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On hating costume – for different reasons

By @1CharlieMike · On August 13, 2015

I’m not like Matt, I don’t really hate costume. Actually, I really rather like costume because I enjoy sewing fantasy costumes. I love being able to sew because it means I can get exactly what I want. It doesn’t matter if it’s a particular shade of putrid yellow for some healers robes, or some tiny Minoan robes that are the perfect size for just me, I can do all that stuff with my trusty fifteen year old sewing machine.

It’s a joy to be able to sew when you’re interested in fantasy costumes. There’s nothing that you’re limited by except your imagination. Want to use some couture finishes in your costume? Sure, why not? Go ahead! How about some totally fantasy armour based on Samurai layering? Just buy the right material and spend hours putting it together in front of the TV. What about being inspired by TV itself? No problem! I took a bit of Arya Stark to Odyssey in my costume.

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But although I photograph fantasy games, I’m actually gravitating toward playing modern military games, and I have a filmsim coming up at the end of this month where we’re playing Eastern European rebels. This poses a problem for me. For I am 5ft tall.

I wrote a post some time ago where I mentioned how hard it was to buy basic women’s kit that wasn’t really expensive or frilly blouses. A few weeks after that I investigated trying to buy myself a gambeson (because I didn’t have time at that point to make one) but became increasingly frustrated that I had the option of ‘man size’ or nothing (except for one lone manufacturer who makes a kind of Eastern style women’s gambeson). The problem with ‘man size’ is that I’d have to buy a 40″ chest to accomodate my figure, but I only have a 28″ waist. And of course the gambeson would drown me around the shoulders, arms and hem and I’d end up having to take it all up and in anyway. (And as anyone who sews will tell you – it’s generally harder to modify an existing garment than make one from scratch).

Buying kit can be an exercise in futility. I don’t want to have to plan six months in advance, place an order with a costume maker, and then pay their premium prices. Sometimes I just want a cheap bit of kit from a trader at a LARP event. But a piece of kit that goes in and out in roughly the right places, rather than a piece of kit designed for a man’s body.

This wasn’t a big deal. I just went without the gambeson and figured I’d make one this winter (when I’m happy to be sat on the sofa covered in loads of layers of thick fabric) but this month the whole ‘kit doesn’t fit me’ problem has become very evident. At military styled LARP events there’s a dress code. You wear military kit. You can’t really make most military kit at home. Although you can buy the official fabrics and so on, it’s an awful lot of effort for something that will look like a pair of bog standard army trousers. There’s room occasionally to deviate (like when I made a MOLLE rig in blue because I’m a member of the media at Shadow Wars) but mostly you just want to be wearing kit that you can pick up from the army surplus.

© Charlotte Moss www.charlottemoss.co.uk

The challenge for me is always boots. I have small feet so, I can always manage to pick up black ‘cadet’ boots, but they’re noticeably different to the cool Magnum’s that everyone else is running around with. The size four desert boots that I just ordered will have to be worn with at least two thick pairs of socks. And I can’t have the nice MOLLE armour either or the military vests because it’s always too big, or it rubs in uncomfortable places. Last time I wore a standard security belt with my gun holster attached it actually cut the skin on my hips over the course of the weekend.

This sends out a message to me. It says ‘this style of game isn’t for you’. As a woman who is actually not that far from average sized (I’m slim-ish and only three inches shorter than the national average) it frustrates me that I cannot simply look like my friends. I don’t want to have to have special kit, or wear trainers because I can’t get boots to fit, I just want to fit in. I want to look the same as everyone else.

So I suppose that this post is not only an angry rant that I can’t find military clothes that fit (I’m getting a dab hand at taking in men’s military shirts around the shoulders) but a plea to LARP traders. If we want women to make up more than 33% of LARPers in the UK, then we need to provide women with the kit to do our hobby. Men’s base layers don’t fit many of us women. Trousers have to be bought huge because men’s trousers aren’t cut to fit over our hips, and then we have to roll the bottoms up. Shirts and tunics have to be bought a couple of sizes too big as well, and then we look like we’re wearing our Dad’s clothes. And of course, not everyone wants to play a damsel in distress. Dresses and flouncy shirts only cater for so many characters – but the other characters shouldn’t have to play dress-up in men’s clothes.

I know it’s an economic problem. Leah and I have hashed this out at length before. But please, if you see the opportunity to stock some basics in a women’s size, then do so. And women – don’t be afraid of asking for what you really want from a trader, rather than putting up with ill-fitting kit.

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When Charlie isn't playing or photographing LARP, they're stuck down the costume mines making accessories for others to wear when playing LARP!

