There's so many things that if I was shopping for me and my wardrobe my response is "oh no, not that, I would never wear that, that's terrible". But if I am shopping for costume " YES this weird shade of peach with the lacy bits and that odd hem is the most perfect item of clothing ever". BWIM remember you are buying for costume and not yourself.
Also for more masc presenting: vests Renfair - a lace up, wrap, or button up vest without a lapel in solid or demask (couch) fabric with a poet shirt and solid cotton pajama pants. Victorian - vertical stripe or houndstooth vest, poet shirt, and vertical stripe or solid dress pants
for Men's search "Indian" or "African" or "Asian" tunic or more specifically "kurta" because that way you can get the less modern looking tunics and probably matching trousers from people clearing out their occasion wear etc.
Vintage clip on earrings work great for literally anything other than your ears! Shoe clips, brooches, cape closures, hair accessories, and many more! I do find that late 70s alternative styles through to the 2000s can be great for basics, and zara does a lot of great blouses in natural fibres, which you can normally pick up at 80-90% discount on the secondhand market. (Plus not supporting a BDS targeted company!)
The fur sleeves garment; shape shifting druid that has gotten stuck mid shift, awesome if you could also find some furry leg warmers. Wonderful video, loved the garden interludes, and so much information. I was thinking the whole video, how sad we can only dress cool some of the time; I really think we need to normalize dressing however we want, whenever and wherever we want. How much more fun and happy would the world be. Have a wonderful week.
Shirt with fake fur sleeves: the weirdest thing I can think of to do with it (lbr I'd just high fantasy rogue) is MAGICAL GIRL/MAGICAL BOY! Some tips for men buying women's clothing who are unused to buying women's clothing: make sure it fits in the shoulder, as your shoulders are likely broader than your hips; many puffy sleevetops are meant to emphasize the narrowness of the shoulder, so may not look good if you don't have narrow shoulders; tbh bust darts are not usually an issue for me unless it's something VERY shaped like a corset, but ymmv. My absolute favourite search term for Generic Early Modern Feel Fantasy (lbr lots of fantasy is more early modern than medieval there's just no guns) is 'dirndl'. Regional agricultural wear from the 18th century, basically: you are evoking the omnipresent European 'smock frock'. Finally: dyeing is easy! Tad expensive if you're dying polyester - you're looking at £10 for a sachet - but if you do not sew and the perfect garment is the wrong colour, there are options. I have an IKEA blanket dyed green that is the best generic elven cloak (or cheap set dressing).
Wow, I didn't expect that layering a bunch of fancy normal clothing in wild mixes would give such beliveable costumes! And it gave me some ideas how to style my everyday wardrobe more extravagant. Thanks! And more 2h long instructional videos would be great!
Please please please, we need a surcoat tutorial!!! 🙏 I was almost foaming at the mouth when you tried different styling with them! Or if not, maybe a good pattern you can recommand?
I'd recommend adding "vintage" to "wedding dress", you'll get a lot more cheaper (~£25) options, including some excellent faux tudor, medieval and victorian shapes in ghastly 70s/80s synthetic fabrics
As for notched lapels, slicing those off and turning the collar of a shirt or lightweight jacket into something more fantasy-esque is a really great place to get started with making your own larp kit if you've literally never touched a needle before
So many comments I want to make on this one! My thoughts, probably out of order; First and foremost, thank you for such an awesome compendium of information! It really shows how much work you put into this 😊 Also, I absolutely love watching neurodivergent creators make videos that draw on their special interest infodumps ❤ it’s so wonderful to see our way of brain functioning becoming so well represented. And I swear I was just thinking that your outfit would rock as a Percy cosplay, so I about nerdgasmed when you mentioned critical role at that exact moment 😂 And finally, what’s the chances of a follow up colab between you and Charlie when she’s over here that involves creating larp costumes and going larping? 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 pleeeeaaasssse? Because that would be amazing! 😊
WOW this is comprehensive! my m.o. for ren faire-slash-costumey-whatever is usually 'what if i bought four yards of linen and made one (1) plain gown' so its good to know that my options are vast and varied
this is great Ash! i also love when you show us things from your workroom / wardrobe / storage and fit them together in all sorts of ways, it is a very extensive collection and i live vicariously through you haha
Pleeeeeaaaase! From the depths of my soul please make a surcoat tutorial! I love making my own costumes and this silhouette fits one of my characters perfectly! Oh my gooood!
I also just use ebay instead of all the "new" apps and I feel so called out right now as a millennial 😂 Thank you for putting this wonderful resource together - I loved all the "how would you style this" segments!
