The Last Hours Fashion Pt 2
Chain of Thorns comes out TOMORROW!!!! Just in time, here’s my analysis of the official art by @nicole.deal.art in terms of historical accuracy. I’ve already reviewed the girls’ outfits, so now it’s time for the guys!
There aren’t as many primary sources available for Edwardian menswear, and men’s fashion in general tends to change less from era to era. Men’s business and formalwear has stayed basically the same shape for the past 130 years. Keeping that in mind, let’s look at some of these pictures and see how well they hold up.
James
James looks pretty good! The picture looks like it’s at night, so he’s probably wearing evening dress. The high collar and cravat is a distinctly Edwardian style, as seen in the outfit on the right here:
This guy is also wearing a wrap-around waistcoat in a similar style to James’. To make it really accurate, he’d be wearing a hat and jacket, but this picture is obviously showing a fight scene so I can imagine that he lost both at some point. If we’re being really pedantic, James’ hair should also be a bit shorter, but I appreciate that a haircut is probably not high on his list of priorities right now.
Accuracy: 8/10
Matthew
Matthew is a self-described bohemian, and is also very concerned with fashion, so we can expect his clothes to be a bit more colourful and decorated than was possibly the norm. This is also at night, so eveningwear again. It looks like he’s wearing a tailcoat— if you look closely, the cut is similar to the ones in this picture from 1904:
The slight problem with eveningwear is that every source I’ve found suggests that Edwardian evening dress for men was almost exclusively black-and-white tuxedos. In fact, menswear from this time was pretty boring in terms of colour. However, Matthew is, as mentioned, a bohemian, and textually wears very colourful clothing. Same issues as James re: hat and hair, but I can justify it the same way as with James.
And some pictures of cravats for comparison:
The gloves are also interesting. Evening gloves were almost always white, whereas these are dark grey, but I’m prepared to believe they’re either Shadowhunter fighting gloves or worn for warmth in the street after a party.
Accuracy: 7/10
Thomas and Alastair
They’re wearing Shadowhunter gear, which there are obviously no historical references for, so I can’t really analyse it. I’m interested in how their gear differs— Thomas’ seems to be mostly leather, whereas Alastair appears to be wearing a vaguely Georgian puffy white shirt with metal throat, shoulder and wrist guards. We don’t have very many canon images of Shadowhunter gear, so it’s interesting to look at.
On a side not, Cassie said on her Instagram that this picture is of them in an abandoned Paddington Station. I’ve been to Paddington, and the background looks absolutely spot on. Kudos to the artist!
Accuracy: 10/10 just for the background.
Jesse
I don’t have very much to say about this one. The shirt is pretty generic but the trousers are interesting. The distinctive front flap with the two buttons isn’t a style you see with the Edwardians, who have moved on to someone more resembling the modern fly. And yes, I googled “how did the Edwardians fasten their trousers” to find this information. Jesse’s trousers more resemble Regency breeches, as you can see in this pictures:
This is interesting, considering the links I drew between Grace’s dress and Regency fashion in my last post. Guess we’ll find out tomorrow if my time travel theory was correct!
The jacket looks like a fairly Edwardian standard coat with the sleeves rolled up. Not much to say except that the deep green colour is possibly slightly unrealistic but it’s a tiny thing.
Accuracy: 6/10
Christopher
Christopher’s hard at work in his lab, and accordingly isn’t wearing fancy clothes. Like Jesse, this is a fairly basic trousers and shirt ensemble that fits pretty well with the period.
Things get interesting when we start looking at the apron and goggles. PPE (personal protective equipment) isn’t strictly fashion, so I had to do a bit more digging into this one as it’s not an area I knew much about.
The goggles could be period inaccurate, depending on how you look at it. The first form of eye protection for welding was developed by the inventor Powell Johnson in 1880. Johnson called his invention “eye protectors” and it was simply two strips of opaque cloth that could be seen through while still offering some protection.
Safety glass— glass coated in plastic to prevent shattering— was invented by Edouard Benedictus in 1903, when TLH is set. However, it wasn’t until 1909 that the first safety glasses were invented by Julius King. So Christopher’s eyewear is about six years ahead of its time. On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that Shadowhunters— probably the Iron Sisters in particular— were using protective eyewear before mundanes and Christopher is simply adopting the technology. But if we’re going by a purely historical standpoint, the goggles are a bit off.
The apron nearly drove me insane because I could not find any sources from the Edwardian era that show a similar style. The best I could find out is that bib aprons have been worn for welding since the 1880, so it’s reasonably accurate. Christopher really needs to pull it up a bit higher, though. Your shirt’s getting scorched, mate. PPE is no joke.
Accuracy: 5/10
As a last note of interest, while I was researching I came across this image I just had to share. It’s a cartoon that appeared in the Tacoma Times in 1903 and satirically depicts “men’s clothing designed by women”. Look at these guys. The og malewives. Poor little meow meows.
Sources:
Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute
Fashion History Timeline
Vintage Dancer
OHS
Bakersgas Welding
Aaand there we go! I probably spent way too much time on this, but it was fun. I’ll see you all on the other side after I’ve finished Chain of Thorns. Remember to tag your spoilers!
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