Larp Couture
Fabric Bolt! Fabric Bolt! Fabric Bolt!
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![It’s a chill wind that blows in the Northern reaches of the world, at the moment, and yet some of our bravest still find ourselves chasing McGuffins through the icy woodlands. It can be a time for hard (costume) decisions, especially if you only have one or two pairs of real cold-weather gloves and one pair says GORE-TEX all over them. Perhaps you’d prefer to keep that startling image out of your fellow-players minds; or perhaps you’d like like another layer.
Slide back in time a couple thousand years, and you’ll find a very flexible sort of hand protection. Boxing was a thing as far back as 800 BCE, when the boxers wore strips of leather wrapped around their hands and wrists (source). The only technologies required for this is a certain understanding of how anatomy works, easily gained by hitting soft things and then hitting hard things, and the ability to make leather. If you want to completely cover your hand, you could try the techniques in videos like these; after all, modern boxers still face some of the same risks as their ancient buddies.
Either way, the wraps would be suitable in a wide variety of settings, for pretty much any character that works with their hands. Just make sure to follow the advice of your local safety staff regarding the wraps- it can be easy to get a little too tight in the wrong places!
For the Vegan Troll-Slayer:
Thick Faux Suede Cord. One yard of 10 mm by 1.5 mm cord. Ships worldwide. $2 USD
Brown Cork Fabric. 0.5 m square. Ships worldwide. $13 USD
For the Non-Vegan Druid:
Brown Leather Cord. 10 cm. Ships worldwide. €2.00 EUR
Scrap Leather Rectangles. 10 in by 17 in. Ships worldwide. $4 USD.
Image Credit: Fist Fighter - Man by WolfgangRieger [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://25.media.tumblr.com/20d00f902c96bbb154a9fc1bb297cdcc/tumblr_mhses7C17K1r0k1xoo1_500.jpg)
It’s a chill wind that blows in the Northern reaches of the world, at the moment, and yet some of our bravest still find ourselves chasing McGuffins through the icy woodlands. It can be a time for hard (costume) decisions, especially if you only have one or two pairs of real cold-weather gloves and one pair says GORE-TEX all over them. Perhaps you’d prefer to keep that startling image out of your fellow-players minds; or perhaps you’d like like another layer.
Slide back in time a couple thousand years, and you’ll find a very flexible sort of hand protection. Boxing was a thing as far back as 800 BCE, when the boxers wore strips of leather wrapped around their hands and wrists (source). The only technologies required for this is a certain understanding of how anatomy works, easily gained by hitting soft things and then hitting hard things, and the ability to make leather. If you want to completely cover your hand, you could try the techniques in videos like these; after all, modern boxers still face some of the same risks as their ancient buddies.
Either way, the wraps would be suitable in a wide variety of settings, for pretty much any character that works with their hands. Just make sure to follow the advice of your local safety staff regarding the wraps- it can be easy to get a little too tight in the wrong places!
For the Vegan Troll-Slayer:
Thick Faux Suede Cord. One yard of 10 mm by 1.5 mm cord. Ships worldwide. $2 USD
Brown Cork Fabric. 0.5 m square. Ships worldwide. $13 USD
For the Non-Vegan Druid:
Brown Leather Cord. 10 cm. Ships worldwide. €2.00 EUR
Scrap Leather Rectangles. 10 in by 17 in. Ships worldwide. $4 USD.
Image Credit: Fist Fighter - Man by WolfgangRieger [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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![To all my fellow Americans: Happy 4th of July! To celebrate, today’s post features a particularly affordable bit of historical costume; in point of fact, the outfit in question is completely free, and you already own it!
Ben Franklin is respected as a politician, writer, businessman, diplomat, and inventor. But of these accomplishments, his greatest is (obviously) the air bath. The air bath is the practice of standing bare-ass naked to the wind, allowing the soothing flow of cool air to bath your body in its breath. Franklin was known for doing this in front of the the windows of his dwellings, as there the breeze was strongest. (Source is paragraph 6.)
So! In honor of the founding of this still-rather-puritan-about-genitalia country, take a nice, looooooong air bath and rest assured that you are perfectly era-appropriate!
Your Birthday Suit. Available worldwide. $0 USD
Sculpture by Hiram Powers [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6n2kkWTov1r0k1xoo1_400.jpg)
To all my fellow Americans: Happy 4th of July! To celebrate, today’s post features a particularly affordable bit of historical costume; in point of fact, the outfit in question is completely free, and you already own it!
Ben Franklin is respected as a politician, writer, businessman, diplomat, and inventor. But of these accomplishments, his greatest is (obviously) the air bath. The air bath is the practice of standing bare-ass naked to the wind, allowing the soothing flow of cool air to bath your body in its breath. Franklin was known for doing this in front of the the windows of his dwellings, as there the breeze was strongest. (Source is paragraph 6.)
So! In honor of the founding of this still-rather-puritan-about-genitalia country, take a nice, looooooong air bath and rest assured that you are perfectly era-appropriate!
Your Birthday Suit. Available worldwide. $0 USD
Sculpture by Hiram Powers [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
Like Larp Couture? Please throw some cash into the Tip Jar!
