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Reliving The Old West
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| Rancho riding wear, late 1800s |
I am the author of the costuming guide book Ladies' Fashions of the 1880s Southwest and have served as a costume consultant for the
American Federation of Old West Re-enactors (AFOWR).
I have also been a member of the American Frontier
Re-enactment Guild, and the Old West Living History Foundation, and have served as a judge of historic costumes, encampments
and re-enactments at living-history events such as
Marching Through History
in Santa Ana, California (photo at right, in 2002),
Festival of the Swallows
in San Juan Capistrano,
and
Dancing Under the Stars
in Lakeside, California.
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| Award-winning mid-1880s traveling suit |
In 2004, I appeared in The
True Story of Hidalgo, a TV-movie produced for the History Channel. This is the story of Frank T. Hopkins,
the trainer of a fabled race horse named Hidalgo, about whom Disney Studios created a feature film.
I appeared in several scenes wearing this heavily bustled
1880s traveling suit. I designed and made the suit, overskirt,
purse, and feathered lace hat.
At End of Trail in 1999, this traveling
suit won the Best Female Costume award from the Old West Living History Foundation.
I am a longtime member of the Single Action Shooting Society
("SASS"), an international organization dedicated to the competitive sport of "cowboy action shooting." Members attend
all events in clothing appropriate to the heyday of the of the Old West - 1860 to 1899.
In April of 2003 the annual End
of Trail rendezvous (the SASS World Championship and Wild West Festival) held at Raahauge's Ranch
in Norco, California, drew over 1500 participant shooters and over 25,000 spectators and festival attendees, most of whom
were also dressed in period attire. This 5-day event is now held at SASS's ranch headquarters in New Mexico.
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| Dressed for town or travel, complete with carpet bag |
The photo at right was taken at End
of Trail 2004. I also made this hat, decorated with a dove's wing, and the parasol. I wore the
suit with this hat, in the 2009 Western comedy film Chapped Lips. Here I am
pictured with Wayne Phillips, who also appeared with me in the films The Vanguard, Rockin' Romeo and
Juliet, Teenage Drama, and Chapped Lips.
End of Trail is first
and foremost a competition shooting event. However, it is also a step back in time, complete with a Wild West show
in the arena, shootout re-enactments on a western town set, celebrities from movies and television, stagecoach rides, cowboy
music and poetry, a chuck wagon cooking competition, vendors and sutlers selling period-correct weapons and attire, a
grand ball and costume parade, and, in the yellow lamplight of night, the tinny sound of a parlor piano accompanying
"gambling" and socializing in the Belle Union saloon (no alcohol is allowed until after all guns are
retired for the evening). The piano player is usually Dave Bourne, whose music is also heard in most episodes of HBO's Deadwood series.
For four years I was the ladies' costume consultant for the Old West
re-enactment troupe, the Cross Creek Cowboys.
Here is a photo of the group "at home" in San Juan Capistrano.
Behind us is the historic adobe at Town Center Park.
The group performed several hundred times between 1996 and 2000, appearing at numerous
civic events throughout southern California and in Tombstone, Arizona. We received a great deal of press in newspapers,
magazines, and on television (PBS, TNT, and other cable stations); were featured performing on the TNT Thursday
Night Movie; and appeared in the 1999 film Bad Company.
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| A historically inaccurate but thoroughly charming rented gown. |
This is the first bustle dress I ever wore with
our re-enactment troupe. It has inaccurate elements, but I found it impossible
to buy period-correct clothing, and this was the most authentic rental costume I could find in time for the SASS Winter Range event. So, at that time I realized that I was going to have to make
my own outfits, and I began doing serious research about 1880s fashions.
This wonderful, ancient saguaro cactus is
near Cave Creek, Arizona.
LADIES' FASHIONS OF THE 1880s
SOUTHWEST:
a Costuming Guide for Actors
and Re-Enactors
This book, which I authored, contains a detailed discussion
of clothing, hairstyles, undergarments, footwear, jewelry and other accessories commonly used in the Southwest in
the 1880s.
This revised edition is heavily illustrated with
vintage photographs and tintypes from my collection, comparing and contrasting fashions in the Southwest with concurrent styles
of the eastern United States and Europe. It also addresses
the issue of the major changes in fashions from decade to decade, from the Civil War Era through the turn of the
20th Century.
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