Costuming Overview | Women's Costume | Men's Costume

Costuming Overview

The Great Dickens Christmas Fair is an authentic re-creation of 19th-century London with all the color, warmth, and merriment of Christmas during the time of Charles Dickens (1840–1860). The air is filled with enticing aromas of festive foods and the sounds of street vendors. Peopling the fair's bustling lanes are characters from Dickens' A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Nikolas Nickelby and others, not to mention Mr. Dickens himself.

We would like all our participants to remember that this is a street fair and that we are attempting to reconstruct a total environment. Therefore, we ask each participant to develop a unique and authentic street character and to be "in character" when on the "streets of London."

With that in mind, we are requiring head-to-toe costumes for all participants during fair hours. No participants should be in the streets out of costume or in a partial costume.

As we are creating a total "living history" environment, we are requiring that costumes be historically accurate and appropriately accessorized. So when designing your costume, consider your character and dress according to your character's occupation and/or class, what you are doing here at the fair, and the London winter weather.

This section of our website contains basic overall guidelines as well as basic information on men's and women's costuming. If you desire more detailed (and exceptionally good) information, we highly recommend the book Victorian Costuming by Janet Winter and Carolyn Savoy (most of the guidelines here have been pulled from their book). In the book's pages you will find all the information you need to construct your own costume. It is published by Other Times Productions and is available for $10 through Lacis in Berkeley. You can contact them at (510) 843-7178 or visit their website at www.lacis.com. The book and many other resources can be ordered on-line. Victorian Costuming can also be ordered from Amazon.com.

Fabrics & Colors:

Some of the best fabrics to use are wool, twill, serge, cotton velvet, satin, taffeta, cotton, and linen.

Colors were rich and varied ' garnet, plum, moss green, gold, gray, beige, brown, blue, and black. Fabric patterns were interesting and fun, including plaids, prints, paisleys, stripes, herringbone, and tweeds.

DO NOT use fluorescent or modern-looking colors or prints, and avoid obvious polyester fabrics. 

Thrift Shop Costuming:

You don't have to be a great seamstress to make a good costume for the fair. Many costumes can be created by adapting clothing found in thrift shops and used-clothing stores. Have fun hunting!

Women - Petticoats can be made by cutting off the skirts of 1950s evening gowns or any long, full-skirted dresses. White, long-sleeved blouses that button up the front or back are great. Look for knitted or crocheted shawls. Lace doilies make great day caps ' just add ribbon and some silk flowers. And don't forget gloves!

Men - Find baggy pants and taper the legs down or remove the cuffs. Buy an old vest and square off the bottom by folding under the points. Adapt white shirts by cutting off the fold-over collar right at the top and finishing off the edge. A sack coat can be made by shortening an old overcoat to fingertip length.

Movie & Book Sources for Costuming

The Dickens Christmas Fair takes place in a very specific time period. Corsets were the foundation garment of the time (for women and men a like) and the Bonnet for women and the topper for men was a staple in every proper gentlepersons wardrobe. The Dickens fair takes place in what is known historically as the industrial age. Crinolines and many, many starched petticoats held up the voluminous bell shaped skirts that were in fashion. We do not allow the high umpire waist of the 1820's-30's and we do not allow the high bustle of the late 1860's-80's. The reason for this is, Charles Dickens is the headliner in our fair, he is up and walking around greeting guests as they enjoy our show. We want to maintain a time in history that he was alive as an adult.

There are many books and movies that are excellent sources for costume manners and accent of the time we are portraying. There will soon be a recommended books and movie list on our website at www.Dickensfair.com with links to Amazon.com for both performers and guests to utilize. Below are the lists themselves for a trip to the library or a trip to the movie rental store.

• The story of Adele H. (French movie about british events. subtitled) - Women's garments and military costume.
• Christmas Carol (Patrick Stewart) - Fabulous for all classes.
• Black Adder's A Christmas Carol (BBC) - worth seeing anyway.
• Oliver! - The cheesy musical. The first part of this movie has an excellent crowd scene; watch it for just that.
• Oliver Twist (Elijah Wood) (Disney) - The color palette is excellent for The Dockside area, or Mad Sal's.
• BBC Miniseries David Copperfield - A baby Harry Potter plays young David; very good movie and source for visuals.
• Nicholas Nickleby (2002) - A wonderful movie full of approvable costume ideas and colorful characters. Highly recommended for this fair.

These movies are a sampling of what is visually required for the theatrical look of the fair. You may also get mannerisms and accents from some of these movies.

Movies to avoid as sources:

• Titanic - Edwardian
• Mary Poppins - Edwardian
• My Fair lady - Edwardian
• From Hell - Too late Victorian, Dickens was off this mortal coil.
• The Wizard of Oz -  'nuf said.
• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Ha
• Gangs of New York - American and too late
• The little princess - 1899 too late
• Ideal Husband - Hourglass period. Waistline too low, silhouette too narrow.
• The four feathers - Bustle period.

The above movies are all too late for our time period. My Fair Lady is good for those who want to learn the speech pattern of both upper and lower classes.

I have a more comprehensive list with harder to get movies but these are really great to focus on. There are some movies that have been purposly left off because either the content was inconsistent or because the costumes are not as visible for as the rest of the list.

Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions @ costumes@redbarnproductions.org