#florian in a big top hat is very funny to me.

[roserefrain]

HI MAR ^_^ i am bothering my mutuals for victorian AUs 🎩 heeheeehe i cant wait to see how it’ll turn out …

(@arsene-fixates)

hi arsene !! ty for the ask ! had to do some googling for this because. all I know about the Victorian period is thru the lenses of floriography or the history of dueling. sticking this one under a readmore cuz it got a lil long!

so! some lil headcanons for them in a Victorian au! aster absolutely switches their gender presentation between Big Dress With A Bonnet and Victorian Dandy. some images for a vibe idea! (had to find yellow ones for them)

Florian’s fashion sense does not change at all in the Victorian au except he gains an affinity for big ol top hats. he will look silly in them but he is wearing them anyways.

aster is absolutely a poet still, but is actually getting published! not Famous or anything, but they’re somewhat well known and they’re having a blast. (aster is having a blast in basically any au where they’re human. they can do what they love without hiding it!)

I think maybe florian would be a lower level architectural worker for the victorian restoration of churches! I like the idea of him working at a church in some capacity but not necessarily being a church worker, and that was a victorian historical event that fit well!

florian is still Exactly as emotionally repressed and sickly and would be prone to doing a classic. “victorian maiden fainting onto a couch” bit at any big emotion. (i have to make fun of him. I’m allowed to)

the Victorian era is when floriography got big !! that is Absolutely how aster and florian communicate all of their feelings, just leaving flowers at each others doorsteps or wearing them on their lapels. both Rushing to the florists to get Very Specific Bouquets. I do also like the idea of them having slightly different flower meaning books and so aster is trying really hard to communicate romantic feelings but Florian’s looking in his book like “well it says that means we’re good friends.”

aster buys him a copy of the flower book they use and hand delivers it to him so that he can get the hint.

[raeynbowboi]

Dating Disney: Prince Phillip

So, I’m a writer. A fantasy writer. And I happen to also be a certified medievalist. Then I got to thinking, a whole lot of people have talked about what the Disney princesses would be wearing and look like, but nobody’s really given the Disney princes or heroes the same love. So, I thought I’d take a look at the time period, culture, and costumes of the Disney men (and later women) to determine how appropriate or inappropriate their costume is for the era. Now in full earnest, I am not a fashion historian although I wish I was that sounds like such a fun job. This is just what I could find doing some online research. And I’m starting with Prince Phillip instead of Prince Florian because Phillip has always been my favorite prince and I only realized why he was when I figured out I was gay and crushing big time on that cute prince so we’re starting with him.

Character: Prince Phillip Movie: Sleeping Beauty (1959) Setting: Tuscany, Italy / Holy Roman Empire Year/Era: ~1350, Early Italian Renaissance (14th Century)

Many people erroneously place this movie in England, Germany, or France, which is understandable. Disney Wiki lists the movie as being in England, the Sleeping Beauty Castle is based on Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, and the bulk of the story is a combination of the French Perrault version and the German Grimm version, albeit decisively leaning more Grimm, unlike Cinderella that leans more Perrault. However when the characters of this film are photoshopped next to other Disney characters, they tend to look slightly darker and tanner, hinting at a more Mediterranean location, although they could very well be living along the Cote d’Azure in France. However, what ultimately places this movie in Italy is surprisingly the pieces of Phillip’s costume. While researching this, I found that parts of his costume were almost exclusive to Italy, appearing only otherwise in France. With this time period we can also gather a general idea of the condition of their world. In the 1350s, Italy was not an independent country and was part of the Holy Roman Empire. However, because the Alps separated Italy from the rest of the empire, Italy had a lot more free reign to hand power over to local kings and high ranking noblemen who would in turn be loyal to the holy roman emperor, as an emperor would still outrank a king. Thus it’s still possible to have kingdoms inside of an empire. Of course, I am an expert on neither the 14th Century nor the Holy Roman Empire, so this is more of an educated guess.

