Empire LRP: Wintermark
Empire LRP is one of the larger live action role play games in the UK, ran by Profound Decisions.
Wintermark is one of 10 playable nations, with three distinct tribal styles - the Steinr, drawing inspiration from the Saxons and Lord of the Rings' Rohirrim; the Suaq, resembling the Saami reindeer herders of Northern Europe; and finally the Kallavesi, influenced by imagery from Finland, the Kalavela, and the Crannogmen of Game of Thrones.
The Winterfolk are a hard, practical people living in a cold, harsh nation, and their costumery reflects this, and the variance of their three traditions gives great scope for designing outfits for them
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The Steinr
April 2018
This gorgeous green fabric is a wool/cashmere blend that has a fuzzy side and a woven textured side - in this case, we decided to use the fuzzy side outwards to give the appearance of traditional felted wools. The coat buttons up the front with wooden toggles, attached with small pads of leather and strips of trim, which were put together by hand. Trim was then added to every edge, including the hood and cuffs.
This coat has a secret - it has an inner layer made of super soft, cosy, 'teddy bear' blanket fabric, which can be unbuttoned for warmer weather. The pocket bags are made of the same fabric for toasty hands.
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November 2018
Black cotton canvas tunic with a hood, trimmed in a fancy geometric silver and black ribbon. The Steinr often use beautiful, well made materials and trims to reflect their wealth and taste.
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February 2019
Deep chocolate brown cloak in a lovely medium weight wool fabric, with a howling wolf appliquéd to the back in black velvet. The fur mantle is a sheepskin, cut and sewed to be a little shaped for the shoulders. It attaches with heavy-duty snaps so that it can be removed for washing.
The cloak fastens at the neck with two straps and faux horn-effect buttons, with hidden hook-and-eye fasteners below them for stability and strength.
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March 2019
Silk/viscose mix velvet tunic with green brocade panelling and Celtic trim, for the client's in-character wedding. I was given images of an example tunic (from the tv show Vikings) to base my design on. Using materials to fit the client's colourscheme and fabrics suitable for the Steinr brief, I based the placement of the panelling and trim on the example garment.
The cuffs are faced with the same brocade as the opening is very wide and the example garment also had self-lined cuffs.
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The Suaq
March 2019
I was asked to work from a design provided by the client to produce a hand-painted coat to suit his new Suaq character.
We chose imitation suede to fit into the client's budget - but also faux suede actually has a degree of water resistance! The entire garment is then lined with high quality faux fur to give the look of a coat made from hides.
The designs were painted on with a mixture of Posca paint marker (to draw lines and map out where to paint) and Vallejo acrylic. Once thoroughly dry these were then ironed; heat will make acrylic painting permanent on fabric.
Finally the entire thing was sprayed with Scotchguard to help it resist the rain.
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The Kallavesi
April 2019
A raggy robe of feathers for a Kallavesi Stormcrow (a kind of priest / spiritual leader). Feathers are a common motif for Kallavesi characters, but this client did not want to use wholly real feathers and instead wanted a robe made of mostly fake, fabric ones. The robe would still get more ragged and worn over time, but not in the same way real feathers would. It's also a lot more washable.
The robe itself is made from a lovely wool mix boucle fabric that is fairly loose weave and lightweight. It then has hundreds of fake feather shapes sewn onto it in rows, in various fabrics - including suede, leather, cotton sheeting, the same wool mix boucle as the base garment, two kinds of velvet, jersey, satin, georgette, canvas, cotton twill and any of scraps of black fabric I had lying around. It also includes rooster and emu feathers around the neck and shoulders. The goal was to create a multi layered look, so I used as many different materials as possible to get many shades of black and different fabric textures onto the garment.
All of these feather shapes were cut and shaped by hand. The entire garment took around 20 hours to make, most of which was making and texturing the feathers!
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June 2019
This piece is a base dress of 100% wool melton, based very loosely on the shape of a traditional kirtle's bodice. However, instead of plain wool, this dress has every panel covered in leather patchwork.
The goal was to make a dress that looks like it was made of leather scraps, but also be warm and functional, hence the wool base. The leather scraps were then glued onto each panel, and roughly hand stitched for a handworked look and to stabilise the edges. The panels were then sewn together.
The skirt and shoulders are fake fabric feathers, intended to go raggier over time, and made with a variety of fabrics including the melton wool, canvas, twill, chiffon, crepe, leather, suede, velvet and more.
The dress laces up the front through metal eyelets, with a leather cord.
These pieces really need to be seen in motion for the full effect - the different fabrics in the skirt move and reflect light different, creating a wonderful multi-layered effect when moving.
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