Costuber/Costuming Community

[Julienne]

Before the Automobile makes stunning things but she never answers questions in her comments...or replies to comments at all..

And I'm a seamstress so I know how to fit and the most important advice is to have someone to help while fitting! I don't think BtA fits all her stuff herself. Because you can kind of work on the front but not on your back. And her fitting isn't always perfect but this is not really visible because she makes beautiful decorations on her dresses which really distract from a few creases and whoever takes her pictures is reaaally good in capturing her and her dresses! (Can you hear my photographer-jelousy? )
A good example for poor fitting which is pretty visible and distracting from the dresses is PriorAttire! In all her 19th century things she has a fitting problem with her sleevehole. There is always a huge fold which drives me nuts and I cannot understand how so many people love her books where you can see this fitting problem even more.

There are pics of BtA at events that other people have taken. Her fit in real life is pretty much what you see in her photos. There is little photo trickery.

And unlike all the other usual suspects, BtA doesn't have a patreon, monetized YT channel, Etsy store, sponsor, Spoonflower, subscription website, shoe business, book or even an ad-supported website to market to you. Unlike anyone else discussed in this thread, you're not financing any aspect of her livelihood. When BB likes your YT comment, virtuouscourtesan responds to your ask and CHay gives you shoutout because you're her POC creator of the day, they are selling you something. Or potentially selling you something. They are interacting with a customer, not a friend. To costube social media is part of their marketing.

BTA has a real, full-time job, her photographer is her husband and she does it just for fun. Like her stuff, don't like her stuff. She doesn't interact all that much, but she also doesn't monetize your presence in her social media. It's actually refreshing that she doesn't do the latter, especially since she easily could. Which is why I find the former very forgivable.

All I can say about Prior Attire is that they finally stopped filming in portrait mode. What was up with that?

[twosugars]

Abby Cox's video honestly, truly mind boggles me. Note the incredibly short focus on Locust Grove versus their "totally coincidental" other activities.



Can you imagine the outrage if Lauren from American Duchess had made a video about her trip to Colonial Williamsburg, with a bit of a blurb on, say, one of the many Juneteenth events at CW in between her giggling, drinking, dancing in the rain?

[nobodyhere]

I really miss BB's sewing content, I like her videos- her calm editing style; but I hate her talkie filler videos. Her vibe was I like to make things and show you how I made them... I really, really miss that.

I'm starting to realize that if what I want is to watch people sew, I need to just find sewing YouTubers to watch outside of the big names in the historical costuming community. The hot takes and corset rants were entertaining for a time but these days I really want to watch people sew wearable clothes and learn more about sewing, and if they're less highly-produced videos that's fine with me.

FWIW WithWendy and Coolirpa on YouTube both do modern clothing sewing videos. Even if you don't like their clothing style (WithWendy is much too trendy for my basic b****h self ) they detail their process so you still learn something about how to sew. WithWendy is currently on maternity break but she's got a huge back catalogue. If you're looking for basic "learn to sew" type vids there's also Sewing Report, also on YouTube. She doesn't do a lot of clothing but she's got a whole series on very simple "here's how to do a hem" type lessons which are useful for beginners no matter what their end sewing goals are.

[nobodyhere]

Abby Cox's video honestly, truly mind boggles me. Note the incredibly short focus on Locust Grove versus their "totally coincidental" other activities.



Can you imagine the outrage if Lauren from American Duchess had made a video about her trip to Colonial Williamsburg, with a bit of a blurb on, say, one of the many Juneteenth events at CW in between her giggling, drinking, dancing in the rain?

Honestly I don't even know why Abby made this video other than this way she can write the trip off on her taxes as a business expense. And hey, if so I tip my hat. You gotta hustle when you're self-employed, no shame in it. But as a viewer I wish Abby and other YouTubers would understand that videos of them hanging out with their friends and being silly are not remotely interesting to people who don't know them personally. I saw the pictures of them all making funny faces at each other in the rain over on Instagram, I don't need to sit for however many minutes to watch it again in video format. It's boring.

