SecondLife Historical Clothiers

Lady Alice More, around 1530; picture from the Grand Ladies website

As a would-be seamstress in 1529, I have done quite a bit of research on the internet and then Marketplace, looking for clothing that a merchant-class seamstress might wear.  I've uncovered many good things along the way that I'd share with you here.

If there are comments about any of these from Lightbridge RP area, I will try to link to them on the board from here.

Stores I know about, alphabetically.  For comments and more on who is recommending, see my comments section further below.
Comments, mine and others, as known.
  • Cariad Clothing by Solene Silverweb.  Gorean but a couple of dresses are close enough to early Tudor not to get kicked out of 1529, like Almis would not be amiss, on perhaps a visitor, and I personally am considering the Aradia, especially at 100 linden.
  • Caverna Obscura by Elvina Ewing.  One of my all-time favorite fantasy creators; the details in everything CO creates leave me breathless.  Several dresses she has would be nice to see in Lightbridge, like the Avalon Celtic dresses or the overdresses; we have at least one Celtic woman in our area, and as a tradeswoman, she would show herself to be prosperous in something like these.  A traveling Russian Noble might wear the Snegurochka Gown in great style.  The Eowyn Celtic gown and the Lalaith gown are on sale, but with no demos.  Both are slightly more fantasy versions of the dresses women would have worn; the Eowyn is a bit outdated by 1529; the Lalaith is a bit risque, but its detached sleeves are authentic.  Maybe our Spanish hot-blooded immigrant would have a man pay to have her such a dress made.  The Rites dresses are pre-mesh and simple, but they fit the times and are classically textured.  The Luthien gown is a little ahead of our time with fantasy details, but I would not cringe to see it on a fashionable Noble lady who had been to a seamstress in France, say.  The same goes for the Arwen gown.  And I can't stop without saying something about the wonderful cloaks and capes that CO makes that you can wear with hoods up or down.
  • Dazzled by Dreams by Brigit Silverfall.  DbD may have the largest selection of dresses suitable for our time period and area on Marketplace, and she uses good key words, so if you've not found her yet, you're not looking very hard.  For historical accuracy, well, the flavor is in the right family, even if the particular details are not quite right; see the Tudor Holiday Gown for a good example. Her "snood"s are some of the only ones that come up, and I've got her Carmela Snood in my cart right now; I'll review once I've tried it. 
  • Fables by Selek Enoch. Juliet Renaissance Dress is a fashion-conscious choice for a solidly middle-class seamstress like Emma.  I will buy this dress later, if no one else in our area has it and minds.  But she'll have to be working a little while before she could afford it.  Not a noble lady's dress, but very respectful nonetheless.  I like the attention to historical detail, like the fact that it is made of wool. +
  • FFS - For Fantasy's Sake! and FFS 2 by Cape Weary.  I've laughingly enjoyed a lot of her work, so I want to go through and see if she has appropriate dresses for our area, but I've not done it yet.
  • House of Alisha by Alisha Ultsch. Alisha Ultsch is, if not the, then certainly ONE of the leading historical dress designers in SL.  She uses historical photographs of real dresses to attempt to capture the essence of the dresses, and she was working before mesh.  Her old-school flexi-skirts have an amazing AO system built into them.  I've got one of her Rococo gowns, and it's a show-stopper.  She's not so big into 1529, but she does have a few things,  Tudor Cross, for instance, Tudor Green Velvet, and Margarita. and She makes bots too, so you can get a dress with train bearers, if you are a French queen.  And if we make it to 1539, her Eleanora di Toledo 1539 is wonderous.  She has a couple of packs of discontinued prim gowns, again, for later periods generally, but many parts wearable for mix and match, $100L for 15 gowns.  Yeah, a lot of Gor and kink there, but it's SL, right?
  • Junbug by Juno Mantel. Upscale mesh.  Beautiful gowns with all of the pluses and minuses of mesh for me and for Emma as a character, who likes to mix and match outfits. Recommended by Homelessunicorn. 
  • Kahli Designs by KahliDesigns. Recommended by Homelessunicorn.
