50 years ago is history - right?

One can argue about fifty years ago being historical, but it really is - trust me! I'm a historian. No matter how much I would prefer not to think of my childhood and youth as "long ago" and "history" it is.

While that may make me feel a bit uneasy, it is at least a justification for adding my latest project to thei blog. Because it is a costume from a movei that was made in 1973: The cult horror/musical classic "The Wicker Man"

I love the film, but that's not the main rason for making the costume: ever since the late 1980s I have been very fond of hippie clothing, and the last 15 years I have even developed a strong liking for more mainstream 1970s fashion; I guess teaching fashion history makes you appreciate most periods, for their own sake.

So this outfit worn by Britt Ekland as the character Willow, ticked all the boxes for me: hippie-ish, but most of all an example of the folkloristic traits in 1970s fashion, which came as a result of the hippie counterculture.

She is wearing a peasant blouse, a tired skirt made from green, red, blut, and a brownish purple fabric in the same flower print.

Details, showing more of the waistcoat.

When I first stated thikning about making this outfit fie-six years ago I thought that it would be easy to find quilting cotton with the same print in different colourways. It wasn't.

In the end, this spring, I decided to do something about it myself. So I ordered a stamp from the seller Catfluff on Etsy

First I printed the fabric with green textile paint, and then I painted flowers in white, pink and light blue with a paint brush.

This was done on quite a lot of fabric, since the lowest flounce on the skirt is 8 metres X 27 centimetres, and the waistcoat also took some fabric.

The green, red and blue fabric are all thrifted bed sheets, btu for the brown I had to order new cotton broadcloth. And I had to make do with brown, because the original dark, brownish purple was nowehere to be found.

Anyway, I am very happy with how it turned out. These photos are taken (by me) two hours before our annual viewing party of "The Wicker Man".