When In Rome...

Caitlin's sweater was easily the hardest part of this page. That took a solid minute or two. Also, I never wear dresses unless some truly unfortunate circumstance requires me to do so, so Caitlin doesn't wear them, either.

DID YOU KNOW...?

In an effort to preserve its culture and heritage, Iceland created the Icelandic National Costume Board, a groupd that oversees the collection and documentation of traditional Icelandic clothing. Their website is HERE. Unfortunately, Google cannot translate all the pages (most pages were almost exclusively in Icelandic, which I don't speak, so if there were tidbits of information hidden among those pages I'm missing I would be grateful for a reliable translation). According to the site there is very little documentation on what they men and boys wore, so much of what the group haw compiled is based off inferences and hypothesis. This resulted in very few examples of what men and boys might have traditionally worn, and the above outfits for Juan and José are based off the few pictures I could find. The womens' outfits are documented far better, with clear documentation on not only what the women wore but when they wore it. There are noticeable shifts in the lates fashions during those times, and they're all very well-documented on that website.

I also was fascinated to see buttons were a big deal back then. Like, a REALLY big deal. The men and boys appeared to have buttons wherever they could put them, but there appear to be specific numbers of buttons in specific places (such as jackets, breeches, etc.). The women also enjoyed their buttons, although from the site it appears the womens' buttons were decorative more often than they were functional.

Sw1tchBl4de from Deviant Art helped with the coloring, and did an AMAZING job at it. Without his help biweekly updates would not have been possible. I can't stress enough what a great artist this guy is and the level of work he put into helping me with these. You should definitely go check out his work!