I had the same issue when Abby did the video about measuring temperatures in the heat with different historical clothing which ended with her and her friends drinking and laughing in a bathtub. Like that video was already way too long and in need of serious editing for bloat, adding the final bit only made it worse. Ditto when Rachel did the video of her and her best friend that was nothing but them giggling at TikToks.

I mean they're all free to do what they want but as an audience member I'm likewise free to not add to their view count when the subject of the video holds zero interest for me.

[heroandflor]

I don't really associate Ghibli protagonists with fancy hairstyles? They're usually pretty in a simple way.

I mean at least do a braid, a bit of a curl or something. There are so many cute, simple styles. I'm a nitpicky bitch and think if you do something interesting with your outfit, you should also do something to your hair, to balance it out a bit.

[andipales]

I was so hoping GG was back up because I came back in search of answers to wtf happened between DSA Threads and I guess the rest of costube because she's spent a month vagueposting and yelling angrily into the void without really giving much detail. Her instagram stories today were mostly centred around barely veiled swings at Nicole Rudolph's last video, but I can't figure out what the beef there is?

I can well believe that shit show with the secret santa happened, and DSA threw vague shade at Nikki LeeAm over it (she ran the last secret santa), but did I miss how Abby Cox, Nicole Rudolph and co got into it with DSA somewhere? I don't recall them being particularly involved in the secret santa thing, but maybe I missed something?

[Sweetsweettea]

Abby Cox's video honestly, truly mind boggles me. Note the incredibly short focus on Locust Grove versus their "totally coincidental" other activities.

And, sticking elf ears on something to make it fantasy isn't an excuse to not have to think/talk about the historical implications of what you are wearing. We are wearing fantasy, so it has nothing to do with the Jane Austen fest and the potential problems surrounding it.

[RoyalBxtch]

There are pics of BtA at events that other people have taken. Her fit in real life is pretty much what you see in her photos. There is little photo trickery.

And unlike all the other usual suspects, BtA doesn't have a patreon, monetized YT channel, Etsy store, sponsor, Spoonflower, subscription website, shoe business, book or even an ad-supported website to market to you. Unlike anyone else discussed in this thread, you're not financing any aspect of her livelihood. When BB likes your YT comment, virtuouscourtesan responds to your ask and CHay gives you shoutout because you're her POC creator of the day, they are selling you something. Or potentially selling you something. They are interacting with a customer, not a friend. To costube social media is part of their marketing.

BTA has a real, full-time job, her photographer is her husband and she does it just for fun. Like her stuff, don't like her stuff. She doesn't interact all that much, but she also doesn't monetize your presence in her social media. It's actually refreshing that she doesn't do the latter, especially since she easily could. Which is why I find the former very forgivable.

All I can say about Prior Attire is that they finally stopped filming in portrait mode. What was up with that?

I hope nobody did understand me wrong but I didn't say that I thing she uses photoshop or whatever. I was just saying that yes, there are minor fitting problems but you don't see them because the rest is amazing and the pictures are taken really well!

I know she has no patreon or whatever and I'm so happy about that! The costuming world does not need anymore wannabe influencers..there's already enough drama around them...
And you're right, it's forgivable, but sometimes I wish she would share at least a bit of her knowledge...for example where she gets her fabrics because they are always fantastic and since she's from europe like I am and it's hard to find good fabric suppliers here.


And PriorAttires filming was SO weird. And isn't her husband a photographer? He should know how to film in a horizontal mode..never understood that filming style...

[LadyViorica]

I was so hoping GG was back up because I came back in search of answers to wtf happened between DSA Threads and I guess the rest of costube because she's spent a month vagueposting and yelling angrily into the void without really giving much detail. Her instagram stories today were mostly centred around barely veiled swings at Nicole Rudolph's last video, but I can't figure out what the beef there is?