I've got a mid 90s prom dress with the lining cut short from a kilo sale, its a shimmery pink/blue silky organza and has done me well for a few costumes. I'm going to get it tailored to a nice bodice and keep the remaining skirt fabric to maybe make a wrap skirt/cape with.
Just got back from my first ever LARP (Empire) and thanks so much for this video for getting me through my hate of shopping! The starting of it was the really stressful part but I managed to find a few perfect items to start off with that I now have a base to build off of in the future.
Huh, I had thought there was no way to filter for item location on ebay, but I've just learned that it does work if I use the Canadian version of the site! Which is very annoying since it's functionally the same site in the same language, just with the url ending in "ca" instead of "com", but I have to make a whole new account. Edit: Oh ok I can "link" the accounts, that seems more reasonable Now I'll be able to sort by Canada only and avoid the horribly expensive US shipping, hooray! Thank you for inadvertently prompting me to figure out why that option wasn't working for me!
this is so helpful, thank you for putting it together! i'm just starting to dip my toes in and trying to build up a starter wardrobe is so intimidating. and for the record i think the editing turned out great, the nature clips do wonders for the pacing
That was very interesting and very informative. So many ideas and considerations. A whole bunch of stuff that gives me ideas for every day wear. I made it all the way through in three sittings even though I didn't have any ice creams during my breaks.
I wanted to watch this so bad last night when it was released! It's probably for the best that I didn't chose to start it at 11pm since I missed the fact that it was 90+ minutes of goodness. I'm definitely going to be watching this in intervals throughout today ☺ Another one to replay while puttering about the sewing room.
Oooo, a lovely start to the LARP clothing adventure(r). I really think this gives a good clue to people, for both online or otherwise, on how to take a look at clothing - I used to have a woolen maxi kilt in dark green with a buckle up waist detail that worked as a lovely cloak (sadly, someone made off with it when I loaned it out) which is why looking outside your size can turn up gems. Speaking of which, if you use cloisonné when looking for enamal it gives you the type nthat uses metal wire divisions to either seperate colour or form art on its own in the enamal - there are very early examples, including Saxon/Viking examples in the UK as well as still being made,.
You touch on this, but don't be afraid to modify things. Even if you can't sew taking off zips and opening up seams is easy and doesn't really require sewing skills. Things might need refinishing, but folding the edge back and hand sewing that down is very beginner doable. Also dylon washing machine dye is reasonably spendy, but if you have cotton garments it's reasonably foolproof.
I'm a bit skeptical of the assertion that buttons were super expensive for most of history? The fancy metal ones sure, but the majority of buttons for a lot of eras are just little wooden moulds covered in fabric scraps, or simply gathered balls of fabric stuffed with the edges of that piece of fabric. It would take more time, but the materials were way more expensive that the labour, and in those cases you'd just be making good use of the scraps. I can see the fashionable amount of decorative buttons in much of the 17th-18th centuries being rather a lot, but a moderate amount of functional ones can't have been that bad when you're hand sewing an entire garment anyways. (As one example, Gunnister Man's coarse plain wool ensemble still has an excessive amount of buttons. 25 down the front edge of his coat alone, and 6 useless ones on each coat pocket!) Anyways, I am enjoying the video so far! It's keeping me company while I iron every single one of my shirts in preparation for shirt video filming.
Ah yeah, that’s one of the things I thing I could have elaborated on a bit more - since the buttons on fast fashion clothes are almost always metal or plastic (which is fine, if you assume it’s subbing in for horn or shell that’s completely plausible) and the fantasy settings I play in tend to be roughly equivalent to 13th-15th century Europe in terms of technology, it bothers me a bit that this normal guy allegedly has like eight individually hand made metal buttons on his undershirt, which needs to be washed every few days. Fabric covered buttons I’m much more chill about - but also like I said this is very much just a me thing, literally nobody else in a larp field cares how many buttons you have or what they’re made of haha
If you're nickel sensitive in any way and are looking for jewellery, people will use the word silver for any white metal that looks silvery. Unless it specifically says sterling silver or has several embossed stamps/markings, it's probably not real. Tibetan/himalayan silver is just fancier words for nickel silver, AVOID AT ALL COSTS! Also be aware of metal eyelets and studs on clothing, as they can contain nickel too. Avoid wearing them in direct contact with your skin just in case.
do you know why some LARPs say "no corsets"? is it a visual/immersion thing for the other players? a (real or perceived) practical issue for gameplay? something else? (I'm sure this is a stupid question, but I'm not a LARPer. I'm here for purely entertainment purposes)
Most larps will have a costume brief for what you should and shouldn’t wear, and a lot of the vaguely medieval fantasy games - including one of the big ones here in the UK - will have some common pitfall items, that people who don’t know a lot about costume think are historical, but are too modern for the setting, or are inappropriate for other reasons. Corsets, tricorn hats and some cultural items are pretty common on those lists In general, I think this is for visual cohesion and player immersion (or if I’m being uncharitable, because they think it makes the photos better) but it’s often not clear what exactly the priorities of the costume brief are!
