open partlet and smock with just one garment. If you wanted to wear a high-necked chemise open, it's a lot easier to manage the fabric if it's open all the way down.
I'll have to check JA4 again, but I don't recall ever seeing something like that, and the QEWU shows even fully embroidered partlets with sleeves were still worn over a smock. Frankly, it's kinda of a pet peeve of mine to see this sort-of heavy bedsheet look for partlets when the English portraiture really favors fine, sheer fabrics for partlets, or if not sheer then it's heavily embroidered, lace inserts, etc. If you want full coverage or warmth, then I don't think we see enough of the over-partlets that can be of linen, wool, etc.
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Being I'm the one taking over this coming year, I'm making few if any changes to our costuming guidelines. We do everything from middle class down to peasant. I'm still going to go with simple decoration, a period color palette, covered heads, and as much natural fibers as one can afford. I love getting up in the morning and yelling out the tent who's wearing what, and then coordinating for the day...some days we're more peasanty, some more middley.
Becky aka Beatrix
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I've got some more hardcore men's guidlines I'm in the process of finishing. They're written for no particular group,but they might be applied to anyone that does presentations at Renaissance Faires and reenactments alike. They apply mostly to lower and middle class impressions.
They're not the most hardcore out there, but are still very very focused on accuracy. A lot of the stuff is only scratching the surface.
I just got bored one day and started working on them for fun. If anyone's interested, I'll put them up here when I'm done.
