Johanna's Ohmigosh List of Costuming Resources

I go through phases, and I will add links as those phases occur to me. 
So stop by frequently and see what the latest additions are.
Most recent update: 6/05 - Added new links to Various Others...

The Vintage Pattern Lending Library - offers digitized copies of patterns from 1880 - 1960, expertly copied and printed on sturdy paper. Get a genuine-era pattern without paying a fortune!
The Blue Gardenia - patterns from 1920 - 1970 in varying states.
Lily Abello's Vintage Patterns - patterns from 1920 - 1960, limited selection but well-priced
Jan's Jewels - big selection from 1930 - 1950, including men and children
Davenport & Co. - limited selection of patterns from the 30s thru 50s
Vintage Martini - Victorian through 1960s period patterns. Good quality, good selection.
Vintage Cat - patterns from the turn of the century through late 1970s.
Patterns From The Past - no frills site with patterns from 1930s to 1990s for men, women and children. An ever growing resource and useful for visual reference, even if you can't find a pattern to suit your needs.
Fabric Fancies - small, but interesting, collection of patterns from 1940s - 1980s, as well as vintage clothing and costuming books.
The Vintage Pattern Lending Library - moderately priced copies of rare vintage patterns. A great idea!
E-Bay's Vintage Sewing Listing - if you know what you want, try here. Make sure the pattern is complete before you bid!

Sandra Ros Altman's: Past Patterns - 1830 - 1940. Includes some vintage patterns, too.
Folkwear - A veritable pillar of support for historical costumers. Patterns from many eras and places.
Richard The Thread - patterns for Tudor and Renaissance garments, plus some notions.
Victoria Louise, Mercers - patterns from 18th & 19th centuries, as well as corsetry and millinery supplies.
Fall Creek Sutlery - American Civil War patterns, men, women and children.

The Renaissance Tailor - a sizable archive of well-written, well-illustrated articles about constructing 16th and 17th Century clothes
Elizabethan Costume - History and Technique - short on illustrations, but features informative capsulated summaries of the clothing for the era, broken down by class and gender.
Elizabethan Garb for Manly Men - includes several how-to's for adapting modern clothing patterns for Renaissance wear. Useful because costuming sites for men's clothing are so rare!
Festive Attyre - Another Elizabethan site. Fabulous gallery, great journals of works-in-progress which are full of useful tips and a great collection of links for research and costuming.
Sempstress.org - Yet more Elizabethan costuming, featuring ongoing construction diaries and good tips and links.
Clone Yourself A Fitting Assistant - if you're serious about sewing, you'll need a fitting dummy - and some of us aren't standard sizes!
Sewscape Resources Page - lots of links for sewing tips, particularly for historical costumers and covering many eras.
The Auld Garb Monger's Costumes for Manly Man - a tongue-in-cheek how-to guide for making gents' Faire garb. Very good for the beginning sewer.
Corsetry! - A page of links for patterns, supplies and custom corsetiers. Everything for historic re-creationists, and the grooviest partypeople. 

19th & 20th Century Vintage Clothing
Fashion Dig's Mod Shop - Good quality clothing from the late 60s. Very Austin Powers.
Vintage Martini - Vintage Clothing - Victorian through 1960s, men and women.
Davenport & Co. Vintage Clothing - Victorian through 1970s
Jas. Townsend And Son - offering reproduction 18th and 19th Century clothing for re-enactors.
Nicole's Revival - High-end consignment for contemporary garments. Scroll down to find the link into the catalog.
Rusty Zipper - Vintage clothing from the 1940s - 80s
Another Time Vintage Apparel - Victorian to 1940s clothing. High end, high prices.
Tangerine Boutique - vintage and couture clothing. A lot of pieces are un-dated, looks like 30s - 60s.
Vintage Silhouettes - vintage clothing and patterns for men and women. Better than average selection of men's clothing.
Aesthetically Vintage - 1930s - 70s. Good place to look for a vintage Hawaiian shirt.
Hemlock Vintage Clothing - Victorian thru 1960s. Almost entirely women's clothing.
Axella's Vintage Clothing - 1940s - 1970s, men and women.
Unique Vintage - 1950s - 1980s clothing for women.
The Perfect Little Black Dress - vintage/modern black dresses, and patterns suitable for same.
MonsterVintage.com - online retailers of vintage apparel and accessories from the 1920s - 1970s
The Cat's Pajamas - Vintage clothing and accessories for men and women from the 1890s - 1980s, including a good selection of larger sizes for ladies. Well-organized site.
Stitches In Time - Women's clothing from 1850 - 1970s
Vintage Wonderland - 1930s - 1980s clothes and accessories for men and women
Swanky Vintage - Mostly 70s and 80s clothing for men and women
Trashtique - Looks like mostly 80s, 90s and contemporary clothing for men and women. Fun place to browse.
King Poodle - Absurdly Cheap Vintage Clothing - A subset of Rusty Zipper and just like it says. Everything on the site is $10 or less. Inventory ranges from the 1950s to the 1980s, patterns and clothing.
1860 - 1960.com - Women's clothing. Limited selection, but good quality.
Enokiworld - "Vintage clothing for the modern woman". This place is a little pricey, but good to look at and fun to browse. Click on lifestyle to see vintage patterns for sale.
Funk And Junk - Used vintage clothing for men and women. Navigation is a little haphazard, but worth it.
Glorious Vintage - Clothing and accessories from the 40s - 70s. Good prices!
Jabot's Vintage Boutique - Specializing in the swing era, but carries items from the 1890s to the 1960s. Good prices, and a well-designed site
Just Say When - Clothing from 1900s - 1980s. Pricey, but good quality.
Vintage Silhouettes - Men's and women's clothing from 1830 to 1970s. A little expensive, but worth it. Also, a good collection of vintage sewing patterns.
The Outskirts - vintage clothing and accessories for men and women
Catching The Butterfly - Used clothing, modern and vintage. All items cost $30 or less.
Dandelion Vintage - wearable vintage clothing from the late 19th Century to the 1970s. Generally of high quality.

