Clothing for Royals

I have become Chamberlain and Head of Wardrobe or the Crown Prince and Princess of Lochac; Ariston and Lilavati.

Right.

So my grand plans about a entirely 16th Century German festival have gone thoroughly out the window. Similarly my plans for a Saxon/Cranach gown before Rowany Yule are gone. I still plan to get it done in the next six months (hopefully before festival), but everything is going to have to take a back seat to a pair of Royals and kit for myself for a reign that is outside of my area in both time and place.

I can do this.

So. The reign is Successor Era Macedonian, with a King who was one of the Generals of Alexander the Great, and a Queen who was once an Indian Princess of the Mauryan Empire, but who has been married off for political reasons to the local military leader/ruler (the King). Theoretically this reign will be based on the Seleucid Empire, but there are a number of challenges associated with this project. Firstly, the practical issue is that three people's garb (the K&Q and myself) in an era that none of us has any clothes in, due to the-King-to-be's lack of historic interest in the particulars of garb, the-queen-to-be's focus on Indian in that era, which makes no sense given that she would have been heavily Hellenised after being married to a high ranking Grecian, and my focus being some 200-300 years earlier.

They will each require:

• Two sets of top quality court garb; one for step up, one for step down.
• At least three sets of nice every day wear
• At least two warm things
• Shoes
• Belts
• Hats
• Kit as required for particular peerage ceremonies. 

These last will pop up as we go along. There will be at least one of these that I'm aware of that will require particularly involved kit, but I am as yet not allowed to divulge that information. I may post about the dratted thing after the ceremony is done.

I will require:

• A nice set of court kit so I don't look like a slob
• Maybe another two sets of everyday wear, but I'm willing to cut that down to one, because some of my other kit will be good enough that maybe four people in the kingdom will know it's the wrong era (except you lot, but I'm not telling you which of it will be wrong).
• A set of kit for that peerage ceremony, because I need some from that time period anyway.

This is achievable, especially since I am currently a woman of leisure due to Uni holidays. Easy as pie, right?

Panicking aside, this is era has a number of interesting issues, which brings us to the second problem: sources for the dratted garb. Asia-Minor has been torn apart by war at this point, be it by Alexander's initial conquering, or be by the wars between the successors, who each decided that "to the strongest" meant they should get the Empire. War torn areas are not historically known for their fine art. This is not to say there is none, it just means that a lot of the sources that are useful for garb (particularly for women) are not being manufactured in the same scale, so very few of them survive. The men are somewhat easier, because there are friezes and frescoes showing war scenes, which give a better insight. For the sake of this reign, I will be working primarily from the Tanagra figurines for Lilavati and myself and said friezes and frescoes for Ariston. The sole convenience of this era is that there is a slightly ungodly quantity of written records from the conquest of Alexander, several of which are likely to prove useful. More posts incoming as I get moving on the work and the research.

Wish me luck.