Categories: People

Renaissance Faire Fashion: Cleavage and Kilts

Renaissance faires and festivals are famous for the era-specific games, food, store front styles, drama, music and culture. Most notably, a faire would not be complete without the costumes of the faire employees and patrons. Dress ranges from historically accurate (referred to ‘garb’ instead of costume) to fantastic and outlandish.

Many faire-goers confess to feeling more comfortable in corsets or kilts than in contemporary attire. Reasons for this range from ‘it’s just me’ to ‘I was Queen Guinevere in a past life,’ and the festival attire reflects those comments and everything in between. Some outfits are notoriously daring, bold, and sexy. Wenches, pirates, and Highlanders freely roam faire grounds, touting their lustiness, bustiness, and lack of drawers, respectively.

At the Michigan Renaissance Festival held annually in Holly, Michigan, the Guinness Pub is a popular hangout for the most rambunctious and scandalously dressed faire patrons and employees. With Irish flags, fine drink, and live music adding to the flavor of the pub, you’ll find lecherous leprechauns, bawdy barmaids, vicious Vikings, and pirate men, complete with ‘compasses…pointing north’ and accompanying devilish grins. These patrons, often in persona to accompany their outfits, mingle with scantily clad fairies and dark angels.

While this behavior may seem a bit shocking initially, before long you may wonder exactly how to dress in sexy renaissance style. Even the casual faire patron becomes entranced by the renaissance festival subculture enough to try on an appealing article of clothing.

For men, there are a few primary elements to an outfit. Ladies find these items particularly appealing:

Leather gloves, boots, belts, and swords (if allowed at your faire: some faires will allow peace-tied weapons)
Nobleman’s attire (indicative of wealth)
Kilt and sporran
Regalia indicative of a particular heritage
Slightly unlaced peasant style shirt
Long hair and facial hair
A pipe or walking stick

Additionally, ladies prefer a man with his own drinking mug or horn and a full coin pouch. Some ladies are on the lookout for ‘real men wear kilts’ shirts as well.

Ladies have a wide range of choice in sexy renaissance attire. The most essential item of a typical faire outfit is of course the corset. Historically, women did not wear corsets during the renaissance, but in the name of expression and bawdiness, women wear them to renaissance festivals today. Most faires have at least two corset shops. At these shops, female employees will assist women in trying on the corsets, which come in various shapes and styles.

When trying on a corset, a second person pulls it taught enough to exaggerate the shape of the woman’s body, but not tight enough to bruise the ribs. Once the strings are tied, a woman leans forward and fluffs her breasts, pulling them securely upward where they will be supported enough to produce and maintain an ample amount of cleavage.

A cincher is a similar piece of attire, which is tightened corset-style but fits around the waist only, beneath the chest and above the hips. This accentuates the inward curve of the female form and is typically worn by wenches and pirates.

Depending on the faire goer, a woman may also choose to wear the following sexy items:

Tight pirate pants
A well-fitted vest
Long, unbound hair
Gypsy attire and/or belly dancing coin chains
Masks
Boots
Item identifying a particular culture or heritage
Her own mug
Pendant or charm hanging at just the right level

In addition to sexy attire, other behaviors are considered appropriate and attractive at a renaissance festival. Those with creative talents, such as musicians, dancers, and actors, are held in high esteem. Generally, an outgoing personality will receive positive attention as well.

If you’re reluctant to sample the sexy clothing, choose a day to observe the others feeling at home in their attire. Patrons dressed in contemporary clothing usually feel out of place amongst the faire folk, but they are always encouraged to don some era-appropriate clothing of their own.