The Beginning

To sum it up, this blog is to document the costumes that I am making for a couple of friends for the play King Richard the III. Yes, the one by Shakespeare, about the Richard the III of England... and the costumes are Swedish. Or German (I'm still a little fuzzy on this point).

I happen to like Swedish/German costume (well, I think I like it - I like pluderhosen anyway. That's the important point.) So, my dear boys are going to be subjected to my attempts at pluderhosen *grins cheerily*. Ah, they haven't a clue what they've signed up for... Poor unsuspecting fellows.

I've checked out Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion from the library and have currently spent at least three hours poring over in, evenings. Pluderhosen are, in a word, weird. No offense to them, I find them fascinating, but they're still quite odd. Unique, in truth. BUT, I think I can puzzle them out. The only thing that I'm most definitely not anticipating making is the codpiece for each pair of hosen. I don't really do codpieces. I don't even really do pants on guys; the only reason I'm doing these is because I find them to be a challenge. Codpeices are a rather absurd and disturbing bit of male vanity, I think, and the thought of making them (especially for my guy friends) simply does not thrill me.

So... perhaps I shall simply ignore it until it refuses to be ignored. Or I could make some sort of very understated codpiece, just enough to preserve modesty. I think I'll take the ignore option. Much less strenuous ;-).