  • Les Encantades by Anouk Haiku. Recommended by Homelessunicorn.  Beautiful upper-class creations.  My questions of the pieces are generally expressed by looking at this dress, the Bella. Interesting split sleeves, maybe Italian in influence, with that low low rounded neckline that hearkens back to the earlier 15th century. The overskirt brings it into the 1500s, but the sleeves are a question for me. Looking at the accessories, I would guess that it's mostly freewoman Gor that she's designing for, but most outfits have fantasy elements of some kind.  So close to historical accuracy, but I don't see it here on any pieces specifically for 1529 Calais.  I would forgive anyone of high class for wearing the Eleonora gown, the Margaery, or the Shalott, and anyone with peasant country leanings could do worse than the Giulietta or the Rhiannon, if a traveler from one of the older countries.  Most of these dresses have one or two details that keep them from being really "up to date" for 1529, but none of them are shabbily out of date except perhaps at English court.
  • Lost Gem Mesh by Aejay Jestyr (women's and men's). Recommended by Homelessunicorn.  I own more than the average person of LG's inventory, having parked my avatar there for hours sometimes in front of the freebie group board and midnight manias.  That said, I wish for some of these outfits in their older layerable versions; mesh is great, so long as you want to wear the whole outfit, as is provided to you.  No taking off sleeves or socks or wearing a different top, etc.  This makes Lost Gem difficult for Emma to wear, since she wants to mix and match the pieces of her outfits.  Old-style prims and system clothing are her go-tos. I will continue to wear Lost Gem into fantasy medieval roleplay areas, especially when I want a gorgeous detailed look for low-impact mesh numbers.  Two to pay attention to at Lost Gem: Icon Draped Gown and Rosemary.  Icon Draped is a fantasy reach, with its low v-neckline and strap shoulders, and Rosemary is a bit earlier Medieval than we're doing in 1529, but I'd forgive either personally, just to see them worn.  
      • Did I mention that they have awesome group freebies for men and women at the store?
      • I own several; do a photoshoot of these and make a post. One of my favorite designers that I can't seem to wear to the areas I really play in.
  • Luas by AinaraLuas. Recommended by Homelessunicorn.
  • The Muses by Lowlypop. Recommended by Homelessunicorn.  Beautiful upper class, princess-class clothing.  Emma dreams about these kinds of clothes, but alas cannot wear them. She would love specifically Margaret, Cordelia (tho the top is too low!), and Cecily.
  • Trefusis Designs by Sophia Trefusis.  More moving towards 1780s France and then other periods, but a few Renaissance pieces here worth a look. This one, "Moira," a working woman's dress, is influenced by Flemish field peasants in a very nice way. A Renaissance piece, "Sinann" in green, has some nice sleeve work, but it's on the tops of the sleeves, not the bottom, so I'm thinking closer to 1570 than 1530.  Berengaria, a medieval piece, is maybe closer to 1500, but could certainly be forgiven on a young country Lady.
  • Uniquely Yours by LadySatine Constantine offers a few Renaissance options based on Tudors television outfits.  The UY- Queen Katherine of Aragon comes in a few colors, including this blue one.  The UY- Tudor Rose in Henry's favorite color, red, has those nice long open sleeves and a head dress, but it's all a bit too rich for Emma. 
  • V Couture by Vasilisa Shilova.  A few men's items on Marketplace that could almost be right for 1529 Calais nobles; there may be more for men and women in the in-world shop, but I have not yet visited.  The women's dresses on Marketplace are either for later than our time (think 18th century) or have fantasy elements that our sim does not allow.  But it would be worth it to check out the shop and keep checking back.
  • Velvet Whip by MadMacit. Recommended by Homelessunicorn.

Homelessunicorn from our group posted the following links as suggestions.

Les Encantades and Kahli Designs are new to me.  I checked the others generally for my character, but either the dresses seemed to be too rich for my merchant class character or too out-of-date or ahead of date for my fashion-conscious seamstress profession.
Seamstresses are hard to dress!  They want to make fashion statements to show off their work, but they must be careful not to show off above their class!



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