![[DRAGON BALL LEGENDS REVEALS ＆ STUFF] LEGENDS FESTIVAL 2024 Special Edition Part 1](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/mV5bGIswTtQ/mqdefault.jpg)
There's so many things that if I was shopping for me and my wardrobe my response is "oh no, not that, I would never wear that, that's terrible". But if I am shopping for costume " YES this weird shade of peach with the lacy bits and that odd hem is the most perfect item of clothing ever". BWIM remember you are buying for costume and not yourself.
Also for more masc presenting: vests
Renfair - a lace up, wrap, or button up vest without a lapel in solid or demask (couch) fabric with a poet shirt and solid cotton pajama pants.
Victorian - vertical stripe or houndstooth vest, poet shirt, and vertical stripe or solid dress pants
for Men's search "Indian" or "African" or "Asian" tunic or more specifically "kurta" because that way you can get the less modern looking tunics and probably matching trousers from people clearing out their occasion wear etc.
that was my first thought as well! Kurta sets would work as a base for a lot of fantasy bases and they're often in interesting patterns or colors
Coat tutorial? From YOU? YES PLEASE!
Seconded!
Thirded!
YES !
(especially I have a tartan coat to make for next winter so that would be indeed a perfect timing ^^)
Vintage clip on earrings work great for literally anything other than your ears! Shoe clips, brooches, cape closures, hair accessories, and many more!
I do find that late 70s alternative styles through to the 2000s can be great for basics, and zara does a lot of great blouses in natural fibres, which you can normally pick up at 80-90% discount on the secondhand market. (Plus not supporting a BDS targeted company!)
Dress clips/earrings used for dress clips are underrated
The fur sleeves garment; shape shifting druid that has gotten stuck mid shift, awesome if you could also find some furry leg warmers. Wonderful video, loved the garden interludes, and so much information. I was thinking the whole video, how sad we can only dress cool some of the time; I really think we need to normalize dressing however we want, whenever and wherever we want. How much more fun and happy would the world be. Have a wonderful week.
Shirt with fake fur sleeves: the weirdest thing I can think of to do with it (lbr I'd just high fantasy rogue) is MAGICAL GIRL/MAGICAL BOY!
Some tips for men buying women's clothing who are unused to buying women's clothing: make sure it fits in the shoulder, as your shoulders are likely broader than your hips; many puffy sleevetops are meant to emphasize the narrowness of the shoulder, so may not look good if you don't have narrow shoulders; tbh bust darts are not usually an issue for me unless it's something VERY shaped like a corset, but ymmv.
My absolute favourite search term for Generic Early Modern Feel Fantasy (lbr lots of fantasy is more early modern than medieval there's just no guns) is 'dirndl'. Regional agricultural wear from the 18th century, basically: you are evoking the omnipresent European 'smock frock'.
Finally: dyeing is easy! Tad expensive if you're dying polyester - you're looking at £10 for a sachet - but if you do not sew and the perfect garment is the wrong colour, there are options. I have an IKEA blanket dyed green that is the best generic elven cloak (or cheap set dressing).
Please please make a surcoat video! That "elven prince" coat was perfection!!
I am so fully aware of "I can explain this in a manageable project" only to find it ends up being huge...
Thanks for keeping me company.
Wow, I didn't expect that layering a bunch of fancy normal clothing in wild mixes would give such beliveable costumes! And it gave me some ideas how to style my everyday wardrobe more extravagant. Thanks! And more 2h long instructional videos would be great!
Please please please, we need a surcoat tutorial!!! 🙏
I was almost foaming at the mouth when you tried different styling with them!
Or if not, maybe a good pattern you can recommand?
I'd recommend adding "vintage" to "wedding dress", you'll get a lot more cheaper (~£25) options, including some excellent faux tudor, medieval and victorian shapes in ghastly 70s/80s synthetic fabrics
you said to ask, so please please please I'd love a "how to make a surcoat" video, pretty please?
damn, I just need normal clothes for my normal wardrobe but now I'm wondering "hmm what if I do it like this?"
