Click any of these 3 images to enlarge—I split it into 3 parts so the writing wouldn't be so tiny! |
My truly brilliant idea came as I was putting it all together. I decided we would watch a movie from each historical period, so we could note the costuming and have easy-to-remember references. It worked so well! If we forget what, exactly, were the hallmarks of clothing in 17th century France, we just have to think "Three Musketeers" and we instantly get a picture in our heads of what that silhouette looked like, along with some of the important things happening in that time period. (It also worked out well because this unit stretched over Christmas and New Years, so we had lots of free time for watching movies.) You can read more about our movie choices in this post.
I should stress that this was a beginner's overview of costume history. I read a costuming blog sometimes which will (quite amusingly) critique period dramas—"back lacing?! In the 1420s?!"—and I know that people much more expert than I can tell clothing trends down to half-decades and even specific years. We didn't get that detailed. Hundred-year periods, and later, decades, were the divisions I worked within, and even within decades we focused much more on broad, well-known trends and iconic fashions, rather than a true overview of all countries and social classes.
To see a visual timeline overview of clothing styles, see this post.
My Pinterest page for this unit is here.
Various clothing-related links:
Futuristic clothing with LEDs
How zippers are made
How buttons are made
Loved this article on "costume design" in Animated movies---a focus that is getting more necessary all the time, as computer graphics get more realistic!
Article about costume design in the "Pride and Prejudice" miniseries
Lots of these "Horrible Histories" clips are fun and funny. This one is on clothing laws in Elizabethan times.
This article (and whole site) is good for starting discussions about cultural ideals of beauty and modesty. The article talks specifically about the use of photoshop in print media.
More on "extreme photoshop use": here and here
We got this program, "Tales from the Royal Wardrobe," (about royal clothing through history) from the library and really liked it. She gets to try on actual clothing from those eras and you can see all the farthingales, petticoats, corsets, etc. Very interesting!
This is amazing! I was looking to do something like this with my oldest who is into different fashions. Thank you so much for posting all of your work! How long did it take you to get through the entire unit?
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Thanks Jessica! I think it took us about 8 weeks to get through this unit, but I'm sure you could cut it down or compress it if you wanted to go faster. :) Have fun!
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