{"id":1136,"date":"2011-08-12T19:42:24","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T19:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trystancraft.com\/costume\/?p=1136"},"modified":"2023-09-25T15:53:18","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T22:53:18","slug":"introducing-fockett-cox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trystancraft.com\/costume\/2011\/08\/12\/introducing-fockett-cox\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Fockett & Cox"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the San Jose Renaissance Faire<\/a> this August, Sarah<\/a> and I finally came up with a fantastic idea for what our renfaire personas and gig would be. This was the first renfaire either of us had worked in a million years, and the first one all of us were working together under the “guild” of the Chateau Rose (which is really our SCA household). Francis wanted to test out faire as a place to display his cordwaining skills, and we came along for the ride without having a plan of what to play.<\/p>\n

See, we couldn’t be a group of nobles because there’s already a bunch of those. The local faire circuit already has a tailor’s guild too. And our dear friends of the Bella Donna Venetian Courtesans aren’t taking applications either. So Sarah and I were at loss at first.<\/p>\n

Until she mentioned reading that Elizabethan tailors could tell their trade secrets to their wives. Which reminded me of the profile of Janet Fockart that I read in Mary Stewart’s People<\/em>, by Margaret H.B. Sanderson. Fockart was a wealthy widow who took over her deceased second husband’s business of importing fabric and luxury dress goods. This husband, John Fowler, had prospered in Edinburgh selling these fine materials and fancy items. Janet ran the business well enough after her husband’s death to also start lending money as a “wad wyfe” on the side.<\/p>\n

On page 94-95 of Sanderson’s book is an excerpt of the inventory made at Fowler’s death in 1572. The book reports on the many fabrics left in his warehouse, then describes the stock of small luxury items that seemed to be his bread and butter: “There were a good many dress accessories, which would be sold to shopkeepers or to tailors who chose them to match their customers’ garments,” items such as:<\/p>\n

\"Detail<\/a>

Detail of monkey “aping” fashion for ruffs, 1570 satire. At the British Library.<\/p><\/div>\n