To be fair I do just wear all this stuff on the regular! (Except maybe the fake fur sleeves)
As for notched lapels, slicing those off and turning the collar of a shirt or lightweight jacket into something more fantasy-esque is a really great place to get started with making your own larp kit if you've literally never touched a needle before
So many comments I want to make on this one! My thoughts, probably out of order;
First and foremost, thank you for such an awesome compendium of information! It really shows how much work you put into this 😊
Also, I absolutely love watching neurodivergent creators make videos that draw on their special interest infodumps ❤ it’s so wonderful to see our way of brain functioning becoming so well represented.
And I swear I was just thinking that your outfit would rock as a Percy cosplay, so I about nerdgasmed when you mentioned critical role at that exact moment 😂
And finally, what’s the chances of a follow up colab between you and Charlie when she’s over here that involves creating larp costumes and going larping? 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 pleeeeaaasssse? Because that would be amazing! 😊
WOW this is comprehensive! my m.o. for ren faire-slash-costumey-whatever is usually 'what if i bought four yards of linen and made one (1) plain gown' so its good to know that my options are vast and varied
this is great Ash! i also love when you show us things from your workroom / wardrobe / storage and fit them together in all sorts of ways, it is a very extensive collection and i live vicariously through you haha
Also, surcoat video please! Yours looks so awesome!
Pleeeeeaaaase! From the depths of my soul please make a surcoat tutorial! I love making my own costumes and this silhouette fits one of my characters perfectly! Oh my gooood!
I also just use ebay instead of all the "new" apps and I feel so called out right now as a millennial 😂 Thank you for putting this wonderful resource together - I loved all the "how would you style this" segments!
So much fun to watch
So interesting to see how Ebay works
Mostly feeding the algorithm 🥗☕
Can't wait for you video breaking down the LARP from Jenny's new video for the Star Wars Hotel.
You can convert clip on earrings to post backs! The Closet Historian has a video on it, it looks pretty simple.
I would totally love the surcoat video, that surcoat is rad
Ummm... I had that navy "regency" dress. It was a bridesmaid dress in the mid-90s.
I've got a mid 90s prom dress with the lining cut short from a kilo sale, its a shimmery pink/blue silky organza and has done me well for a few costumes. I'm going to get it tailored to a nice bodice and keep the remaining skirt fabric to maybe make a wrap skirt/cape with.
Excellent excellent guide and suggestions on how to beef up your fantasy wardrobes!
Would absolutely love to see a video on making sure oats ash. Your videos are always great to follow
PLEASE MAKE A VIDEO ABOUT SURCOATS
Just got back from my first ever LARP (Empire) and thanks so much for this video for getting me through my hate of shopping! The starting of it was the really stressful part but I managed to find a few perfect items to start off with that I now have a base to build off of in the future.
thank you for such a thorough video ! it was a pleasure to watch, and really impressive to see you style fantasy outfits with (mostly) casual clothes.
Love the helebore, can't wait to watch the full video but had to say.
Huh, I had thought there was no way to filter for item location on ebay, but I've just learned that it does work if I use the Canadian version of the site! Which is very annoying since it's functionally the same site in the same language, just with the url ending in "ca" instead of "com", but I have to make a whole new account.
Edit: Oh ok I can "link" the accounts, that seems more reasonable
Now I'll be able to sort by Canada only and avoid the horribly expensive US shipping, hooray! Thank you for inadvertently prompting me to figure out why that option wasn't working for me!
this is so helpful, thank you for putting it together! i'm just starting to dip my toes in and trying to build up a starter wardrobe is so intimidating. and for the record i think the editing turned out great, the nature clips do wonders for the pacing
That was very interesting and very informative. So many ideas and considerations. A whole bunch of stuff that gives me ideas for every day wear. I made it all the way through in three sittings even though I didn't have any ice creams during my breaks.
I wanted to watch this so bad last night when it was released! It's probably for the best that I didn't chose to start it at 11pm since I missed the fact that it was 90+ minutes of goodness. I'm definitely going to be watching this in intervals throughout today ☺ Another one to replay while puttering about the sewing room.
This was actually so helpful and a lot of fun, thank you so much for making this video!
Fascinating. There is so much good advice in this video. No it isn't too long, and yes, I'll be watching it again!
Great presentation and info
Amazing work! Well done and inspiring. I think I need a lie down 😔
Thank you for this impressively comprehensive video! 🥰 And yes please! to a surcoat tutorial 😁
This was very informative. Thank you.