Civil War/American West
R&K Sutlery - ready-made US Civil War era clothing and accessories for men and women. Not quite tailor-made, but reasonable pricing.
Allen's Laurel Hill Sutlery - fully tailored US Civil War era clothing.
Territorial Trader - "1800's style cowboy and cowgirl clothing"
Cowboy Corral - Contemporary and historical-styled clothing of the American West
Man in the Crowd's Vintage Cowboy Boots - like the name suggests

19th & 20th Century Reproduction Clothing
Rebecca's Reproduction Clothing - Victorian and Regency, mostly. Expensive but good quality.


Other Era Clothing - Reproduction/Custom Made
The Historical Costume Company - UK based, international distribution. Will make costumes from the medieval era to modern day and beyond (SCA, fantasy, etc.) Good selection, extensive online catalogue.
Carey Costuming - medieval, Renaissance and fantasy garb. Good for SCAdians, Fairies and fantasy gamers. Also sells a limited amount of jewelry and armor, and offers garment-care tips.


Corsetry
Corsetry! - A page of links for patterns, supplies and custom corsetiers. Everything for historic re-creationists, and the grooviest partypeople.
 

Advice From Other LARP Troupes and LARPers
Romily's Castle Falkenstein Pages - Costuming advice for men and women partaking in Victorian-era LARPs
The Clothing of 7th Sea - A general guide to the style, fabric and taste of the races of Thea. 
The Courtesans of Vodacce - by the author of the above link. 

Lord of the Rings Costuming
Alleycatscratch.com - If you're serious about doing LotR costuming as inspired by Peter Jackson's trilogy, this is the first - and possibly only - site you need go to. Lots of pictures, links and advice for practically everything you see in the films. I highly recommend joining the mailing list, although stick to the daily digest option, unless you like getting 30 - 150 posts per day in your inbox. 

Indiana Jones
indygear.com - the MOST exhaustive site for Indiana Jones cosplay that I've seen. However, it's all about the title character, not the supporting cast.

Star Wars
How to Build Your Own Star Wars Stormtrooper Costume (and more!) - Not for the faint-of-heart, but very informative and well-written. This site now features how-to's on snow- sand- and stormtrooper garb as well as Tusken Raiders and some other sci-fi/fantasy favorites. 
The Padawan's Guide To Episode II Costuming - A thorough, complete site. Covers Amidala's garb, as well as everything you could want to know about the Jedi. Kick ass, and check out her links.
Amber's Jedi Meditation Chamber - Another Jedi-garb specific site. Very useful, and justifiably admired.
Star Wars Replica Boots - custom made and very expensive, but if you want something that looks good and will fit you like a glove, check it out - and the pictures are useful reference, too.
Boba Fett Costuming - Be patient with this site, it often exceeds Geocities chintzy bandwidth limit.
Obi-Wan's Jedi Academy Costume Tips - Extensive and well-written tips for costuming a dozen different characters from the Star Wars series of films - not just the jedi. A must-see site!

Zoot Suits
El Pachuco - Brand new zoot suits, shirts, hats and shoes for sale. Also offers suit rentals.
ZootSuitStore.com - New and vintage zoot suits for sale, plus rentals. Accessories and retro clothes are also offered.

Special Effects
Novelty Contact Lenses - Just like the title says.
Doctored Locks - A fab place to get synthetic and real hair extensions, hair color, assorted accoutrements. V. popular with the dread-fall making crowd.

Various Others...
The Electric Swinging Pussycat Lounge! Uh, Closet... - a growing collection of fashion pix from the 1960s, courtesy of my alter ego. It's finally stored on this domain, so no more popups!
Chuckling Cthulhu's links for historical patterns and clothing - covers a variety of eras
The Costumers' Manifesto - Portal site.
The Customer's Manifesto Pattern Links Page - lots of links!
The Costume Page - Portal site. A little scanty, but useful. 
Greater Bay Area Costumer's Guild - A good resource, not just for Bay Area locals. Tips, pattern reviews, many good links.
FashionDig.com - "Exploring 20th Century Style", vintage clothing, accessories, image archives, advice. 
Victoriana.com's Link Directory
Vintage Cat - offering books and vintage catalogs as well as patterns.
E-Bay Search Results for "Pattern Book" - pattern books are great collections of a look for a given era - good for lots of ideas! I did my best to rule out a lot of fluff when setting this url.
Persephone Plus - Custom Made Gothic Clothing in Plus Sizes - not quite in line with the rest of this page, but it's a good site and I want to promote 'em.
Lavolta Press - Support independent publishers! These chaps in San Francisco publish several fine books on historic costuming, and will sell to individuals directly from their web site.
Genie's Fab Fabrics - textiles from the 1950s - 1970s for sale. Some absolutely fab sixties' fabric can be found here.
Medieval Collectibles - Just like the name suggests - gear for the medieval re-creationist and enthusiast. Weaponry, jewelry, even musical instruments!
The Salacious Historian's Lair - Costuming information on a variety of genres, ranging from French baroque to Pirates of the Caribbean - both navy and piratical side, which is rare as most sites prefer to focus on the pirates.

Corsetry! - A page of links for patterns, supplies and custom corsetiers. Everything for historic re-creationists, and the grooviest partypeople. 

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email: jo(at)skaro.com