Afro-Victorian Costumes

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is fusion at its best, bringing African colors and patterns to Victorian garment shapes.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Jingle Jangle is definitely worth a watch. The characters are fun and varied, the plot is slightly predictable in spots but still creative, and the COSTUMES. My friend the theater costume designer and I watched it together and spent most of the movie raving. (One of the secondary characters being a larger woman did not hurt.)

-Wyn

That looks amazing!

[dialecticdreamer]

the fusion aspect would be perfect for an alternate history where class, rather than race, determined "acceptable" clothing and colors for the era. That way, an African merchant in 1900 could wear their cultural fabrics and colors in Victorian style without being dismissed as a rube. I'm working with Russians-in-Russia, where clothing immediately identified someone by class, occupation, and religion... with changes so subtle that most outsiders wouldn't catch them.

Re: That looks amazing!

[(Anonymous)]

>>...where class, rather than race, determined "acceptable" clothing and colors for the era.<<

So everyone would be imitating the cut of the richfolk clothes, but using their own culture-specufic colors, fabrics, etc?

Re: That looks amazing!

[dialecticdreamer]

On the surface, yes.

But remember, there were French and Dutch and English fashions as well as American ones. We tend to see Victoriana as a uniquely British era, when it wasn't. So, what would actually happen is Dutch-African, French-Indonesian, Portuguese-Andean, and so on. The dress standards of the day, business attire and dinner attire, would be cut according to one's prevailing culture, but not exclude the non-French or non-English fashions that everyone was copying. There would be far more individuality in all of it, from top to bottom.

[cmcmck]

Wonderful.

The Victorians were adventurous with fabrics anyway! :o)