The Digital Historical Costuming Community: How the Fashion from the Past is Re-emerging on the Internet

For the average individual engaging in digital culture, it is likely that they will encounter a multitude of historically inspired elements in popular media whether they are aware of it or not. Beyond the online engagement that fans generate with those pieces of media themselves, this exposure can also influencepeople to engage in aesthetic trends such as “cottagecore” or “dark academia” which feed on the escapism we seek in historically inspired digital media. What they may not realize, however, is that there exists a community of historical costumers who have been passionate about similar ideas for some time and have been using the internet to interact and collaborate with each other. This community consists of a variety of members ranging from academically trained historians to more casual “history-bounders’’ and hobbyists. For this post, my presentation, and paper, I would like to explore this community, the forms it takes on various social media platforms, and the factors behind it’s recent growth in the online space.

Keisha Medrano in an 1490s Italian Renaissance costume. Retrieved from: https://www.instagram.com/skmedrano/

My hope is that my research within this subject will be an insightful illustration of how niche digital communities interact with larger, related elements of pop culture and the potential influences, or even friction, that exists between the two.

For my exploration thus far, the following questions have guided my research:

1. Where and in what ways are costubers building a niche community/digital culture on the internet?
2. What influence/interactions does the more niche costubing community have with/on more mainstream cultural trends (like emergence of the aesthetics like “cottagecore, “dark academia”, or the popularity of historically inspired media like “Bridgerton” or “Queen’s Gambit”, etc.) and vice versa?

While I expect my goals may narrow or shift slightly as I continue, these are the two main concepts I have chosen to start with.

To begin: What is historical costuming and what does it look like in the digital space? In case you are unfamiliar with this community, here is a brief introduction to the world of “history-bounding”, “costubers”. “History-bounding” refers to “the act of incorporating historical or history-inspired clothing into your day-to-day fashion choices” (The Lazy Historian). The name “costuber” is a term combining the words “costumer” and “Youtuber.” As such, it refers to a community of dress historians, commentators, and general enthusiasts who engage with historically inspired media as well as creating their own original content for their digital communities. These creators can have small or large audiences, can focus on anything from medieval clothing to mid-century vintage fashion, can feature recreating historical clothing or commentating on the clothing featured in historically inspired media, and can prioritize the adherence to historical accuracy or a general nod to certain “aesthetics”. As the term implies, “costubers” mainly references the communities active on Youtube, but history-bounding as a digital phenomenon is equally active on a variety of other platforms including Instagram and Tik Tok.

Zack Pinset in Regency Era Dress Retrieved from: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBGep9yA4hH/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=c4631500-4f6b-4f27-b0df-bbf0305813bc

According to Abby Cox, one such “costuber”, the resurgence of this obsession with historical (or historically inspired) aesthetics which she refers to as “neo-asceticism” has to do with the collective need people feel for a source of escapism from the mundane and/or harsh elements of reality. Indulging in historically inspired media or altering your own dress or lifestyle to reflect those romanticized portrayals of the past is a symbolic way to time travel to a time we feel is sufficiently removed from the modern world and its specific challenges or issues. While this subconscious reasoning may not be entirely sound, it does bear particular relevance to an analysis of recent world events and the subsequent effects on our interactions with digital culture. According to Caitlyn Kelly in her article “Bridgerton is Just the Beginning,” while the historical costumers may have been a more obscure community prior to the pandemic, the isolation the world collectively experienced as a result of the pandemic led to increased social interaction taking place in a digital space and the need for hobbies that provide that sense of “escapism” more than ever. In this environment, many people began to fall into the world of historical fashion as it exists on the internet and the digital dialogue taking place.

Retrieved from:https://bridgerton.fandom.com/wiki/Bridgerton_(TV_series)

Considering those circumstances, combined with the popularity of historically inspired media (such as “Bridgerton” or “The Queen’s Gambit”) during this period of time, we can see what has led to the significant growth of this digital community within the past few years in a way that has been essentially “birthed and cultivated entirely online” (Cox). After the release of Bridgerton specifically, for example, there was “123% increase in searches for corsets and a 93% increase in searches for empire line dresses” (Porter). For many, engaging in online content about fashion history, history-bounding and/or related, and now somewhat mainstream, aesthetics (such as “cottagecore and “dark academia”) is a way to “help… develop not only their personal style, but their online persona which allows the creator to curate the world that they wish the public to consume.” (Cox) In this sense, the members of this community are using historical dress to express themselves and the digital community that exists surrounding this interest provides a way to connect with people who feel the same way.

Continuing my research, I would like to look further into the ways that the activity of more niche historical costuming communities interacts with and views more mainstream adaptations of historical dress and, alternatively, the ways in which viewers of historically inspired mainstream media may use those shows and characters as a gateway into the deeper world of historical costuming. Another very important topic which I have not yet sufficiently researched is the underlying eurocentricity within historical costuming as well as the ways in which the digital iteration of this community is working to challenge those norms. The mentality of “vintage style not vintage values” is something which appears to be generally promoted in this community but which is not always reflected in the actions of everyone involved.

Overall I find the juxtaposition of the historical nature of this hobby alongside the modern ways people are interacting and engaging with this hobby online to be fascinating and I look forward to what else I discover as I follow the rabbit holes of research.

Have you encountered historical costuming, history-bounding, or adjacent trends such as “cottagecore” or “dark academia” online? What would you attribute their growing popularity to?

What other digital trends or communities have you seen grow out of the increase in digital activity brought on by isolation/quarantine?

Works Cited:

Afthab, Zara. “Fashion History 101: Your Guide To The Best Fashion Historians On Youtube.” Grazia.Co.In, 29 Sept. 2021, www.grazia.co.in/fashion/fashion-history-101-your-guide-to-the-best-fashion-historians-on-youtube-8216.html.

“Dress Historians Explain Cottagecore and Dark Academia’s Connection to Victorian Aestheticism.” YouTube, uploaded by Abby Cox, 20 June 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMiE90AnvFk.

Kelly, Caitlin. “‘Bridgerton’ Is Just the Beginning.” The New York Times, 6 Feb. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/02/06/style/bridgerton-costumes-historically-accurate.html.

Porter, Alice. “Inspired By Bridgerton and The Queen’s Gambit, TikTokers Are Schooling Us In Fashion History.” Refinery29, 13 Jan. 2021, www.refinery29.com/en-gb/tiktok-bridgerton-regencycore-fashion-history.

Spellings, Sarah. “Why Painstakingly Re-Create an 18th-Century Corset? Why Not?” Vogue, 22 Nov. 2021, www.vogue.com/article/historical-costuming.

“Historybounding: The Hobby You Didn’t Know You Needed.” The Lazy Historian, 28 Nov. 2021, lazyhistorian.com/historybounding-the-hobby-you-didnt-know-you-needed.