"A prosperous merchant of the 18th Century at a gentlemen's business reception"
As you can see, colonial clothing is Sal's hobby.........Sal informed me that when he is around other serious re-enactors, they are always checking out each others clothes...its a learning experience. Sal knew when he was an extra in some movies that his clothing would pass Hollywoods close inspection, as he takes his interest in re-enacting very seriously.
Sal did a study of men's 18th Century clothing years ago. Sal states "The trend among re-enactors is that if we were to play these roles, we should look as best as we can, with correct styles and not like Halloween cheap "costumes", a word we never use."
You can view other photos in the Lantern's PhotoShop by clicking on the below underlined
And, also one of the first few new entries on the Lantern check out:
http://the-lantern-1962.blogspot.com/2008/07/sal-carmosino-actor.html
I personally emailed Sal to inquire about the 18th Century clothing because of my personal interest in Fashion Designing. I was amazed with the extreme detail to all the clothing with the covered buttons, the lace, the cloaks, the custom fit. They surely must have had the best seamstresses in those days!
Sal,
ReplyDeletePlease continue to send us more photos from your next
re-enactments. We all find them so interesting.
Most of my sorority girlfriends and myself, who took pride in making our own outfits during our high school days to make a new fashion statment to wear to school each day....they will appreciate the detailed work involved in the 18th century clothing!
The covered buttons and especially the difficulty in making the special covered button holes....all the work involved was time consuming.
There were tricks I was taught by Buddy Stellati's mother, who was a seamstress and had her fabric store on Broadway, Revere. The tricks to make sure your clothes did NOT look "Homemade"!
Of course for me, coming from a large family, making my own clothes was a must....those hand-me-downs were horrible. I suppose that explains why I have close to 300 pairs of shoes today! Hand-me-down shoes were the worst...they never fit....now all my shoes fit. I have every shoe I ever purchased since my first job. Never threw away not one pair. So, I still have the 5" stilettos! LOL
Hugs, Rose
Men vain in the 18th Century? You don’t know the half of it. Men of high fashion would send their wigs out to the wigmaker to have it dressed. The wigmaker would wash, curl and spray it with white powder if it was a very formal wig.
ReplyDeleteThe bigger the wig, the more important person you were.....hence the word BigWig...which was true more so in the early 1700s. An every day wig would be left brown or salt and pepper. Men of high fashion would use more makeup than women, as they powdered their faces white as possible.
The idea was that if you looked tan [a non-no]then you worked in the fields under the sun and you were a peasant. Sometimes they would dot their faces with beauty marks also....one or two. Gloves or gauntlet were usually worn as to not show a bare or tanned hand...usually white silk gloves.
Again, this is the height of fashion. Notice you don’t see any of this in portraits of our Founding Fathers. This was more prevalent in England, and to some degree, America and very much in France in high society.
If you have a chance to see the John Adams DVD recently made,
the clothing and makeup of the French when Adams goes to France is unbelievably accurate. Your history lesson for the day!
Sal
Sal, You look terrific. And I did see the wonderful John Adams series on PBS and noticed the fine period-perfect costumes, wigs and sets. You would fit in so well there! How wonderful for you to have such an avid interest in our history and to be able to re-enact it. What fun. . .and isn't that what life (especially, retirement)is all about--to follow your interests and passions? You lucky man!
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