Oh, one caveat to all this -- if someone asserts they are being 
authentic or 
accurate, and are not, then they will hear from me.  But that's a 
separate 
issue from the rest of this, and is a personal problem of mine.

Marc/Diarmaid
 
It is a personal problem of mine also. We learn in the SCA by sharing 
with others. While I do not believe that we need written documentation 
for everything we do and wear we need to know if it is proper or not. 
If we claim something is period and it is not others may be lead 
astray and get into trouble. A Master of the Laurel told me once that 
Gilligan's island was a period tune. I believed him and for 15 years 
used it as an example of a period tune that had too much modern favor. 
He then told me he was BSing. The way I wear my belts on my dresses is 
wrong. When I started the research allowed it but now further 
knowledge has made it questionable. I tell people that I am in a gray 
area when I talk about costuming. I am thinking about getting a T-
shirt that says "I am not a costuming Laurel." We need to understand 
there is a lot of bad research out there and you or the person that 
you are talking to may just be wrong because the research is wrong. I 
think we need to talk more about good and bad reference books. 

 Willow de Wisp


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