English National Dress.

[Wulfhere]

Those Anglo-Saxon clothes, however authentic, are not English national dress. Genuine English national dress is something like the following, worn by morris dancers for centuries. Unlike most nations though, the English aren't so insecure as to need to promote it and shove it in your face at every opportunity.

[Peachy Carnahan]

Are any of the Anglo-Saxon tunics suitable to wear in warm weather?

Why are you planning to go abroad....?

[NationalConservative]

Why are you planning to go abroad....?

No, in regards to summer's arrival

[Peachy Carnahan]

Summer in England.....

I think you should be more concerned if the clothes are waterproof if you intend to wear them during an English summer.

[Liffrea]

I was always under the impression that “national costume” was considered “fakelore”……

[Osweo]

Unlike most nations though, the English aren't so insecure as to need to promote it and shove it in your face at every opportunity.

I was always under the impression that “national costume” was considered “fakelore”……

I suggest these two commonly expressed sentiments be re-examined with a view to their utility...

They apply as much to waving the flag or any other national symbol. I remember at school we were encouraged to mock Americans for their penchant for erecting flag poles on their front lawns and the like, but I wonder now who this mockery best serves. Is it really in English interests to encourage mockery of national pride?

The idea at school was always that 'we are above that.' Our 'quiet pride' is superior to such extravagance. ...but look around yourselves - that 'quiet' can easily turn to silence, wherein ANY display of pride will be viewed as an outlandish aberation.

Perhaps the readiness to excuse the loss of folklore, or to dismiss it as never having existed in the first place, is nothing but crafty social-engineering sponsored by those who seek to remove all that is national and specific to US from public life.

[Sahson]

Girls wore trousers in the Old Days?!? :-O

You know, this sort of 'smock' garment is easily the most practical and comfortable of all clothings. I don't have any old Mediaeval stuff, but I do own a similar garment from Russia, which I bought in the far North, near Arkhangelsk, and it's a delight to wear! Dead practical. Our present fashions are sheer madness on these terms. They're probably unhealthy too, the way they treat the body.

Remind me to dig out the pics of my Russkaya rubashka some time...

Is that the Kosovorotka?

[Osweo]

Is that the Kosovorotka?

'Slanty-collar-thingy'? I never heard it called that, but yes. A google search shows up these which are not too far off my linen thing;


Mine is not quite so elaborate in the embroidering though, and everyone I know over there just calls it a 'rubashka' or 'shirt'. I do like these plainer ones that the search turned up;



Such a simple tunic was universal in most of Europe, once upon a time. The variation comes in with national peculiarities in decoration.

[Liffrea]

Originally Posted by Osweo
Perhaps the readiness to excuse the loss of folklore, or to dismiss it as never having existed in the first place, is nothing but crafty social-engineering sponsored by those who seek to remove all that is national and specific to US from public life.

Or just a consequence of the historical fact that England has always dominated the British Isles and the more overtly aggressive nationalism of the Scots and Irish (and the consequent growth in plastic nationalism) as a reaction to that. Identity is always stronger the more under threat you are.

As for “national dress” such things are largely a 19th century invention.

I agree English identity needs more overt gestures but I would rather see it in the likes of Steadfast and organisations that try to create depth than in the superficiality of bits of cloth and dressing up. It’s a lesson I’ve learned from Heathenism if you need to dress up to feel then you need to question why that is so, personally I’m English I don’t need a bowler hat or flag to feel it.

I understand that such things may appeal to the masses, I can’t look out of my window for the sight of St George’s crosses because eleven blokes are going to kick a ball around for a couple of weeks in Africa, they will be all gone when England exit in the quarter finals, that’s just the sort of superficial mentality it often appeals to, their identity is probably three lions, and football, embodied in a piece of cloth……I’ll take the Peak District and the summer sun any day of the week, as the song says it’s about roots and they mean more to me than that, history and space i.e. depth. Not that I’m saying flag waving cannot be dignified, I had an England flag in my back garden for several years until the wind snapped the pole, but it often isn’t, the sort it normally arouses would follow anything.

[_______]

i like the cloaks!