Everytime a new medieval-inspired show pops up, we all get to see leather everywhere, little to no color when it comes to the clothing and a lack of helmets on battlefield. The Middle Ages always have to be dirty and greyish no matter what, and vikings now always have mohawks and tattoos – those became the new horned helmets in terms of clichés thanks to History Channel.
Same thing for fiction set in later and earlier eras – anything set in Greece has to be the generic hoplite look, anything 19th century is corsets and black frock coats.
I find pretty sad that such a lack of imagination is prevailing. The point of historical fiction is immersion in its setting, and uniformizing everything without taking account of the actual era’s aesthetics kind of ruins it. Movie companies need to be bolder on that field.
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no, movies need to keep being easily understandable using almost generic equipment to represent what era its actually in. remember, people are idiots. fundamentally idiots. if you make it all 100% period accurate, there will be a lot of complaints.
I have to agree. They are often so far off the mark it’s laughable. I’m an armour nerd, and I empathize with the annoyance of seeing a jarringly anachronistic outfit.
On the other hand, why expect them to make it authentic? Popular media isn’t aren’t a realistic, historically accurate piece for educational purposes. Movies or television is visual storytelling. They use costuming in the same way that they use makeup, lighting, foley work and background music- as a medium to convey theme or mood. In the same way that a grinding tuba solo signals a sense of dread and anticipation in JAWS, the hairstyles in current Viking stories are meant to convey a sense of the characters’ rugged, barbaric pride.
Going a step further, most viewers are not intimately familiar with period-accurate fashion for very many eras. I think if you interviewed average passers-by, you would be hard-pressed to find two that could accurately place a fact French Revolutionary versus an English Regency waistcoat, even if the difference is obvious.
Without public understanding of these nuances, costumers rely on visual shorthand. Black leather is scary and intimidating. Brown leather is honest and hard-working. A man with a flat cravat is sober and serious, and a man with an elaborate knot is a dilettante. A woman wearing bright colours is flirtatious and untrustworthy, a young woman in pastels is flighty, a woman in light neutrals is virtuous, a woman in dark neutrals is older and serious, a woman in black is stiff and stuffy. The more folds, ruffles and volume the garments carry, the less weight the character deserves. Strictly accurate clothing reduces the ability to use this shorthand.
And as for no helmets on battlefields… yeah, that’s wildly inaccurate. But when the goal is storytelling, the loss of emotional expression isn’t usually worth the accuracy.
Don’t get me started on the lack of headdresses and hair coverings for married noblewomen or the fact that their hair is loose
These aren’t documentaries they’re stories – unless a costume piece is integral to the story, visual shorthand is more important
There is a lot of different factors to this, money, stock, and time are some pretty big ones. I’ve designed costumes for theatre and these constraints are where “general time periods” come from. I understand this coat is 30 years prior to the time period, but it’s what I have so I’ll just put it on an older person.
im guessing most medieval films out there arent gunning for accuracy. And that perhaps works better for the kind of story theyre telling.
Here me out: you can watch better shows