Costuming your Hydra games

Wellington Hydra
#1

So, you’ve signed up for Hydra, and face six games over a weekend, all with different costume. What do you wear? This thread is for people to post their costuming advice.

I’ll start with my biggest source of worry, Justice & Nemesis. How do I Roman?

Wikipedia has a good guide here. The basic Roman garment is the tunicia: two rectangles, stitched together, with holes for the arms and head. Knee-length or longer, sleeves optional, colour whatever you want.

For wealthy male citizens, you wear a toga over the top. This is the Roman equivalent of a formal suit, and its uncomfortable. If you want to make one, there’s a pattern generator here, and a video guide to how to put it on and wear it (using a really big one) here:

For women, you wear a stola, basicly a tube with your head and arms sticking out the top, with a couple of fibulae (safety pins) keeping it on. You can combined this with a palla, a long rectangular shawl or cloak, which is worn as a hood or wrap. There’s some good pictures of the overall look in the video below (skip to 2m 30s; the rest is an epic sewing montage):

For footwear sandals will do, but being barefoot is seen as a mark of virtue.

If you like bling, wikipedia has some info on Roman jewelry. If you’re a rich man, wear lots of rings.

#2

For Longmuir Hall, how do I Regency?

Thanks to re-enactors and Jane Austen societies, there’s plenty of online guides for people who want to go overboard. Here’s one from Bath’s Jane Austen festival:

The Nordic larp Fortune & Felicity had some good advice too:

The cheat’s guide:

  • for men, wear long trousers, a waistcoat, and a cravat (which you might be able to fake with a tie). A long coat is a nice addition, and you can cheat by pinning the sides of a square-cut coat back to give a swallow-tail look (or if you’ve got tails, you can wear those).
  • for women, this site used to have a cheats guide to making a fake regency empire-line dress from a nightgown and some ribbon, but the pictures are gone. There’s another cheat’s guide using saris and sari-blouses.
#3

Huh. It occurs to me that this thread is useful for both Urbs Aeterna and Scandal & Society