I can well believe that shit show with the secret santa happened, and DSA threw vague shade at Nikki LeeAm over it (she ran the last secret santa), but did I miss how Abby Cox, Nicole Rudolph and co got into it with DSA somewhere? I don't recall them being particularly involved in the secret santa thing, but maybe I missed something?

I was wondering about that! I follow her on TikTok, not Instagram, but she's been doing a ton of vagueposting and I couldn't figure out what was going on.

[whydontyoudoright]

Abby Cox's video honestly, truly mind boggles me. Note the incredibly short focus on Locust Grove versus their "totally coincidental" other activities.

I just watched it and it's a very strange video. If you were a casual YouTube viewer with none of the context, you might be very curious why they spent so little time at the Jane Austen festival and why the brief time they filmed there is so heavily downplayed (I don't think they even mention that it's JaneFest in the video itself, just in the description). Meanwhile if you do have the context of the recent CW incident and Abby's reaction to it, the omission of most of JaneFest from this "girls' weekend!" vlog is glaring in itself, because it's hard not to read it as "We totally planned to dress up at JaneFest-on-a-Plantation but realized last-minute that it would be a bad look so instead we went to a museum and ran around in the rain."

And like okay, yes, better they did this than film themselves giggling in Regency dresses at Locust Grove, but honestly the best move from an optics standpoint was probably to just go, have a fun weekend with your friends and not film any of it. But then there's no Content to monetize and if you booked the trip with that in mind it probably feels like taking a loss.

The museum bit was interesting at least. Couldn't care less about wet elves in empire dresses.

[Betwixtthefigs]

But to put the fake village in context you need to read more than the brief summary at the top of the Wikipedia article. Judging by her videos she doesn't read more than that for her research. She should stick to meme videos or her Micarah Tewers-lite sewing videos.

We all need to acknowledge that Rachel is the true Meme Mom. KZ, while fun to watch, has very little meme game. Rachel drops pop culture references left and right. KZ needs to pass her the title.

[Julienne]

There are pics of BtA at events that other people have taken. Her fit in real life is pretty much what you see in her photos. There is little photo trickery.

And unlike all the other usual suspects, BtA doesn't have a patreon, monetized YT channel, Etsy store, sponsor, Spoonflower, subscription website, shoe business, book or even an ad-supported website to market to you. Unlike anyone else discussed in this thread, you're not financing any aspect of her livelihood. When BB likes your YT comment, virtuouscourtesan responds to your ask and CHay gives you shoutout because you're her POC creator of the day, they are selling you something. Or potentially selling you something. They are interacting with a customer, not a friend. To costube social media is part of their marketing.

BTA has a real, full-time job, her photographer is her husband and she does it just for fun. Like her stuff, don't like her stuff. She doesn't interact all that much, but she also doesn't monetize your presence in her social media. It's actually refreshing that she doesn't do the latter, especially since she easily could. Which is why I find the former very forgivable.

All I can say about Prior Attire is that they finally stopped filming in portrait mode. What was up with that?

I hope nobody did understand me wrong but I didn't say that I thing she uses photoshop or whatever. I was just saying that yes, there are minor fitting problems but you don't see them because the rest is amazing and the pictures are taken really well!

I know she has no patreon or whatever and I'm so happy about that! The costuming world does not need anymore wannabe influencers..there's already enough drama around them...
And you're right, it's forgivable, but sometimes I wish she would share at least a bit of her knowledge...for example where she gets her fabrics because they are always fantastic and since she's from europe like I am and it's hard to find good fabric suppliers here.


And PriorAttires filming was SO weird. And isn't her husband a photographer? He should know how to film in a horizontal mode..never understood that filming style...

If you really want to read someone for their clothing being poorly fitted and their photos not being representative of reality, why not devote our energy to Sewstine? Who despite having an extremely well-paid job has not yet found a money-making opporturnity she didn't like.

I just looooove that she does paid tutorials but obviously doesn't know the difference between furnishing and dress fabrics. That recent brocade dress was so obviously expensive yet hideously wrong for dressmaking, even her photographer's photoshopping skills couldn't save it this time around.

