The History of the Costume: a blog about the history of costumes.
Welcome to The History of the Costume. I’m glad you’re here!
The goal of this blog is to bring together a variety of resources on historical costuming and history, with an emphasis on costume from 1750-1900. As I’ve been researching my own costumes, I’ve found many great websites and blogs, but they were spread out all over the place. With this blog, I hope to make it easier to find them all in one place.
This blog is still very new–I’ll post more soon!
Halloween is a popular holiday celebrated each year on October 31, and Halloween 2019 occurs on Thursday, October 31. The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints and martyrs; the holiday, All Saints’ Day, incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows’ Eve and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.
The History of the Costume: a blog about the history of costumes.
My name is Diane and I have been a costume historian for over 20 years. I started this blog to share my passion for historical costumes with the world.
I hope you will enjoy this site, learn something new about costumes, and maybe even be inspired to make one yourself!
Cinderella’s Coach
One of the most elaborate and beautiful costumes in the entire collection is Cinderella’s Coach. The coach is constructed entirely out of cardboard, which was covered first with papier-mâché, then with gesso and then 24k gold leaf. It has eight wheels, each one feet tall, that spin freely. Inside are seats upholstered in white velvet and two small crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling.
The coach was designed by the famous French designer Pierre Cardin and constructed at his atelier in Paris. It took over three months to make and cost $100,000 to build (over half a million dollars in today’s money). We first used the costume in a 1963 production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Julie Andrews as Cinderella and Celeste Holm as the Fairy Godmother.
The history of the Pumpkin Costume is as interesting as it is varied. The costume became popular in the United States in the late 1970s due to its convenience and availability, but it has been around for centuries.
The origins of the costume can be traced back to ancient Egypt where a carved pumpkin was used as a decoration by ancient Egyptians during special occasions such as weddings or funerals. These early pumpkin heads were known as “jack o’lanterns” because they resembled jack o’ lanterns (a type of candle lamp made from a hollowed-out pumpkin). They were also called “jack o’lanterns” because jack o’ lanterns were often used as scarecrows or scare tactics during Halloween festivities.
However, it wasn’t until the 20th century that pumpkin costumes became popular in America. The first recorded use of a pumpkin costume was at an early Halloween party held in New Hampshire on October 31, 1884 where guests dressed up as pumpkins and danced around bonfires to celebrate their harvest season.
Fast forward about 100 years later when the Great Depression hit America hard and many families had little money to spend on entertainment or decorations for their homes. People started carving their own pumpkins into faces which became known as “jack o’lan
One of the most important things about a Halloween costume is that it is fun to wear. But we also have to remember that Halloween costumes have a long history dating back thousands of years. We do not know the exact origins of Halloween costumes but people have been wearing them for centuries in different forms.
It is believed that Halloween costumes originated from Celtic times. The Celts believed that on October 31st, the border between the worlds of the living and dead became blurred and spirits came into our world to cause trouble and damage crops. To ward off these evil spirits, people would wear masks and other disguises when they went outside. They would also place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the spirits, who were thought to feast on this offering during the night.
The traditions of dressing up in Halloween costumes carry over into modern times as well.
The pumpkin costume is a perennial favorite for kids. But, have you ever thought about what a strange costume it is? It’s basically a big orange ball with two holes cut into it. So how did the pumpkin even become associated with Halloween anyway?
Pumpkins actually come from North America and only arrived in Britain when Europeans came over. In fact, they weren’t even grown in America by Native Americans who were here before the Europeans. They were grown by the Aztecs who are from Mexico. How did this vegetable from Mexico become associated with Halloween in Britain and Ireland?
The tradition of carving pumpkins into lanterns for Halloween comes from a legend about a man called Stingy Jack who was an Irish blacksmith and farmer. Stingy Jack was known for his stinginess and for playing tricks on others. One night, he tricked the devil to climb up an apple tree and then carved a cross into the trunk of the tree so that the devil couldn’t get down until he agreed not to harm Jack. The devil agreed and Jack let him down. A few years later, Jack again tricked the devil into climbing up another tree, this time a pear tree, and again carved a cross into it so that the devil couldn’t get down until he again agreed not