Rate the Dress: 18th century Wild Man costume
Last week’s Rate the Dress was a natural-form day dress in palest blue and silvery ecru. To no-ones surprise ever, the rosette bows festooning the lower front bodice of the dress were not popular. You deemed the rest of the dress both boring and fussy. It didn’t score a single 10/10 rating. The ratings, like the dress trim, mainly slid to the bottom of the rating heap. Overall ‘Whirlpool: The Dress’, as Rachel dubbed it, managed a paltry 6.6 out of 10. Moving on: it’s time to look at a historical fancy dress for our annual Halloween Rate the Dress! Before there was Tarzan, there was Hercules, Bacchus, and Wild Men: all costumes involving animal skins, and greenery. Variations on the theme date back to the ancient Greeks & Romans, (and possibly earlier). Wild Man costumes were popular throughout the Middle Ages. In the 18th century the wild man idea became linked to a romanticisation of nature and untouched society. Thanks to the Swedish monarchy’s fantastic habit of keeping their clothing, we have an …