I was so hoping GG was back up because I came back in search of answers to wtf happened between DSA Threads and I guess the rest of costube because she's spent a month vagueposting and yelling angrily into the void without really giving much detail. Her instagram stories today were mostly centred around barely veiled swings at Nicole Rudolph's last video, but I can't figure out what the beef there is?

I can well believe that shit show with the secret santa happened, and DSA threw vague shade at Nikki LeeAm over it (she ran the last secret santa), but did I miss how Abby Cox, Nicole Rudolph and co got into it with DSA somewhere? I don't recall them being particularly involved in the secret santa thing, but maybe I missed something?

DSA was very intense about Juneteenth, including a supportive story to call Western historical fashion "colonizer fashion". If that support was genuine, she is probably disappointed with Abby's Crew. I suppose NR's cotton video is just an easy target for that disappointment. But since she can't even finish her regency gown because it's colonizer fashion, everyone still wearing western historical dress has got to be a disappointment.

[Lurk Err]

Who’s DSA?


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[steamyhottea]

Ditto when Rachel did the video of her and her best friend that was nothing but them giggling at TikToks.

I'm glad someone else thought the same. That video was maximum cringe.

[andipales]

DSA was very intense about Juneteenth, including a supportive story to call Western historical fashion "colonizer fashion". If that support was genuine, she is probably disappointed with Abby's Crew. I suppose NR's cotton video is just an easy target for that disappointment. But since she can't even finish her regency gown because it's colonizer fashion, everyone still wearing western historical dress has got to be a disappointment.

Ah ok, that makes sense, but I'm still lost as to what she wants as an end goal or even why she's been so vague about everything. Are we supposed to guess she's aiming for no more historical dress at all now then? What is the outcome she wants from all the dancing around subjects? If someone did something so heinous that DSA and all the people she keeps story sharing from who agree with her feel the need to get this up in arms about it, why not just name names and deal with it instead of all this cloak and dagger stuff. It's just such an odd response to the whole thing.

I've honestly begun to limit my exposure to most of them because the endless vagueposting is getting ridiculous.

[nobodyhere]

Ditto when Rachel did the video of her and her best friend that was nothing but them giggling at TikToks.

I'm glad someone else thought the same. That video was maximum cringe.

I don't mind the concept of reaction videos. I don't search them out but if a Youtuber I like does one I'll give it a watch. And I don't mind if Rachel branches out in her video subjects because I watch for her, not the results. But omg that video. Like first up the tik toks in and of themselves weren't that interesting or funny, then the only reaction was her and her friend laughing.

I made it about five minutes in and then bailed when it was clear it was a waste of time. I know Rachel got upset about how people didn't like it but her mistake was thinking the problem was that she was trying out different things to give herself a rest. She can have a rest! She can do new concepts! But there's got to be *something* in it for the viewers and that video wasn't it.

[LadyViorica]

DSA was very intense about Juneteenth, including a supportive story to call Western historical fashion "colonizer fashion". If that support was genuine, she is probably disappointed with Abby's Crew. I suppose NR's cotton video is just an easy target for that disappointment. But since she can't even finish her regency gown because it's colonizer fashion, everyone still wearing western historical dress has got to be a disappointment.

Ah ok, that makes sense, but I'm still lost as to what she wants as an end goal or even why she's been so vague about everything. Are we supposed to guess she's aiming for no more historical dress at all now then? What is the outcome she wants from all the dancing around subjects? If someone did something so heinous that DSA and all the people she keeps story sharing from who agree with her feel the need to get this up in arms about it, why not just name names and deal with it instead of all this cloak and dagger stuff. It's just such an odd response to the whole thing.

I've honestly begun to limit my exposure to most of them because the endless vagueposting is getting ridiculous.

She mostly does Italian Renaissance, I think? Which, true, you're not going to find a lot of colonizing going on in that time/place - it was mostly noble families fighting amongst themselves. So I guess you could make an argument that it's not as problematic an era as others (in terms of the fighting parties being equally matched) but really, just about every historical era involves atrocities. It's just a question of who, where, when, and why.