Oooo, a lovely start to the LARP clothing adventure(r). I really think this gives a good clue to people, for both online or otherwise, on how to take a look at clothing - I used to have a woolen maxi kilt in dark green with a buckle up waist detail that worked as a lovely cloak (sadly, someone made off with it when I loaned it out) which is why looking outside your size can turn up gems.
Speaking of which, if you use cloisonné when looking for enamal it gives you the type nthat uses metal wire divisions to either seperate colour or form art on its own in the enamal - there are very early examples, including Saxon/Viking examples in the UK as well as still being made,.
I love the large shawl
You have a grat sense if style!
this was so amazing!!!
wonderful instructional, thank you Ash
You touch on this, but don't be afraid to modify things. Even if you can't sew taking off zips and opening up seams is easy and doesn't really require sewing skills. Things might need refinishing, but folding the edge back and hand sewing that down is very beginner doable.
Also dylon washing machine dye is reasonably spendy, but if you have cotton garments it's reasonably foolproof.
Also there are mass manufactured panannular broaches available very cheaply and you can use them to just pin some fabric for over garments
Goth cottagecore is cronecore
So much USEFUL information!
I'm a bit skeptical of the assertion that buttons were super expensive for most of history? The fancy metal ones sure, but the majority of buttons for a lot of eras are just little wooden moulds covered in fabric scraps, or simply gathered balls of fabric stuffed with the edges of that piece of fabric. It would take more time, but the materials were way more expensive that the labour, and in those cases you'd just be making good use of the scraps.
I can see the fashionable amount of decorative buttons in much of the 17th-18th centuries being rather a lot, but a moderate amount of functional ones can't have been that bad when you're hand sewing an entire garment anyways.
(As one example, Gunnister Man's coarse plain wool ensemble still has an excessive amount of buttons. 25 down the front edge of his coat alone, and 6 useless ones on each coat pocket!)
Anyways, I am enjoying the video so far! It's keeping me company while I iron every single one of my shirts in preparation for shirt video filming.
Ah yeah, that’s one of the things I thing I could have elaborated on a bit more - since the buttons on fast fashion clothes are almost always metal or plastic (which is fine, if you assume it’s subbing in for horn or shell that’s completely plausible) and the fantasy settings I play in tend to be roughly equivalent to 13th-15th century Europe in terms of technology, it bothers me a bit that this normal guy allegedly has like eight individually hand made metal buttons on his undershirt, which needs to be washed every few days. Fabric covered buttons I’m much more chill about - but also like I said this is very much just a me thing, literally nobody else in a larp field cares how many buttons you have or what they’re made of haha
@@AshLG Excessive amounts of metal buttons in 18th century film costumes bugs me too, alas. I want to see more fabric and thread ones!!
@@AshLG And oogh, yeah, metal buttons on an undershirt in that context make no sense even if the guy is super rich. Needs thread buttons!!
This is invaluable! ❤ Thank you
If you're nickel sensitive in any way and are looking for jewellery, people will use the word silver for any white metal that looks silvery. Unless it specifically says sterling silver or has several embossed stamps/markings, it's probably not real. Tibetan/himalayan silver is just fancier words for nickel silver, AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
Also be aware of metal eyelets and studs on clothing, as they can contain nickel too. Avoid wearing them in direct contact with your skin just in case.
I feel like gold and navy are honorary neutrals
A comment for the algorithm gods
do you know why some LARPs say "no corsets"? is it a visual/immersion thing for the other players? a (real or perceived) practical issue for gameplay? something else?
(I'm sure this is a stupid question, but I'm not a LARPer. I'm here for purely entertainment purposes)
Most larps will have a costume brief for what you should and shouldn’t wear, and a lot of the vaguely medieval fantasy games - including one of the big ones here in the UK - will have some common pitfall items, that people who don’t know a lot about costume think are historical, but are too modern for the setting, or are inappropriate for other reasons. Corsets, tricorn hats and some cultural items are pretty common on those lists
In general, I think this is for visual cohesion and player immersion (or if I’m being uncharitable, because they think it makes the photos better) but it’s often not clear what exactly the priorities of the costume brief are!
Listen, Jenny Nicholson can get away with 3 and a half hour video. I don't mind watching Ash for an hour and a half.
The PERFECT video on a grey, drizzly day when I need to work on school planning, but would rather be puttering about with projects.
Fake fur Regency shaman. Hear me out! This could totally work!