Hawt Medieval Fashion?

I love costumes. That's one of the reasons I like the SCA. But if you know me in real life, you know I've never really conformed to the latest ideals of the fashion world.

As a child my favorite outfit was a beige suede-y cowboy pants and vest set. I think it had a little fringe. Yes, I wore it to school. Often.

I think I hit my 'black' period around 13. Bodices, skirts and cloaks, dead makeup, and a sprinkling of spikes. I was Goth before 'Goth' was a descriptive. This era began the 'poet shirt' phase. At some point during the black period, I started sneaking into midnight showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I'm sure you can imagine the fashion carnage. My legs still itch to this day from the overuse of fishnet tights.

Then came the metal years. I'm sure that I contributed to the hole in the ozone layer with the insane amounts of Aqua Net that I used to lacquer my big blond hair into place. For I was a headbanger, complete with spandex, headbands, and baggy shirts! Thankfully most of the incriminating photos have been burned. But the poet shirt, proving itself to be cross-fashionable, stayed with me through this trying time.

As a late teen, I was the one wearing a leather vest and/or a cape. And vampire fangs. Or possibly Elf ears. But most I'd definitely be wearing those lace up fringed moccasins. And the poet shirt was a mainstay of my closet. In fact by then I had several, in many colors. I used to use the excuse that I needed them to go to the Renaissance Fair, but I guess wearing them to work all the time kind of blew that cover.

My early twenties were spent honing my wardrobe into something you might see on the cover of a Jethro Tull album. I started really getting into vintage clothing, hitting store after store in the garment district of Boston, searching for leather pants, hippie vests, beaded skirts and tall, shiny boots.

I was always anachronistic, before I had ever heard of the SCA. It seems I've dressed medieval-ish my whole life. It seems that the fashion world is finally catching up to my style. Could it be that I'm trendy? Am I now fashionable? Even...hawt?

Check out the latest fashion news from London, where designers are reaching waaaay back into history for design ideas:

Medieval chic gives a new spin on old retro
By Susie Rushton, Fashion Correspondent Published: 13 February 2007

Retro fashion is back for next autumn, according to collections seen last week New York. Yes, again. But at London Fashion Week, which started yesterday, the capital's young designers demonstrated how retro doesn't have to mean a shortage of new ideas. For while the 1920s, 1930s and 1970s have been put back on fashion's agenda, how about medieval chic? This was the proposal by Danish designer Peter Jensen at his show in Covent Garden yesterday, and as unpromising as tabard-shaped cardigans and chainmail-style knitted snoods may sound, it was a triumph. (continue reading the whole article)


Hmmm. Maybe I should get into fashion design. I can sew passably well... and codpieces sure need to make a comeback, don't they?