A brief history of historical costuming

Members of the Chicago Historical Costuming Society know well how fun it is to dress in the style of our predecessors, but of course we cannot claim to be the first generation to discover this wonderful hobby. Some of our own members have previous (and continuing) experience in everything from 20th century military reenactment to performing 14th century music in period-appropriate clothing. But even the historical people whose style we recreate were often themselves adherents to our same hobby. I’m not talking here about the patterns of fashion that tend to draw upon earlier styles, but rather about historical costuming societies like ours, that have existed throughout the centuries. In the account that follows, I’ll work backwards through several instances of people who, like us, have looked to the past for a rebirth of historical style.

The Recent Past

Two major historical reenactment movements roughly coincided during the mid-20th century, which have both been influential on historical costuming today. The centennial of the American Civil War, 1961-1965, sparked much interest in historical reenactment, both military and civilian. The horrors of that war, and of the Confederacy’s insistence on continuing the practice of slavery that led to that war, are beyond the scope of the focus on historical costuming and reenactment that this essay is pursuing; suffice to say, the motivations of some civil war reenactors have been called into question within that community. For our purposes here, I want to acknowledge that the mid-century Civil War reenactment movement had a strong emphasis on historical accuracy, with anecdotal stories of members being ejected from events when it was discovered that they had hidden a cooler inside their A-frame tent at a weekend event. 

The other mid-century movement was both much less insistent upon historical accuracy, and focused on a much earlier historical period. The Society for Creative Anachronism formed in 1966, by a group of artistic young people in the San Francisco area, who were by all accounts as much inspired by Tolkein as by history. That group’s heavily social focus, grounded in 1960s counter-cultural ideals of virtue, was heavily influenced by Arthurian legend, including 19th century re-interpretation of the chivalry virtues, of which I will write more below. Today, the SCA is likely the largest modern organization engaged in historical costume, with tens of thousands of members, whose interests range from the late Roman period to the late Renaissance, as well as members and associates who are drawn not by the clothing of that vast range of periods, but by a specific historical activity, or simply by the social experience of the society.

The somewhat recent past

In 1934, the town of Aldershot in Hampshire, England held a six day long event as part of the 40th annual military parade held in the town. The 1934 event included an elaborate reenactment of the siege of Namur, a city in modern-day Belgium that fell under French attack in 1695, when the area was under the control of the Kingdom of Spain. Participants in the reenactment wore military uniforms and civilian costumes that the organizers believed might represent clothing that would have been commonplace during the siege, over 200 years earlier. 

The first US Civil War reenactment that I could find documentation of was a reconstruction of troop deployments, in a mix of original and replica uniforms, at Gettysburg in 1913. There are also some accounts of battles being reenacted by civilians before the war had even ended, but I was unable to find much details, and as this essay intends to focus on historical costuming, that lack of information makes those accounts something of a sidenote. 

The fascination with the medieval

Medievalism appeared in many forms throughout the Victorian period, including in events featuring attendees in historical costume. In 1842, Queen Victoria hosted a medieval costume ball, with 2,000 invited guests in historical costumes. Victoria and Albert were themselves dressed in clothes inspired by effigies of King Edward III and Queen Philippa of Hainault. 

In 1839, the 13 Earl of Eglington hosted a medieval revival tournament, with some 40 participants in reconstructed medieval armor, and attended by several thousand spectators, most of whom wore “fancy medieval dress,” as was requested by the Earl. Eglington Castle being near the west coast of Scotland, west-southwest of Glasgow, the late-August weather brought a torrential thunderstorm just as the opening parade and presentation of contestants concluded. Despite the rough weather, a joust and melée was held on the third day of the event, which ended with a ball attended by some 2,000 members of the public, most of them in historical costume. 

On the European continent, the wearing of traditional dress, often unchanged for centuries, on the special occasion of a local festival day remains a commonplace practice. Prior to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1805, successful members of the merchant class sometimes joined in aristocratic celebrations of the medieval period, which often included historical costuming. 

Classical recreation in the medieval period

The renaissance period is of course characterized by Europeans reconnecting with the Classical period, which was largely facilitated by way of Arabic scholarship. From the 14th through the 16th centuries, as European interest in the the cultural legacies of ancient Greece and Rome blossomed, organized events celebrating the Classical period sprang up, often including attempts to reconstruct the clothing of those cultures, as depicted in ancient statuary. Statue gardens became popular throughout Europe, filled with intact or repaired pieces, as well as new works inspired by ancient sculptures and deliberate forgeries, and these gardens were sometimes the setting for banquets that venerated ancient Mediterranean culture, with recipes taken from the writings of Cato, and, of course, guests in historical costume. 

Join us in this long tradition

On Sunday, September 21, 2025, the Chicago Historical Costume Society hosts our own celebration of Medievalism, in which we fully embrace the long tradition of historical people wearing even more historical clothes. Attendees are encouraged to wear any interpretation of medieval clothing, whether that’s rigorously authentic medieval clothes, fantasy-blended post-Tolkeinian costumery, or anything in between. Please visit the event page for more information.