Behind the Scenes at the Dickens Fair: Costumes

Costumes play a big part in making the Dickens Fair feel like a little corner of Victorian London.

At practice, this dancer wears a crinoline over her jeans so she can practice moving in it.

I really enjoyed chatting with Mr. Alan Jeffries on practice weekend. On that day, he sold deadstock and Hollywood extras costumes at very reasonable prices, for participants who needed to build up their wardrobe.

At the actual fair, Mr. Alan Jeffries sells far more high end costumes. This one is a custom made piece he created for Mr. Pluck from Nicholas Nickleby (or rather, for the person playing him). I asked him to describe the character and he said Mr. Pluck was a “very high class, somewhat pretentious fop”.

I’m partial to the men’s costumes from this era: they’re flamboyant without being as fussy and constrained as the women’s costumes.

The participants costumes are as historically accurate as they can get. But my favorites at the fair were these three visitors. No historical accuracy for them. They took their inspiration from the era and then gave it their own personal twist.

The Dickens Fair runs through this weekend. If you’ve never been, you can still visit.

The first post in this series is Behind the Scenes at the Dickens Fair: Scum, Sweeps and Peelers . More to come in this series.