Photography and Garb Snobbery

I had started another post on variants in Mongol garb in period (which make it sound like some sort of terrible thesis paper), and I got sidetracked into something which should really be its own post.  So, here I am! It's like a bonus update born out of my own rambling!  Everyone hopefully wins!

This arose because I have seen gentles of all statures dabble in and out of Mongol.  I think it's great, but I am often concerned about what their source materials are.  From what I typically see from folks who don't entrench in Mongol, it's usually a turn into the "folk costume" trap.

This happens to a lot of people and how we got something like the "Irish Dress" which is questionably medieval and questionably ever worn as real clothing, outside of costume.

Taking the folk costume (like, from a Ren Faire or a cultural festival) and assuming it's "what they wore back then".  Sometimes it's pretty close to the truth, which is real in the case of the Mongols.  Often, though, it's gone through some changes and is really more of a costume than a heritage clothing piece, or throwback.

So, how does this all tie in together?

I'm a terrible, internal garb snark.  I'm also pretty entrenched in what I'm doing at this point.  I have a decent eye, now, to see where in the deel evolution something lies.  And, more importantly, if someone is copying from a tribe they probably shouldn't.

This isn't to say I've not fallen into the trap, but to keep myself more accountable for myself, I created a Pinterest board dedicated to things which could look like or pass as period Mongol, but aren't.

The bottom line, though, is that if you can find it in a photograph -- whether colorized, color or black and white -- that's not of a piece of art or a surviving artifact, it's out of period.

This isn't to say that I'm not hugely excited to see someone swim in the warm waters of Mongol.  There aren't many of us, to my understanding, that do it as a main persona. To see others do it makes me excited because visibility is huge, especially in a social organization like the SCA.  I just have a gatekeeper/protective mentality when what I do doesn't look like what they do because my focus, intensity and sourcing is different.