All too often in audiovisual media covering a historical or historical-fantasy setting, peasants are depicted as wearing ill-fitting, ragged, crudely-made clothing to show they're poor.
But this is a world before automation. That means four things: labour is cheap, people make and repair their own stuff, more stuff is made locally, and stuff is expensive to produce.
...So there's no reason for peasants to be wearing ill-fitting clothing. Cloth is expensive - having loose-fitting clothing (pleats, gathers, ruffles, etc) is a sign of wealth, not poverty!
...And there's no reason for peasants to be wearing ragged clothing. Nobody is so pressed for time that they can't have ragged edges repaired, when it's all but guaranteed that there's someone who stitches within spitting distance. Tears tend to get worse, wasting cloth, and again - cloth is expensive.
...And likewise there's no reason for peasants to be wearing crudely-made clothing. A ton of people are going to be competent in simple tailoring. Even when the economy is relatively monetised and goods are traded at market.
It shouldn't take more than ten minutes of thought - or a quick phone call to a domain expert - to get at least a veneer of verisimilitude. This is low-hanging fruit!
No comments:
Post a Comment