[Ansteorra] Undergarments and stuff

[Marc Carlson]

On 16 Sep 2006 at 11:55, Donna Nesbit/Lady Penelope Miriam Darling wrote:

>>Greetings,
>>   One thing many people must understand is that some of what is
>>period just would not work today.  Recently, I saw a book on the
>>history of undergarments.  In times it was quite acceptable to
>>reveal parts of the body that we would get in trouble for revealing
>>today.  Also, some silhouettes that were considered beautiful in the
>>past are not appealing today.  We must remember that we are looking
>>at past dressing through modern day eyes.
>From: elizabeth at crouchet.com
>And about those undergarments!
>Many used drawstrings at the waist. Ever been stuck in small port-o-let, at
>night, with no lady in waiting and the drawstring tied in a knot BEFORE you
>got them off?
>Elastic works the same way, excpet: no knots! It hides very well, 
>especially in
>undergarments! It substitues for a full guarderobe with attendants. The 
>creative part of recreation is how to get the same thing, independantly,
>practically and in budget. If you just have to have ties on your 
>undergarment, you can also use a piece of
>elastic for the back half with strings on the ends that tie where they 
>should. A compromise between authentic look and feel and funciton. Claire

You clearly know more about how medieval undergarments worked than the 
archaeology indicates. The last time I checked there were no extant pieces 
telling us whether they used drawstrings, belts, elastic or velcro.

Be that as it may, are you seriously trying to tell us that because it might 
be hard, people shouldn't even bother to try?  Or that faking it will 
automatically be better than what was actually done?  Because I'm thinking 
that unless you've actually figured out for certain how they did it then, 
and really done a lot of work with it, you really don't know.

I'm not saying don't do the faking it thing, but why are you telling people 
to do something that might be more accurate if they want to try it?

Marc/Diarmaid