Sartorial Adventure

Crooklyn (1994) dir. Spike Lee

Blue Silk Satin Bodice

c. 1891

I found the art direction to be once again very odd, especially the long sleeves, which look more like modern sweatshirts. But that made me wonder, which garments should Menelaus and Telemachus be wearing for a hunting trip? Would a simple chiton, a chlamys, and a petasos hat be the norm, like in this vase? As noblemen, would they have specific hunting gear?

At this point I feel like I’ve talked myself half to death about Nolan’s Odyssey. The visuals are quite frankly unforgivable, not just from any metric of historicity but in terms of any sort of character or costume design in general. Pretending like this movie doesn’t exist is the only thing that seems to quell my rage.

But let’s talk about hunting garb!

Long story short, noblemen probably wore the same sort of gear hunting as anybody else, save for maybe of a slightly finer quality. I believe physical ornamentation was considered to be feminine, at least post-Bronze Age, so any sort of needless embellishment might have taken away from the masculinity of the wearer’s character and prowess as a hunter. 

Moreover, in depictions of hunting, we see that some if not all men are nude. This may just be an artistic convention, but given the climate of the region, potential damage to clothing (which was time consuming and costly to make), and the level of flexibility nudity allowed, it isn’t inconceivable to imagine this was done. Not to mention, many if not all athletic activities were also undertaken in the nude, so why not hunting? However, for the purpose of SFW artistic interpretation, having men dress in a short tunic with a chlamys and petasos with some sturdy sandals would be more than appropriate. 

If we’re looking at Bronze Age sources, hunters seemed to have worn short tunics. 

It’s also worth mentioning that @kyleesarthell did a pretty great job redrawing the screenshot in a more historical style. 

Four Pairs of Slippers, 1810-20

Cartoon on the female tight dress style of the late 1870s, which also satirizes male formal military uniforms. By George Du Maurier in Punch, May 25th 1878. A variation on the classic theme of a young lady dropping her handkerchief...

Caption: The New Hussar Hessians and Pants

Lady: See, I've dropped my handkerchief, Captain de Vere!

This sort of problem persisted into the 1850s, with a John Leech cartoon of a fashionable swell who is unable to pick up his umbrellaw umbrella:

A Correspondent furnishes us with the following Picture of an Exquisite alias a Dancy in distress: "Walking in one of the squares last week it was my fate to follow an Exquisite - stocked and stayed [??] and bound collared and pilloried in all the fashion so slender so straight and so stiff that a man of ordinary strength might have used it as a walking stick. This thing flourishing a very nice perfumed handkerchief happened to let it drop: the question then was how to get it up again; stoop it could not, and I confess I enjoyed its distress; for tho' for any other female I would have raised the handkerchief with alacrity, I wished to see how this creature would help itself. Then thus it was: having eyed the handkerchief askance, something like a Magpie peeping into a marrow-bone, it gently spraddled out its legs, and lowering the body between them it brought the left hand in contact with the object sought. What shall we say to the association of ideas, when I assure you, that looking on this unmanly figure, brought into my mind the knights of old, who when once unhorsed, could never from the weight and stiffness of their armour hope to mountain again." NB [nota bene, or note well:]. It is found remarkably convenient in such a case for the exquisite to carry a cane or stick with a hook at the end, as he may fish up any thing he unfortunately drops without breaking his back or exciting the pity or risibility of the spectators.

Cycling Suit

1896-1898

United States