The idea of period appropriate clothing does bring up questions of accuracy... What one person calls "accurate attire" may look like steam punk... too many women dress up like saloon floozies. Within the museum community "costume" is different than "period appropriate"... In some reenactment groups clothing is "juried" by a panel of "experts" who look at issues like stitches per inch and how made... use and source of buttons... Research will suggest that the "Wild West" wasn't near as wild as we have been taught by years of TV westerns, and ladies generally didn't dress like the Southern Belles on the cover of National Geographic, wallking down a road lined with oaks full of moss with Tara in the back ground...
Randy Hees
Director, Nevada State Railroad Museum, Boulder City, retired
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