Costume Contest
Saturday, July 17 at 1:00 p.m.
Coiner Park Gazebo
A costume contest has been a feature of Bohemia Mining Days since its inception. Dressing up for BMD in Victorian or western-wear creates a wonderful spirit throughout the community and reminds festival-goers of the fashions of a by-gone era.
Women’s clothes in particular were so restrictive it limited their activities and in many cases tightly laced corsets created internal and breathing problems for them. No wonder they took to the streets to demand the right to vote and to wear more practical clothing than what the Victorian-era societal norms dictated at the time!
Costume Categories: Man, Woman and Child with a cash prize for each winner.
Entry Fee: None
Prizes: A $25 prize will be awarded to the winner of each category.
BMD 2010 Costume Contest Winners:
Men’s Division: Don Soloman
Women’s Division: Amy Callahan
Children’s Division: Faryn Dahlen
*Family Division: The Boone Family
*This new costume category was inspired by The Boone Family’s entry during this year’s contest and will be continued in future years.
Our thanks to this year’s Costume Contest Judges:
Todd Arney (1st year)
Judy Seiffert (1st year)
Jim Valenti (7th year)
“Women’s clothes in particular were so restrictive it limited their activities and in many cases tightly laced corsets created internal and breathing problems for them. No wonder they took to the streets to demand the right to vote and to wear more practical clothing than what the Victorian-era societal norms dictated at the time!”
Historically, women did not “take to the streets” so they could wear more practical clothing. In the first place, not everyone tightly laced their corsets. I am a costumer, and I have a corset that is comfortable–and certainly more comfortable than any modern type of underwear. It depends on whether or not you get a good fit. Another thing is, not everyone wore them. Look at the pioneers coming across the Oregon trail, for example. They certainly were hardy people and not affected by the fashion of the day, and there is little evidence that they wore the corset or laced it tightly. Re-enactors are quite knowledgeable about the truth about the women’s clothing of the era.
The temperance movement was about closing the saloons and making it impossible to sell liquor, which was destroying the family by tempting men to spend their paychecks on it before they even took care of their own wives and children.
There is a book you can read which dispels the many myths of the Victorian era, called “The Benevolence of Manners” by Linda Lichter. She was a reporter that was given an assignment to research the Victorian era, and discovered that though there are many rumors to the contrary, Victorians women were happy and more protected than women today, and that they wore clothes that covered them because of their sense of duty to be non-offensive to others around them. She has a chapter on their eating customs, their clothing, their celebrations, their careers, their recreation, their religion, and much more. It includes some photographs of the era. Moderns like to believe that they were all miserable down-trodden people, but the Victorians invented everything we have improved upon today: the sewing machine,the bicycle, the automobile, the typewriter, the light bulb, radio, concrete modern plumbing, improved the hospital, and developed schools for the poor.
Her book describes the 20th century moderns as throwing off their Victorian morals “with a vengeance” that would prejudice all future generations against the era.
The belief that the women took to the streets for rights to wear better clothes, is perpetuated by moderns who have stereotyped the women of that era. My great grandmothers lived during that era, and they did not wear corsets. 80 percent of women were farm women at that time, and they did not wear corsets, but something called a “stay” which was not like a corset.
A blogger, tired of the museaum inaccuracies of the Victorian era, has written more about the myths that are unfortunately perpetuated by many museums, movies and books (highly inaccurate) here http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/victorians/inventiotimeline.html
In every major museum we see such myths highlighted on expensive signs, claiming that women had no freedom and had to wear restrictive clothing. Costumers and re-enactors will tell you that the clothing was actually quite comfortable.