Outer Layer: The Cap, Cloak, and Boots

I was genuinely surprised by how easily I found Phillip’s cap. It’s called a bycocket, and was a gender neutral hat worn by royal and noble men and women starting in the 13th century, and often decorated with feathers. So not only is the hat era appropriate, it’s also appropriate for his station and status. The cloak would certainly show wealth. However, considering that he is out riding and is not attempting to show off his wealth, the long cloak would be to his disadvantage. Cloaks would be worn to combat the cold or the weather, and the movie gives us no indication he needs to worry about either, so he’s just wearing it to look cool. Finally, his long leather boots I initially wrote off as fantasy writing because I wasn’t finding any boots that looked like his until I found art from the medieval period with boots that match his own, although dating the artwork is difficult. This may have been an outlier in design, as many more of the boots from this era that I saw had lacing going up the sides to adjust the fit, but plain leather boots did appear to exist in the very approximated time frame. Funny enough, when he loses these three types of garments after falling in the river, he is effectively wearing commoner clothes. Without the tall fine leather boots, excessively long riding cloak, and royal bycocket hat, the rest of his appearance can easily pass for a commoner, which is what Aurora mistakenly believes him to be.

The Lower Layers: Shirt, Tights, and Shoes

The trickiest part of Phillip’s costume was the gray part of his top because my initial instinct was to call it a tunic, but tunics tend to reach closer to the knee outside of renaissance fairs. The neckline in particular bugged me as it seemed to situate itself more on his shoulders and swoop down around the neck as if the piece was more ornamental. Then while looking for images, I found it. A giornea, a piece of clothing worn over the lower layers and found exclusively in Italy or France (where it’s called a Journade) It’s a type of tunic, but with the sides missing. In fact, in certain images (like above) there’s even a line visible under the sleeve on the giornea that shows where Phillip’s giornea doesn’t close all the way and is therefore held together by a belt. Unfortunately this line stops at the belt, and if it’s really two sides of a garment held together like the reference pic, there should be a “through line” from below the sleeve all the way down to the end of the “skirt” of the giornea. I’m afraid if there is a name for Phillip’s shoes, I failed to find one. These are effectively “indoor shoes” worn inside of Phillip’s riding boots or changed into when he took the other boots off. Socks hadn’t been invented yet, so these shoes that were probably treated to be softer, and were designed for walking around on smoother interior surfaces. And his shirt is just well... a shirt. Just because it’s not a modern garment doesn’t mean it has to have an odd name. It’s just a black long-sleeve shirt with a high collar.

Outfit Two: Royal attire

The only real noteworthy part of Phillip’s second costume is the doublet he wears, which is a long-sleeved coat worn over the shirt and often worn by nobility and royalty. However, there’s a major problem with Phillip’s doublet. The sleeves designed with the slits in them is called a Paned Sleeve, which was invented in the 16th century, 200 years after this movie is set. Now, it’s possible that the poofs on Phillip’s doublet are deliberately designed with stripes and are not in fact a Paned Sleeve, but it is the most historically inaccurate part of Phillip’s wardrobe. While yes, a doublet existed in the 14th century, the one worn by Phillip would be far more at home in the 17th century.

The Verdict

He truly seems to be dressed for his proper era and Disney clearly did their research while applying some design choices of their own. There’s only a few small issues with his giornea, since it fits over his neck and should be two separate sides held together, but the “skirt” of his top shows no seams that would indicate a further divide in his giornea. While one could argue he’s dressed below his station, Phillip was probably out for a leisurely horse ride or might have even been hunting. Doesn’t matter how rich you are, you probably wouldn’t work out in an expensive tailored suit. He’s wearing less expensive clothes because he doesn’t need to look princely, he just needs to dress practically. And that works. The second outfit however needs to ditch the poofy sleeves, or at least make them one solid piece of cloth to save them from being unfashionable for his era. Still, I was not expecting Phillip’s outfit to be so era appropriate, and Phillip passed with flying colors. Phillip for the most part is dressed like he’s from the 14th century, just with a slightly more modern update to some parts. Collectively, I’d give him an A-. The doublet is a problem, but it’s not what he’s wearing for most of the movie, so I can let it slide as them wanting to make him look more “fancy”.