[Julienne]

Ah ok, that makes sense, but I'm still lost as to what she wants as an end goal or even why she's been so vague about everything. Are we supposed to guess she's aiming for no more historical dress at all now then? What is the outcome she wants from all the dancing around subjects? If someone did something so heinous that DSA and all the people she keeps story sharing from who agree with her feel the need to get this up in arms about it, why not just name names and deal with it instead of all this cloak and dagger stuff. It's just such an odd response to the whole thing.

I've honestly begun to limit my exposure to most of them because the endless vagueposting is getting ridiculous.

She mostly does Italian Renaissance, I think? Which, true, you're not going to find a lot of colonizing going on in that time/place - it was mostly noble families fighting amongst themselves. So I guess you could make an argument that it's not as problematic an era as others (in terms of the fighting parties being equally matched) but really, just about every historical era involves atrocities. It's just a question of who, where, when, and why.

The Italian Renaissance is far from being a safe place:

The city-states of Venice and Genoa controlled the Eastern Mediterranean from the 12th century and the Black Sea from the 13th century. They sold both Slavic and Baltic slaves, as well as Georgians, Turks, and other ethnic groups of the Black Sea and Caucasus.

Slave commerce during the Late Middle Ages was mainly in the hands of Venetian and Genoese merchants and cartels, who were involved in the slave trade with the Golden Horde. Between 1414 and 1423, some 10,000 eastern European slaves were sold in Venice

Venice isn't all of Italy but if all Western fashion is colonizer fashion, even if you recreate the clothing of a country that hadn't colonies at the time, all of Italian Renaissance dress has got to be marred by those slavers in Venice?

[andipales]

She mostly does Italian Renaissance, I think? Which, true, you're not going to find a lot of colonizing going on in that time/place - it was mostly noble families fighting amongst themselves. So I guess you could make an argument that it's not as problematic an era as others (in terms of the fighting parties being equally matched) but really, just about every historical era involves atrocities. It's just a question of who, where, when, and why.

The Italian Renaissance is far from being a safe place:

The city-states of Venice and Genoa controlled the Eastern Mediterranean from the 12th century and the Black Sea from the 13th century. They sold both Slavic and Baltic slaves, as well as Georgians, Turks, and other ethnic groups of the Black Sea and Caucasus.

Slave commerce during the Late Middle Ages was mainly in the hands of Venetian and Genoese merchants and cartels, who were involved in the slave trade with the Golden Horde. Between 1414 and 1423, some 10,000 eastern European slaves were sold in Venice

Venice isn't all of Italy but if all Western fashion is colonizer fashion, even if you recreate the clothing of a country that hadn't colonies at the time, all of Italian Renaissance dress has got to be marred by those slavers in Venice?
[/quote]

Must agree, I'm not sure any period in history is non-problematic. At any point, many people were enslaved, colonized and had horrendous crimes committed against them. If DSA is going in hard, then there really is no way to do costuming anymore for her. I wonder if what we're watching is her realizing that and coming to terms with having to choose between giving up at least her hobby and I believe side gig too, because she sells lace she machine makes, or getting used to touching on problematic things. It seems like costube yelling at each other over which of them favors the most problematic era is just going to descend into a dumpster fire pretty fast.

[LadyViorica]

I think a lot of people who are going in hard on social justice as relates to their hobbies are mostly . . . not experts. And because of that, the immediate response is "oh well I just won't do Regency/colonial America and it'll be fine! In fact, ACTUALLY my costuming is morally superior to YOUR costuming because I picked an umproblematic era." Because a lot of costube is American, and American education tends to not really touch on what happened in other parts of the world - hence you get people who think that the ONLY problematic time/place was American plantations. People are mistaking kneejerk reactions for actual reflection and mindfulness, and of course it's going to blow up in their faces, because human history can't be neatly boxed into "good times/places" and "bad times/places."