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The Informed Costsumer
Apr. 21st, 2009 04:05 pmI've been revising and expanding the handout for my "Overview of 15th Century Italian Men's Clothing" class for Pennsic, and while discussing it with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
greetpg, an interesting question came up. What do you call someone who is interested in clothing, but doesn't sew themselves? The term that came to mind for me was "costsumer" - someone who is a consumer of costume, but doesn't produce any themselves.
Many people fall into this category, of course. Not everyone has the inclination or skillset necessary to create some of the more complicated styles of clothing, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to learn about them. I don't know how to build or fix my car, but I know how to drive it, and I understand the basic theory of how it works. This knowledge helps me choose what kind of car I want to drive, and helps me drive and maintain it better.
The same is true of the "informed costsumer". Knowing more about the different styles of clothing and how they are made and worn makes it easier to decide what you would enjoy wearing, or what would be appropriate to your persona, even if you never sew a stitch yourself.
greetpg, an interesting question came up. What do you call someone who is interested in clothing, but doesn't sew themselves? The term that came to mind for me was "costsumer" - someone who is a consumer of costume, but doesn't produce any themselves. Many people fall into this category, of course. Not everyone has the inclination or skillset necessary to create some of the more complicated styles of clothing, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to learn about them. I don't know how to build or fix my car, but I know how to drive it, and I understand the basic theory of how it works. This knowledge helps me choose what kind of car I want to drive, and helps me drive and maintain it better.
The same is true of the "informed costsumer". Knowing more about the different styles of clothing and how they are made and worn makes it easier to decide what you would enjoy wearing, or what would be appropriate to your persona, even if you never sew a stitch yourself.