Known World Costume Symposium
September 7, 2002
Grand Rapids, MI
Please forgive the darkness, the lighting was not wonderful for taking pictures, and my software can only do so much. Believe me, every single outfit was much cooler than shown here, and some of the fashion show pics didn't turn out at all, for which I apologize.
A Hat (and Vanna)
Gwyn! (Someday I will have a good pic of this dress…)
A really amazing headdress
The keynote speaker
(With matching codpiece)
(showing off the underlayers)
(I've always wanted to make a half plaid cotehardie… and now I have an inspiration!)
Last weekend Gwyn, Signy and I traveled to the Known World Costume
Symposium in Grand Rapids, MI.
We left Friday afternoon and had more than our fair share of stupid
drivers (men in hats). We had quite the adventure navigating Indiana two
lane hiways, but we didn't get lost at all (Signy's an excellent
navigator, what can I say). We arrived at the hotel at 0:52 according to
the receipt. Our room had one brick wall (posh!) and no deadbolt (...). We
set the alarm and crashed.
Saturday morning we awake to the alarm clock and head out hunting
sustenance. We catch wild Frootloops and toast to break our fast. We
wander down to troll, which is not open, even though they are an hour
later than us. Eventually, we sign in, buy a booklet of the handouts (not
included in site fee!), and return to our room to peruse the schedule.
Coming out of the room, Signy almost ran into a lady, who gasped at
Signy's spinning and asked if she was teaching a class! Signy replied that
she was not, but if the lady wanted to sit and talk for a while that
would be fine.
During the first class period, Signy and I attend "Early Period Garb:
Beyond the T Tunic." It was not as early period as I had hoped, and the
teacher was not up on current Viking finds. However, she did make the only
good argument I've seen for making full circle skirts out of fabric pieced
together into circles, rather than an approximation done in gores. Signy
finished plying her yarn and for the rest of the day made a good start at
turning it into socks.
For the second session, I went to 14th Century Men's Garb with Gwyn, and
Signy went to "Mamluck Socks." My class was a brief overview, which was
informative for me, even though I don't intend to ever use the knowledge I
acquired. Signy had a wonderful time at her class, got her name written in
Arabic, and befriended the teacher. I had to tear her away for lunch.
Lunch was served *as* the keynote speaker spoke. She delivered a talk on
how the wench costume so prevalent at Renaissance Fairs and also in SCA
came to be. I did not hear all of her lecture, but it was quite
interesting seeing where these utter fabrications have a passing
acquaintance with reality.
After lunch, we all three took a break to do some shopping and grab a
little rest. Signy got _The Warp Weighted Loom_ by Martha Hoffmann. We
almost got the second book by the lady who wrote _Women's Work the First
20,000 years_.
Then we all went to "Nursing Mother and Infant in the Middle Ages." Which
started out, "Don't worry about what they did in period, they didn't even
nurse in late period," and went downhill from there. When the class
devolved into a discussion, we left.
Then, I went to a hands on felting class. It was pretty fun, and I got to
make a felted pouch. Now I know what I did wrong with my shoe liners! When
I was done, I crept into the back of Gwyn's class and learned that silk
smells good to some people. Huh.
Dinner was potluck, and the fashion show started before most people were
done eating. There were some interesting costumes. My favorite "unusual"
one was the lady with a pointy hat about three feet tall that had a little
curl over at the end. We learned that in that period, the sumptuary law
kept the hat from having more than 30 yards of linen! Wow! Gwyn wore her
German and twirled the skirts out to the ohs and ahs of the audience.
Very rapidly, there were very few people left. 4-6 people started dancing,
and Signy and I did one dance. We talked for hours with the lady who
taught the socks class. A crew came in cleaning up after feast, and I made
a valiant attempt to "save" the desserts from the garbage cans, but I
couldn't rescue them all.
I learned a lot of stuff that wouldn't have crossed my research otherwise,
and got to see some gosh darn nice garb. I had a lot of fun.