Saturday 19 February 2011

The Geffrye Museum - London

The Geffrye Museum in London, features 'Middle class' English rooms throughout history. It's not just pretty to look at, it describes how these rooms were used and ties many other interesting aspects of history into it, such as insights into the transformation of fashion, trend and culture.

I had a great time here and it was also very useful to get some photos for reference, that will hopefully help me to draw everything in the right perspective for my dress-up game.

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I apologise for the fuzzy photographs.
A good craftsman should never blame his tools. However, I am not a man, and I am also not good, so therefore I can blame my camera completely. :)


Costume boundaries in Culture
To make my dress-up game something original, my tutors are especially keen on me getting my fingernails into the culture of period costume, and perhaps showing different classes and trades in my game. I have some really good books to help me with this, which describe alot about how certain trends changed from decade to decade.

One of these books is called The British Isles: Cultures and Costumes: Symbols of their Period, by Charlotte Greige which features chapters about the difference upper class and lower class costume.

Apparently, much like the way we wear uniform today, during the Medieval times it was obligatory to wear certain clothes in certain ways, depending of the trade you worked in. You couldn't just walk about in whatever you wanted, unless you were very wealthy. This rule continued for quite a while because the wealthy wanted to keep the class system in place.

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From left, an 18th Century Milkmaid, a Fireman, a Newspaper vendor, and a night Watchman.

Very interesting!

xLouisax

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