The Marches costumes

Look and Feel

The Marches draws strongly on English history from the 12th century through to the War of the Roses for costume, weaponry and armour. This nation is intended to appeal strongly to re-enactors and particularly to people who re-enact this period, partly because of the brief and style of the nation and partly because of the “low-fantasy” nature of the characters. To avoid “creep” please do not use anything from the Tudor period including later-period doublets. This is outside the scope of the Marches setting.

Feel

Gritty, solid, practical, superstitious, mud, blood, green fields, rural, iron.

Influences

Wars of the Roses England, Rangers of Ithilien (Beaters), Cadfael (Monks and Landkeepers).

Materials

Wool, calico, linen, leather.

Colours

Plain flat colours, mostly the soft colours of natural dyes or unbleached cloth. The palette is autumnal and natural dull blues, greys, browns/ rusts, mustards and greens, dull reds etc. especially at the lower end of the social scale. Wealthier Marchers have deeper, brighter shades.

Similar nations

Dawn

The nation needs to contrast with its neighbour Dawn. That nation is Arthurian high romance, the plate is gleaming, the colours glorious, bright and vivid. In the Marches everything should have a grubby, worn, lived in look to it. The Marches is Kenneth Brannagh’s Henry V rather than Laurence Olivier’s.

While there will similarities between Dawn and Marches, Marcher clothes should be made from rougher fabrics, in duller colours. The Marches should look far more real and gritty than Dawn, with the colours dimmed and the decoration stripped back.

Skirts and doublets should be less sumptuous, with narrower hems and thinner trims.

Higher class costumes will have a lot in common with average Dawn costumes, with richer colours and finer fabrics. Wealthy Marchers should still use a rich autumnal pallet of berry reds, jewel tone blues and greens and deep blacks, as opposed to the sunny and bright colours of the Dawn nobles.

Riches should be shown discretely in the Marches, through subtle touches of finer fabrics, in a lining perhaps, or through fancy buttons on an otherwise plain garment, unlike the more obvious Dawnish show with deep fur trims, expensive fabrics and wide, flowing robes and skirts.

Wintermark and Navarr

There are also overlaps between the Marches beaters, Wintermark's Steinr and the Navarr. Marcher beaters tend to wear light leather armour and simple, earth tone clothes, much like the Steinr and Navarr. The beaters can be pulled more into the Marches by using later medieval period clothing, like doublets rather than tunics, and accessorising with typical Marcher items, like bullock pouches and long belts.

The look should be simple and unadorned, avoiding large amounts of furs, scraps of leather and paints like the Navarr might wear.

Research

Historical inspiration

how the nation differs/adheres to it google search terms

The Marches is the nation that adheres most closely to historical costuming, drawing from the Medieval period of English history.

Books

• The Medieval Tailor’s Assistant, Sarah Thursfield – Pretty much the bible for medieval costumes. Covers the layers from underwear to outerwear for the periods 1200-1500, plus headwear and accessories. Goes into detail about how to make the garments, which fabrics to use etc. A really excellent book.

• The Tudor Tailor – Excellent costume company who have written 3 books about Tudor period costume. As the Medieval Tailor’s Assistant, all 3 feature patterns and guides to making the costumes.

• Medieval military costume, Gary Embleton – Very useful book using colour photographs of live models. Goes into detail about everything from 13th Century foot soldiers to 15th Century knights, with sections on underwear, armour, women’s dress and Landsknechts.

Films and TV

Novels

Reenactment groups

http://www.saint-sebastian.org.uk/kit.htm http://www.bucks-retinue.org.uk/content/view/15/29/ http://www.companie-of-st-george.ch/cms/?q=en%2FCostume_Guide http://www.medieval-siege-society.co.uk/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=4Sz04pZNx4M%3D&tabid=130

In detail

Breakdown of each garment worn, typical layers and fabrics for each

links to patterns, shops, traders etc.

Good substitutions for each garment

Specifics

Costuming high, middle and low status character

Men/Women/children in each category?

What you can achieve at different price brackets? (thinking of doing something along the lines of the Odyssey £30 kit challenge maybe Daisy and Jude!)

Hats and outerwear

Examples, materials, patterns etc.

Bibliography

Both an online “would you like to know more!” and a guide to the amazing books you can get on amazon.

Nation specific garment

Possibly – if we can think of something suitable for each nation!