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  • Leah Tardivel

    I want to make really lovely kit that’s shaped and fitted to women. I really do. I am woman shaped. Whilst I’m considerably larger than Charlie I do have a lot of similar problems buying kit. The shirts that accommodate my chest swamp the rest of me. I have hips in places that clothes seem to be unable to predict. If I want clothes that fit (and not just LRP clothes, any clothes. I can’t even buy knee length boots that fit due to my legs being the wrong shape), then I have to make them.

    However, I also make costume and kit commercially. We make polyurea armour. The number of people who have heard that and said ‘brilliant, you can make cheap kit that fits me’ is huge. However, we can’t. Armour should be fitted. It works best if it’s made to fit you. With the off the shelf stuff we have to have a set of predone sizes in stock. For each size we need to make an original (This is done by Steve Lunn from Whiterose Apparel or Adam from Roman Onwards), make a mould (a really expensive step) and then we can make the armour. If we’re only making 2-3 copies they need to pay a higher portion of the cost for the original and the cost for the mould.

    If we assume there are three sizes of men (Small, Medium and Large) then we find we have 27 sizes of Women to cover the same range of people. The variation between hips, waist and chest is so different that we just can’t treat women the same way. This means that for a lot of styles (In particular outlying styles) we’re just not going to make the sales needed for it to be worth us making the moulds. Your best bet for getting armour that fits you from Mandala is to be the same shape as one of the women who works at Mandala.

    There are ways of getting around it. We’d like to laser cut leather armour and with certain style we could potentially add extra sections in, and/or change angles to accommodate different body shapes. We made the orc armour to fit the majority of people, and have variations to accommodate some of the outliers, but to produce armour that would fit everyone at a low enough price is impossible, and it’s always going to be the same people that are outliers. Sorry Charlotte.

  • Berthulf

    This is not something I had really thought about, but now you’ve raised it, you have a point about women’s armours. The problem is that women in European antiquity rarely wore armour; the battlefield was not their place. This means that examples and manufacturers of it have always been harder to find. Whilst women play a much broader role in LARP, their armour has traditionally been sexualized, either by showing copious quantities of skin or by being shaped to enhance feminine features rather than being made as practical garments (to match mens armour).

    This is not a problem specific to LARP, but to costuming in general. There are expectations of the kind of costume a woman (and in truth, this applies to men too) should wear, or, rather, is likely to wear. I do not feel so much that there has been a deliberate attempt to sideline women or stereotype them, as much as there simply hasn’t been any consideration given to what they (women or men) might ‘want’ to wear.

    This is a shame, but one that, when raised, most manufacturers I know would have no qualms in working to rectify, at least on a case-by case basis, but as women (and men) challenge this unconscious bigotry, things will change. Unfortunately, change is rarely swift… One of these days I’ll find a decent, good-looking pair of tall boots that are made in sizes bigger than a 9 and that aren’t made for guys who missed leg day at the gym…

  • plotchick

    I haven’t played any modern or post apocalyptic LARPs so this may not be helpful, but I’ve been able to find military and law enforcement gear cut/designed/styled for women here in the US at some Army-Navy stores. My husband and I both wear a pair of tactical pants when we ride our motorcycle; they’re the same design and the same material, but the women’s version has less excess at the crotch and more at the hips, plus a lower waistline.

  • umptious

    SWAT make a lot of womens sizes in different combat and LEO boots; my girlfriend has tiny feet even for a woman and that’s where I got hers. You may have to import some size/model combinations from the USA though.

  • Walkerfiledepot

    A few years back I managed a police supply store, did govt sales, etc. It was ENORMOUSLY frustrating to see how poorly served women were in that particular niche of law enforcement and military, but changes were happening at a rapid pace even in the three years I was involved, and that was almost a decade ago.

    The BIGGEST thing that had the MOST real world change was inclusion of duty belts cut for women. Men’s duty belts are essentially cylinders. Women’s duty, formed appropriately, and flared like a skirt to sit properly on a woman’s hip. If you need a belt to carry duty gear, look to the higher-end companies like Gould and Goodrich, Bianchi, etc. It will cost a bit of coin (and may have to be imported from the USA) but nothing will improve your experience of wearing that sort of gear like getting a quality belt that is actually cut for your form.

    And, honestly, the state of women’s clothing in general pisses me off pretty seriously. It shocked me how shit so much of the stuff aimed at women was even coming from companies that made good kit on the men’s side. 5.11 did not do that. They’re gear for women was the same material, same quality of stitching (a common place women’s clothing manufacturers cheap out), and same grade of fasteners. Again, expensive, but if you’re willing to put good coin into it, you can get great stuff actually shaped for a woman’s body. Their boots are actually cut and designed for the feet and calves of women.

    Note: Been out of that business for years, so the brand names here are endorsements solely because they made good product.